CCSG - The Hotstove
The Pulse of CCSG - Match Week 23 (Cavalry FC)
(upbeat music) - This is Little Puss, CCSG. - John Trudi, board members of the Capital City supporters group, to give us their thoughts on the week that was, the week to come, and some other things in between. I'm Bryce Crossman, the president of CCSG. And tonight, we're looking at the Game Against Balor last week, the Game Against the Caves this week, and some other things in general. Last week, our most dedicated contributor was Johnny, who's in the middle of a river on his vacation. And tonight, it's Patrick Dornan, who's? - Coming to you live from an underground parking lot in the city of Split and Croatia. - A reminder that I let it go last plate on Monday night in Winnipeg, in front of dozens of fans at Prince's Auto Stadium. That was an affair where we went down one nothing in the 10th minute. We got a couple of yellows from Rare and Antonaro, and we ended up getting a fortuitous penalty call in the 77th minute, which allowed us to get a goal and pull out one point from our trip to Winnipeg. One of our members was among the dozens at that game, and Billy, where were you? - I was at the Gleab Central Pub for it. - Yes, I was also at the Gleab Central Pub for it. It was an interesting night as Monday Night Football, but very first game of the season was happening. We ended up filling that room, had a few more people than we had planned on, so some of us watched on the other side, and some of us watched on the patio. But Billy, how'd you feel about that game? - Unfortunately, we only got the drop, but by lingering memory was just seeing the stats from the first 10 minutes. I mean, we only had one shot on target. We had less possession. They weren't great stats. The stats were very bad for us. In fact, that's what Omar finds most disappointing. - It was just seeing how discombobulated and disjointed our team was. I remember seeing at some point, I think, in the first half where Valor had 70% possession, which is an insane stat to have against what is supposed to be a super team, for Valor to keep 70% possession for, I think, a significant amount of time the first half was absolutely a terrible lingering memory. - Even if you were watching the stats, there was at least one moment you were cheering for. - My only lingering memory from the last game against Valor was, I mean, a fortunately good penalty for us, which resulted in Ruben doing his baby celebration. I always loved that. - Patty remembers what led to that goal against. - Honestly, I really was, I know he's young. I know he's newer to the league, but Tier Walker and that goal, the Valor scored. I just think it was a bit of a boneheaded mistake, maybe inexperienced thing, whatever, but he really should have maybe challenged a little bit harder or tried for the header, 'cause it was generally a pretty easy-ish defensive move to push him off the ball or try and get ahead or something. So yeah, that was probably my bad memory from the game. My good memory from the game is, I actually have really enjoyed Sammy Salter this game. I think he brought a lot to the pitch, a lot to the match, and I'm excited to see him continue playing for us. - With the way that game went, it's not surprising that some fans found their memorable moments off the field. - There wasn't a whole lot to really remember, frankly. It wasn't that eventful a game, but I think the excitement in the pub when Ruben scored his pen was definitely what sticks out the most to me from that match. - As far as my lingering memory from the last match, I think Jen getting a big cheer from us at the GCP when she appeared on screen during the valor match. It's just really nice to see an out trans woman get some love from us, especially when she is my best friend to boot. I know it seems like such a small thing for any of us to do, but for her, it's just incredibly invalidating and inclusive for her. - I think the one lingering memory from the valor game was being the only away fan in the entire stadium and seeing the players come over and celebrate at the end. - Yeah, so it's fantastic seeing Jen on the TV. And if you ever travel to an away game and the players do not come over and say hello to you, please let me know. Now, Terence had a memorable moment from the pub for a different reason. - The lingering memory that stands out for me was Kevin Dos Santos taking the field and a big chant starting for him right away at GCP. His play showed that he was ready to go and so were the CCSG sickos. Not me though, I hadn't heard the chant before and I was documented for all time on team social media awkwardly trying to figure out the words as I went. Thomas, show. - That's right, given to Santos finally hit the field after getting injured early, early in the season. And yeah, it was surprising that so many people knew his chant and less you realize that we had another player with the same last name that left in the off season and we may have just repurposed that chant for someone that shares a similar area of the field. Now, I'm expecting him to get more minutes this week so I had my kids help me out so that you know what you need to know for this game on Sunday. ♪ Kevin Dos Santos ♪ ♪ Kevin Dos Santos ♪ ♪ Running a pound, winning a hero sack ♪ ♪ Kevin Dos Santos ♪ Now you'll be ready the next time we break into that song at the pub. Now, leaving Winnipeg without the full three points is disappointing, but do any of our members have an idea of what could have changed to make that a different outcome? - I wanted to see a lot of value of this game and he came on in the second half. - I feel like things are a little more ballroom for a lot of long runs. If Jeff thinks someone who didn't play at all is about a big event. - I think the game could have gone differently had we had Mateo DiBrianne on the pitch. He was off on a yellow card suspension but he brings a lot of energy to the team and I think also we were missing out on Alberto Zapatera. I think he would have brought a lot to the team as well. - John's also feeling the loss of Mateo. - I think having Mateo DiBrianne on the left rather than Antinora would have had a very significant impact, be it at left back or as a winger. And I think that really would have been able to give us a bit more threat that we could exploit the defensive challenges Valor had on the wings. But at the end of the day, they had a really strong defensive plan against this. The Megan's here was something that a lot of us are thinking. - I do think keeping Bassett off of the starting 11 and just maybe subbing him on probably would have been better but with DiBrianne and Zappa not being there. I don't think Harger really had much of a choice unlike previous matches. - All right, so those are ideas on personnel. But what about our tactics? - So for me, the big thing in the lineup was probably just the fact that we played a very compact attack in the center of the pitch with the midfields. And we know that Valor from past experience is a team that also plays very compact defensively. So we really should have used the wings a little bit more pressed out to the corners and out to the touchline. And then maybe had a bit better of a chance to generate some offense. - And Omar has some other changes that might help us going forward. - Yeah, man, I'm excited to see our some of our key players come back. I think, you know, Matteo DiBrianne, Tawardak, absolute work horses on the wing that are able to, you know, move the ball up effectively and get those crosses in that we need to create these chances. Yeah, I really wanna see them back. I wanna see Dalamo, you know, come into the team more. I think he'll probably provide a lot of defensive resilience that we'll need for the business end of the season. All right, disappointing game, but do we have any standout players at all? - Man, how do you, how do you pick a player in this disaster of a performance? - Come on, Omar, just try your hardest. - Honestly, I've reached you. I think, you know, he is the key of our midfield. He's, you know, what Otogard is to Arsenal. And if we ever have to miss out on him for a game, then you can guess that game, goodbye. - Was definitely Kevin Dos Santos, like Johnny mentioned on the podcast. He had a great second half and it was great to seem to do well and get back into the match. - Yes, we were all stoked to see Kevin hit the field, but Megan's like most of us. We like those goals scored. - My standout player was definitely Del Campo. It's sad to say it now, but we definitely know who our penalty taker should be from now on. Plus that penalty kick, he scored, puts it on top of the Golden Boot race again at at least the time of recording anyway. - It's hard to say that he's really standing out when he's been doing this all season, but I have to say that Omer Didich has been our key piece in our game against Fowler this past week and will probably continue to be for the rest of the season. - Yeah, I don't want to think about what our season would look like without Didich on our back line. And speaking of our back line. - My standout player for the match was probably Iliadis. I think he did a great job at left back given some expectations of him. The first half was pretty shaky, but I think he grew into the game and got a little more comfortable. And I'm continuously impressed by his positional variability and versatility. - Players the standout for me. I mean, obviously I got against Andy Salter's laurels. He played a great game, but I was really also impressed with Manny Apparicio. He was good. He's a work horse. I mean, we know the type of play that Manny can bring to the pitch when we play, but I do think that he did a great job. Really kind of keeping us in pace with valor in this game and keeping us from maybe conceding more than we should have. - Manny is almost always a solid shout for standout. Now, is it possible Elizabeth has someone from the other team? - I didn't, you know what? It's Antono Glue, the fake Antonoro. He was standing out to me because he's just trying to, he's coming for his brand and I don't like that. - Ouch. Why are you getting nails out? Might as well start us off with the changes we need to make against the Cavs. - Respectfully, Ollie needs to just not play. Or alternatively, not take anything in PK shots, corners, anything that like is riding on him and we are nervous, I need him to stop doing that. I need him out of that. - Get Ollie out of that, mega. I'm