Monkey Business

The Silverbacks lost their first game of the season last night, 2-1 to their new rivals from Carolina. Let's see what comes of this:

• We didn't find out for sure until after the match, but missing Machel Millwood was a HUGE problem for the team. Partly because he's a valuable part of the team, and partly because there wasn't a good plan to play without him.
  
• The team came out in a 4-5-1 formation, which didn't work at all. I don't think the Silverbacks have the right type of central midfielder for that formation. Maybe Rivillo could be that guy, but Rodrigo just isn't. He plays better from a deeper position in midfield in my opinion. The team just never looked in sync. Antoniuk was left by himself far too often, the gap between him and the midfield was just too much.
  
• Why change the formation up when you have a draw and a win against this team over the last 2 weeks? Just insert someone else in Millwood's position and play the same way. If you don't have a 3rd forward who can do it, then that's a problem that should've been addressed in the preseason. I think Ukah was at least worthy of the chance, he has been around long enough.
  
• The PK call was unlucky for Atlanta, but the ball rolled down a defender's arm. The ref had to call it.
• Carolina definitely made adjustments from last week. Instead of sending long, high balls into the box all night, they forced Bobo and Jarun to play with their feet. It's an area that will need to be improved.
  
• A poor clearance/deflection led to the second Carolina goal. It was opportunistic, but Carolina was seeing a lot of the ball early on.
  
• Antoniuk hustled and fought hard up top, but was just too isolated to really be dangerous. He did a great job to set up Moore for the Atlanta goal right before the half. Moore finished well, but Antoniuk did most of the dirty work.
  
• Other than that, Moore was mostly invisible on the night. He's not active enough to play in the midfield, and seems scared to get involved in the play. Three plays stood out to me about him: 1) Before his goal, Antoniuk played another ball out to him and he side footed a cross inside the six yard box instead of taking a shot. At least he changed this on the goal..., 2) McManus overlapped him to send in a cross deep in Carolina's half. The cross was cleared and Carolina broke away on a counter. Moore was just wandering around midfield on the sideline when McManus ran past him to cover on defense. 3) Buete nearly got into it with Worthen of Carolina. Every player on both teams, including the goalkeepers, were in the middle of the pushing and shoving. Every player, except for Moore.
  
• Dayton O'Brien looked good in his first start on the left side. I think he adds more to the team out wide than Rodrigo, but that's mainly because I think Rodrigo is more comfortable in the middle. I really liked the fact that O'Brien was always up for taking people on 1v1. I think he tired late, but he was effective most of the night.
  
• With a goal right before the half, we figured that Atlanta would have the momentum to start the second half. I also figured that changes would be made, because it was pretty obvious that the 4-5-1 wasn't working as well as hoped. Neither happened, the first 15 minutes of the second half were fairly uneventful.
  
• That changed with the red card to David Stokes. He had it coming, two yellow cards in ten minutes is a bit of a problem.
  
• Again, we thought it was time for changes. The Railhawks immediately brought in an extra defender and sacrificed a forward. Atlanta stuck with four in the back against one forward.
  
• Then in the 70th minute, the Silverbacks brought on Kevin Barrow (signed from the PDL team last year and the local amateur league) for McManus. Bringing on a second forward was a good move, Antoniuk needed the help. The problem was that Moore dropped back to cover McManus' right back position, leaving no one at right midfield. No one seemed to know where they were supposed to be. It could've been a 4-4-2, except O'Brien was on the left and Rivillo, Buete, and Rios stayed in the middle. It could've been a 4-3-3 with O'Brien going up front on the left, but he stayed well behind the forwards.
  
• After six minutes of weirdness, Rivillo was pulled for John Queeley. Queeley did play the missing right midfield spot, with stabilized the formation. Unfortunately, the only thing Queeley really added was his great ability at running into people. He just doesn't seem to have the technical skills to play wide in midfield.
  
• It was nearly impossible to tell Atlanta had a man advantage for about thirty minutes.
  
• Waldo would've flipped out about the looping corners Atlanta kept taking. With giants like Jarun, Bobo, and Antoniuk up there, I think driven crosses would work better in those situations. It's worked for the majority of the season.
  
• Finally, in the 89th minute, a third forward was added. It wasn't a sub though, it was Jarun going up top from his center back position. At least they finally went to three in the back against the lone forward Carolina used, but it only lasted for about four minutes of playing time.
  
• Jarun playing up top didn't work last year against Rochester in a must-win game, and it didn't work this time either.
• A quick word about Carolina. I think they will keep getting themselves into trouble with their constant whining and bitching on the field. I was closer to the field last week and heard their colorful language up close. I don't think they're a dirty team, but they cause unnecessary problems for themselves by bitching so much.
  

Right now, I think the biggest problem for the Silverbacks is that they don't have a Plan B. From what I can tell, their main strategy is to play long balls to Antoniuk's head. He seems to have worked out a pretty good partnership with Millwood, and they've looked dangerous at times. I'd rather see a little more build-up through the midfield, but it has been pretty effective. When teams figure this out (Montreal in the 2nd half) or when Millwood isn't available (Carolina loss), there's no alternative to get a result. Defensively, the team has looked pretty good. However, both Montreal and Carolina showed that you can attack the center of the backline on the ground.

The schedule has been kind up to this point, but the challenges are coming. This weekend's road trip to Puerto Rico and Miami will test the quality of the team (Friday night in P.R.) and the depth of the roster (Sunday night in Miami). I think we'll have a better idea about this team's chances in the league after the trip.