Game One Of Our Rebuilding

We're not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about last night's game.  Pretty much everybody sucked and the 3-1 scoreline probably flattered us.  Our offense consisted of a good header from Badji followed by a weak roller from him in the second half, before he finally drew the PK that Doyle scored at the end of the game.  On the defensive side the loss of Cronin and Burch was seen in the disorganization of the back line.  This was compounded by the decision to start Ford over Burling, leaving Watts as possibly the most "experienced" defender.  Ford showed some good play but got burned on a couple of the goals and showed that he's still a very raw rookie.  Miller and Williams were over-matched on the wings and Howard made an uncharacteristic mistake on the second goal getting beat near post.

Instead I want to focus on something that announcers John Strong and Alexi Lalas said about their discussions with Pablo.  Paraphrasing they said that Pablo told them his new offensive scheme could take up to a year to implement.

What?  Are you kidding me?  How can Pablo think that's an acceptable thing to say at this point, and how can the organization think that's an acceptable thing to allow him to say without cleaning it up? After what the fanbase has gone through with Pablo in charge we're supposed to accept another year of "rebuilding"? Not to mention we're 6 months removed from almost winning the Shield but now we need to change our system, in a way that could take up to a year? Oh, and if we're going to change to a more offensive system, shouldn't we have, you know, signed some offensive players?

At this point it feels  like Smith and/or Pablo (more likely  Smith) wants to change the roster.  From Smith's POV it makes sense as he was working with the now-departed Bravo and didn't have full control.  He probably has a different player type in mind than Bravo did.  However this team isn't in position for another rebuild, and certainly not in the middle of a season.  We had a great (historic in some ways) defense last year.  The next step was to cement that defense and build on it, not break it up by trading off two components for the hope of young players in future years and the possibility of another signing.

Based on last night's game this team is a long ways from contending.  Great youth prospects but not a team that's going to contend this year.  For the 3rd time in Pablo's 4 years it appears the organization is playing the fans for suckers and I (and many others) fell for it.

Man of the Match: Micheal Azira.  No major mistakes, good play, and looked like he belonged on the field.  The only other placer that came close was Badji, because he actually tried to take a shot.