just at a loss right now. I would certainly appreciate us scoring a goal that isn't a set piece or by Salter, but if you're, we've just become overly reliant on both. - I feel like in our game against cavalry, we need to be connecting more in the midfield and creating more chances up top. I feel like we haven't really been scoring aside from set pieces in our recent games and we need to start really doing that and putting the ball in the net if we want to put some of these teams like Forge to bed. - We would all love some goals from open play, but who does Billy want to see? - We normally do really well at Echo. I would like to see a big performance up by Lutabla and see him finally get that start. We know he can do well at Echo. - Ah yes, Echo Field known for the horses, but we remember Ballew riding his bike. Now let's talk tactics. - Yeah, we need to keep possession. We need to move the ball more effectively up and we need to take advantage of our chances. It doesn't seem like this team can do that, so. - So we just need to believe. - This week, I think we need to go in with a bit more of an aggressive game plan. I think we need to be better in the middle of the field and not allow them to just push us out to the wings and head everything away, especially with Dan Clump at Centerback. They're gonna be wanting us to just cross balls in kinda errantly and we need to have a way to mitigate that and really make our chances count. - Stay away from Clump. Got it. - Again, I'm gonna double tap this one. We have to play wider. Calvary is a pretty tough team, especially defensively. I think we really need to use the wings in order to spread the defense and then we got to obviously tighten it up in the center of the pitch as well. All he had a decent game, not his best, obviously. He's been struggling a little bit, but I would like to see us control the ball in the middle a little bit more, maybe some smarter plays, and then push it out to the wings for cross-ins and things like that, that we know that ATO is good for that match. - So control the middle and stay away from Clump. And Alina wants to see those boys use their wings and fly. - I think that one thing that we should be using a little bit more and changing up a little bit in our game is, or in their game, is really just to use more chances, especially with the wings on the side there. They create more chances. They help really open up the space to have more passes and more control being allowed to create more chances and have more plays to create more of those goals happening and more chances to create better plays and goals to be scored. So I think using Manny, using Ruben, especially as those players that I mentioned to be watched, I think that using them and creating those chances for goals would definitely impact our game a lot and would be an amazing thing to have C-Change. - I'm just gonna point out that C-Change was a fantastic out in my back. There's no mellow gold or otolay, but it was definitely in this top five. Now let's go with some score predictions. - Predicting a three-0 win. - Positivity out of the gate, love it. - Two-one for Calvary, to be honest with you. - That, not so much. - My score prediction, I don't know. I'm hoping for like two-one Ottawa, you know? That's what I would hope. - The prediction though, like a tie somehow, one-one. - Low scoring draw is a popular pick this week. - I am predicting a one-one score for our match with Calvary. You know, I don't see how we're gonna be capable of anything more than draws and losses from like, until the rest of the season, or for the rest of the season. - I'm gonna predict a one-one draw. We've already dropped seven points against Calvary this year, and I think they're gonna steal a couple more. Fortunately, they've only won one of our match ups, but still, I think with a very strong squad, this is gonna be a tight game. Now Alina's feeling a big win. - For our game against Calvary, I'm really hoping to get those three points against them to come back home to very specific for the week after. So even a one-nothing win would be awesome because we would still get our three points, but as a score prediction, I'm really hoping to get at least a score of two-one, maybe even three-one. - A win is a win, right Patty? - One nil for Atio. - I'm gonna go with two nil at Lettie. I feel like we do have the talent to win this game decisively, and we'll also have some players such as Kevin Dos Santos and Matteo Dibrian coming back from either injury or suspension, so we'll be in a bit stronger position than we were last week. - Now that sounded like Jen was getting to the players to watch, but who's she really looking forward to watching this week? - I think the player to watch this week is definitely going to be Matteo Dibrian. He's always a high-energy player, and now that he's coming back from his suspension last game, from his week off, he'll be coming back with a vengeance, so I think he'll be the one to watch. - My player to watch for this match is gonna be Kevin Dos Santos. I think we didn't get enough of him in the last game to really be able to tell how he's readjusting and getting into game fitness and being able to shine a little more, so I'm looking forward to