The upside.

After a couple days, I think we've had enough time to digest the shitshow we witnessed in New Jersey on Saturday.

I wanted to put my two cents in on what we can take away from that performance and hopefully what we can do to improve.

1. Chara can't get healthy fast enough. Lucky we have a bye week and that means he should hopefully be match fit for the match against Dallas. We missed his assertiveness in midfield, as well as his ability to connect the ball on turnovers to our attacking players in transition from defense to attack.

2. This last point -- transition from midfield into the attacking 3rd -- is the place where I think we most miss Nagbe. The man was a force of calm, holding the ball for our front 3 to get into dangerous positions or just find space. What we saw vs NYRB, like vs LA, was Valeri have less time to work on the ball -- he still played a few gorgeous balls into space over the top -- and that's in part because Nagbe could draw players off Valeri. We need either one of Blanco, Asprilla, or Polo (listed in order of probability) to become what Nagbe was, or we're going to get nowhere with the current formation.

3. Speaking of formations: I appreciate that Gio is going for some continuity from last season. Obviously the 4-2-3-1 worked well for us last year. There have been calls for a 4-4-2 and I'm willing to see where that takes us. Adi as the target striker, Armenteros as a roving forward playing off him, Valeri and either Blanco/Asprilla/Polo in attacking mid roles, Chara+Guzman in their usual destroyer roles and whoever sucks the least on the back 4.

4. I liked what I saw of Armenteros. Felt it was unfair to sub him. I know he didn't score on 2 very good chances, but I liked that he knew where to be in both positions -- has the instinct, clearly -- and that he had the appetite to go for it, even in the case of taking the 2nd chance where Asprilla probably had a better shot at it. Definitely want to see more of him. You don't put up numbers like he did in the Dutch League, esp on a team that isn't PSV/Ajax/Feyenoord, without being a quality striker.

5. Captain obvious point: Our backline sucks. It sucked last year and we still won the west. With the personnel we have, I think we need to resign ourselves to the fact that we're more likely to win in a 3-2 shootout than in a 1-0 grinder. We're not really set up to defend -- our best players are in the front, not that back, and Gio probably knows this. If Polo buries his chance early against LA, and if Armenteros did the same against NYRB, we'd very likely be sitting on at least 1 point, if not 4, from these first two matches and everyone would be talking about what a genius this new coach is. At home, with a bit less rust to shake off, I think things will be different.

6. Penultimate point: Because those chances didn't go our way, and because the team caved the way it did last match, I think it's fair to say that it should be open season for the starting XI. You don't give your all on the pitch, you don't play. I'd love to see a couple of our fringe players get minutes, provided they earn it in practice the next 10 days.

7. We've only just begun the season. Our squad will be at full strength, health-wise, by the time of our next match. It's hard to imagine us being whipping boys for the whole season (I suppose Rapids fans thought the same thing heading into last year though). We're getting the hard part of our schedule over with first. Worst case, players like Farfan and Paredes are getting blooded now instead of later. The team is going to learn a lot, and get better because of it.

RCTID.