I wrote this in the live box, but I'll leave it here, too -- one of the biggest questions this club has to answer is why the team continuously plays that way in the biggest games. The first Red Bulls game, tonight, some of the other regular season games this year that got away from us ... this team was awful in the biggest games, and that's a question that has to be answered.
I'm not going to call out any single players for this, because it seemed like the vast majority of the team let the moment get too big for them. And that's a massive problem considering 30% of our field players have played in a World Cup Final. How and why can that happen, with the kind of experience we have? Inexcusable, and a major question to answer this winter.
One question that I think we have the answer to is who the goalie is going to be next year. Patrick made it crystal clear with his selection these last three games that Eirik is going to be the starter next year, and I'd be shocked if Saunders was even on the roster in 2017. You don't bench a guy like that and expect to have him back the next year.
It sucks to go out this way, but this doesn't change what was accomplished in the regular season. First of all, Toronto only fell to the 3-seed because of Giovinco's injury. They probably should have been conference champions this year; there's no shame in losing to them. I have a feeling this won't be their last win of 2016.
Second of all, I don't think anyone expected us to be this good this year. We hoped NYCFC would make the playoffs, but the expectations weren't much higher than that. To finish second in the conference, to have the season we had, and to do it with a roster that shows so much promise is exciting. There are flaws on this team, but now we have a basis to work off, unlike last year when the problems were so wide-ranging. It's time for Claudio to get to work, and if last offseason is any indication, I'm very excited to see what he has up his sleeve.
COME ON NEW YORK