seeing him on the pitch. - I think that we'll be the player to watch. I'm hoping he has another great performance like we know he can at Echo. - Toward coming back, Matteo Dibrian coming back. Maybe we'll see some of KDS, Kevin Dos Santos. Hopefully we'll see Dalamo. - Yeah, I think those will be some players to watch. - The player to watch is and always will be Matteo Dibrian. My man's on 200%. My man's literally putting everything in this game, representing the team. Just, I don't know, he's doing the most, and I feel like he needs a lot of recognition for that, and he's just a cute little baby. My stand-up players are Iliadis, Del Campo, Dibrian. Those are definitely the players to watch. They've long been the players to watch, especially with Iliadis scoring two Olympic goals. - I think Sammy's hungry. I think Sammy Salter's the guy we gotta watch. I think he played, again, an excellent game. He used the one who drew the, I'm gonna call it quite ambiguous penalty, but we'll take it because it obviously prevented us from dropping points. We'll dropping all the points, but Sammy Salter's my player to watch. - For this game specifically against Cavalry, I think I would say that the player to be watching would definitely be either Manny or Rubindel Campo, especially because of how many times that both of these players have affected our game in terms of creating more chances for goals to be happening, and, of course, for goals to be scored with Rubindel Campo. So I think those two players would definitely be the ones to watch for this game. - Dropping two points in Winnipeg was an ideal. Does anybody think it's affected our regular season chances? - I don't think leaving the win at Winnipeg has ruined our chances at the shield, but I definitely think it's entered. It hasn't helped it. And hopefully we can see a forge drop some points and get back up to the top of the table. - Ah, the ever-positive Billy. What about Omar? - Absolutely, sorry for the swearing, but, yeah, our regular season is done, man. We're four points behind forge after we had an eight-point lead. So, I mean, hopefully we can keep on to second place, and that's just, you know, that's being optimistic at this point. - All right, let's keep rolling with that, Bob. - Listen, all I'm gonna say is that we're cooked. We're four points behind forge. We follow this season, no regular season title. Listen, there's playoffs coming up. Yeah, we have a chance, but end of the day, the last time we won two games in a row was back in May. So, to be honest, I think our trophy hopes are down in the gutter. - I really only care what Elizabeth thinks. - I don't know if leaving two points in Winnipeg ruined our regular season shield chances because I literally don't know. I would ask Patrick Gibson. - Unfortunately, Patrick Gibson did not grace us with his voice this week. - As far as our chances of winning the season is concerned, I think our chances of winning the regular season were in danger of disappearing after we lost against York during our road trip, but us losing two points against Valor, especially after we absolutely annihilated them seven new earlier in the season is practically guaranteed the fact that we have zero chance of winning the season now. I would even see that we've handed forge to the double as well, and we definitely deserve to have people take the piss out of us for it. - I don't think that leaving two points in Winnipeg ruined our regular season shield chances, but I do think it took our destiny and our fate out of our hands. Now we need forge to drop points in order to catch them and that frankly sucks. - I don't think leaving two points in Winnipeg necessarily ruins our chances of winning the shield. However, what it does mean is that we're gonna need some luck to go our way. If forge goes on a really strong streak to close out the season, then it's gonna be very hard to catch them. But I do think that we're still only four points behind and if we close out the season strong, like we were doing at the start of this season, we can still win the shield. - I think it made it all much more difficult. Not only are we now having to roll into a bunch of games that we have coming up and win as many of them as possible, or all of them, but it also puts the ball a little bit in forges court because if forge also goes on a run of good form, which they have been recently, I think we're in trouble as far as the shield goes. - I still think it's possible, but we'll see kinda how things shake out later on. - betting against forge is never the safe bet. But let's get back to that optimism. - As a die hard fan of it, let's go Ottawa. I really don't wanna say that getting points against Winnipeg has ruined our chances of getting that shield, but I mean, we still have games at home, many games away. I think we have a shot at getting the shield. I don't wanna say other than that. I wanna be hopeful. I wanna be optimistic. I wanna be positive. I think that this team can do it. I think the boys can do it. I've seen them happening. I've seen it happen before with this team. And I know that we've gotten new players, but this team doesn't back down. I know that they don't back down and I know that they really want this shield