1: The overwhelming majority of takes prior to the start of the match we’re in regards to the lineup selection. Not starting Miles or Sosa and starting Berry again had people feeling a certain way. I had questions as well but I also understand that playing 3 games in 7 days necessitates changes and well the team looked pretty good to me. We took more shots and better quality shots before GG took the field. Shoot, even Berry was more involved and he did in fact win the free kick that lead to the first goal.

2: Luis Abram. I dunno. He hasn’t had a ton of minutes to have a proper evaluation on the man and it is hard when you’re a player whose not in rhythm to come out and perform but regardless, for the money he’s on, the performances haven’t matched up. The soccer IQ doesn’t quite seem to be where it should be. The free kick and ensuing corner that lead to Chicago’s 1st goal starts with him not clearing the ball and just stumbling backwards and then for some reason he feels the need to stick out a leg and put the final touch on the ball that gives the corner when the ball is clearly going out for goal kick.  He doesn’t look starting caliber to me neither technically or mentally but I’m not opposed to giving him more starts to see if he can get into a rhythm and show more than he has. Given that Caleb is gone and with the pretty severe match compression, he’ll get his opportunity. Credit where it’s due, he did have a vital block around the 79th minute that prevented a clear shot on goal. 

3: When it comes to the table points matter, feelings don’t. I think you happily take a point on the road even if it feels like points dropped because of, once again, a late goal conceded. You can look at draws as either points dropped or a point earned but for me I’ll be happy with the point. The single points do add up. Look at a team like Montreal. Not a single draw. If they had just a few draws, they’d be in at least a playoff position. Likewise if we dropped our single pointers we’d be down near the edge of the playoff line. Looking at it the other way, we could’ve added 6 more points to our tally which would put us 2nd in the East and in the league. With 6 more points I don’t think folks are as concerned as some are right now and those 6 points missed are largely down to individual mistakes. 

4: We can’t just play a normal game of soccer against these guys can we? This match was weird. It fit some narratives but then it was so chaotic with send offs and the types of goals and when they came, I just don’t know if there’s much to really take away from this one except the usual of having shown fight to come back, and an inability TO SEE MATCHES OUT. 

5: It’s easy to say the defense was just bad when you give up 3 goals but it’s important to look at the kind of goals conceded and how the chances developed. The first two goals were not off of build up play where the defense was just wildly out of shape and the third came with our best defensive players on the field 🤷‍♂️. The first was an Olimpico, where Westburg should’ve done better and it also came from an individual mistakes from Abram. The second also came from an individual mistake from Puratta and developed off a quick move from a stop in play. Everyone has to be switched on and you can’t have those glaring individual mishaps because we are often punished for them.