as well. And I know it would be an amazing feeling for them. So I think we have a chance still. We have a chance. - The last question I asked was if dropping those two points in Winnipeg has changed how you feel about Coach Carlos? - In this last week, my thoughts and feelings about Coach Gonzalez, Carlos Gonzalez has definitely changed. I think he's really realized the impact that every other player has had, especially when playing with other players on the field. I think that a lot of them have different capacities and different strengths on the field rather than starting, rather than being a starter compared to being a substitute. I think a lot of them have great strengths, but sometimes a lot of them don't work with other players on the field. And I think that's where the subs come in. And by using them really strongly, really using them in a smart manner, I think he's coaches really realized those differences. And I think that he's impacted the game a lot more better than this, and a lot more better more recently than in the past few games. - That is a pretty unique take from Alina. And what about Billy? - I don't think this changes in my feelings about cargo. This is stuff we've seen from cargo before. I think we'll still slide into the playoffs. At 'em open, we still just get that trophy. - And Canomar put it a little more bluntly? - No, man. No, it hasn't. He needs to go. (laughs) - And if there's one thing we know about Eddie, he's so scared of being mid. He hangs down at the extremes. - And, well, this is why we shouldn't have brought back cargo in the first place, but we did, and now we threw this season away. It's gonna take a miracle to win a trophy, and I have no hopes, really, or my hopes are really down. I don't know. We'll have to go on a magical run down this season, and nothing I've seen from the field has shown that. It's just a total disarray, and a total lack of leadership from the sidelines, which we've been staying for months now. - Okay, I get it, for the on-field stuff. But what if we only care about cargo as a human being? - And if he's out, I do understand why, but I personally adore him as a person. I just feel like he's very stubborn and set in his ways. So what upsets me is when things are clearly not working, but he keeps doing them. That's why I feel like I get so upset with him, but I don't think I would wish him to lose his job. I wouldn't wish anyone to lose their job, I guess. I mean, this economy. - They haven't really. Cargo is frankly a one-season wonder to me. His style of play is just way too predictable, and parking the bus is just in a fear, your playing style right off the bat, just because other coaches can figure out what to do to counteract that super, super fast. And you can tell that Fernando kept a tight leash on him up until he left mid-season, because as soon as Fernando left for a real Zaragoza, cargo resorted to his usual bag of tricks again, and we went completely downhill. Having these great signants just don't count for squats when you don't have a coach that can motivate his players. If there's any motivation at all, it's from players motivating other players, period. - I was already worried about what the offseason would look like without Fernando, now Meghan has me worried about what the in-season stuff looks like without his input. - I don't think this last week has really changed my feelings about Coach Cargo. I think at the end of the day, we've been able to recognize some of his talents and some of his faults, and that's gonna be what it's gonna be, and I think we just kinda have to support him and the team through the rest of the season, and then see where we go from there in terms of his future with the club, and whether or not he's the right person to leave this team moving forward. - To be honest, the last game was kind of more of the same of what we've been seeing since the midway point of the season, so it doesn't really change my feelings in any way at all. - I mean, I think that he's shown some good and some bad. I think the issue is with the team that we currently have, he isn't necessarily showing the type of play that we want to see. We've seen a couple of games that exciting, attacking play, then moving the ball around, and really kind of getting the players involved in more attacking, non-set piece, non-corner kick type offensive plays. But I mean, if you look at our schedule coming up, we've got Cavalry, Away, Pacific, and Wanderers should be, should be, again, two easy wins, but then again, so was Valor supposed to be, and then our last two games of the season are York and Forge, so he's got a pretty tall order ahead of himself, and I don't know if he's got it in him to pull it out, but if he does, you know what? That's awesome, and hopefully that's the case, and we end up doing something in that regard. - That's our show for this week. Early next week, I'll post another set of questions on our CCSG Discord, so find them there, send me some audio answers and get in our show next week. And if you're hearing this, and you're not a member, visit capitalcitysupporters.com today, and join. We'll see you at the pub, with the dub, somewhere in between. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]