Season Previews

Season Previews - Stats & Analysis

Season Preview 2017: Attacking Midfielders & Wingers

by 1 Comment
Read More
Adkins, Saydee, Catalano

PART I: Delirium   PART II: Forwards

ATTACKING MIDFIELD & WING

Adkins, Saydee, Catalano

The attacking midfield was Detroit City’s strongest area last season, and there’s a chance it could be even better in 2017. In the starting trio of Jeff Adkins – Tommy Catalano – Cyrus Saydee, City has three players who are in the primes of their careers and have played together extensively. Along with the departed Danny Deakin, they were responsible for some of the best soccer the club has ever played in terms of quick, sharp passing, maintaining of possession, and threatening buildup. They will generate plenty of offense; the hope here is that a striker comes to the forefront who can get on the end of those chances and finish them at a regular clip.

Starting off with the reigning Black Arrow Award winner, Tommy Catalano returns for his third season. With the ineffectiveness at forward last year, he was thrust into that spot for several games and ended up the leading the team in goals with 5. Now, with a boatload of strikers arriving to restock the position, he should be able to move back into a more natural attacking midfield role. He’s played out wide at times, but I think he’s at his best playing above the center midfielders and underneath the striker. There he can make the most use of his passing abilities, as well as his skill shooting from distance.

Although Catalano took home the Black Arrow, I thought Jeff Adkins made just as strong a case for the award, if not more so. He was City’s most consistently dangerous attacker over the course of the season, routinely making opposing fullbacks look silly trying to cover him.

His combination of speed, dribbling ability, and finishing make him an irreplaceable piece in the front four. He’s at the top of his game right now and only seems to be getting better.

Cyrus Saydee looked a bit rusty at the beginning of 2016, but he picked it up in the second half of the season, most memorably in the match at Ann Arbor. There he almost singlehandedly flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 victory to keep City’s playoff hopes alive. If you’ve followed this club for any reasonable amount of time you know his M.O. by now – small (5’6”) but an elite dribbler and controller of the ball, not to mention a very good passer. Fun fact: he’s been on the team since the very beginning in 2012 and still only just turned 25.

Continue reading “Season Preview 2017: Attacking Midfielders & Wingers”

Season Previews - Stats & Analysis

Season Preview 2017: Forwards

by 0 Comments
Read More
Lawson, Todd, Green

PART I: Delirium

Note 1: All position previews address the roster as it currently exists.

Note 2: In the case of players who play multiple positions, I’ve listed them at their primary spot (or at least what I think it is based on the information available).

Note 3: Official DCFC Roster page is here.

FORWARD/STRIKER

Lawson, Todd, Green

It’s no fun to start off the position previews on a down note, but the unfortunate reality is that forward was a weak spot for Detroit City in 2016. Javi Bautista and Tyler Channell weren’t able to build on the promise they showed in 2015 and no other striker was able to step up and become a go-to option. Case in point, City’s leading goal scorer for the year turned out to be Tommy Catalano, nominally an attacking midfielder.

To address the need for offense Ben Pirmann went to work and restocked the position with a bevy of new players, but I’ll start off with the lone returner. Tyler Moorman is primarily a forward, but he saw time at nearly every field position last year and is undoubtedly the team’s most versatile player. His signature match came away to Ann Arbor where he started at right back and helped keep prolific scorer Dario Suarez quiet, then moved up to forward and scored the winning goal in a 3-1 comeback. As the tallest atacker on the roster (6’3”), he should see plenty of time in situations that call for a target man up top, and I also expect him to reprise his role as the team’s Swiss Army Knife.

When last we left Shawn Lawson, he was snapping ankles and humiliating defenders en route to scoring the 2014 NPSL Goal of the Year:

After spending 2013 and 2014 with DCFC, Lawson turned out for the Des Moines Menace (2015), Michigan Stars (2016), and Jamaican U-23 national team. He brings some much needed finishing ability to the roster, as well as plenty of creativity.

He showed several flashes of brilliance in his first stint with City, so I’m excited to see what he can do now that he has a few more years of experience under his belt. I’ve penciled him in as my Matchday #1 starter, but he’ll face plenty of competition from Moorman and several talented newcomers.

Continue reading “Season Preview 2017: Forwards”

Season Previews - Story of the Club

Season Preview 2017: Delirium

by 0 Comments
Read More
Photo by Jon DeBoer
Photo by Jon DeBoer

I stood alone on a pristine green field. A cloud of smoke hung heavy in the cool night air and I smelled the freshly cut grass beneath my feet. Off in the distance, a deer with an impressive set of antlers spotted me and bolted away as fast as he could. As the wind blew, I caught an echo of voices…

“Who are ya? Who are ya? Who are ya?”

I turned to my left and circled around expecting to see a crowd of people, but no one was there.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something moving toward me. A chill went up my spine as I saw a blurry, shifting mass. It reminded me of a badly out of focus photo, but it was constantly fluctuating and seemed to be taking the vague shape of a person.

It first appeared as a Spartan warrior, then became a giant version of his helmet. Next it appeared as a five-pointed star, and then finally returned to its original shapeless form.

I don’t know why it was there, but I got the vague feeling that it wanted to fight me. After a few minutes of nothing happening, I decided to walk away. The mass followed and I could tell that it was trying to shape itself in my image but was failing horribly.

I ran, reaching a wooded area with tall trees. Dead leaves crunched underfoot as I moved deeper into the forest. I was alone once again.

Except, that is, for the animals that called this place home. In the moonlight I could see a squirrel climbing down from its nest.

When it caught sight of me, rather than running away it came right up, slowly growing and growing as it got closer. It stood up on its hind legs. With the voice of a prepubescent boy it began to speak.

“You suck,” it said.

I responded with the universal statement of the bewildered.

“Um, what?”

“I said you suck. Your team missed the playoffs, your stadium is a pile of rubble, and your city is dead.”

Reflexively, I responded. “Well it’s true we had a down year but we’ll bounce back… Wait! You’re a squirrel. Why am I arguing with a freakin’ squirrel?”

It continued, undeterred. “You don’t even watch the games. You just go to act tough and get your picture taken. Your team can’t defend the counter. Your club will be gone in a few years.”

On he went, staring at me with his beady little eyes. Suddenly he lunged at me, baring his sharp teeth.

A mighty ax appeared in my hand and I rose up to defend myself. The shining steel shone in the moonlight as I swung it downward, cleaving the rodent in two. Its halves transformed into little whiffs of black smoke and vanished.

When the smoke cleared I noticed that I was in a clearing with a line of trees on either side and an island of them in the middle. I heard the rumble of hundreds of footfalls as a grand army of blue and white marched from right to left across the field. On and on and on they went in a seemingly endless mass.

I stepped forward, and as they took no notice of me, I walked alongside to get a better idea of their numbers. Much to my surprise, they were marching in a circle around the island of trees. From my previous vantage point, this had given the illusion that their host was many thousands strong. I now realized that the actual number was much lower. I’m not sure who they were trying to fool, but I knew their ruse wouldn’t be effective for very long.

Suddenly, I felt myself falling. Down and down I went, the previous visions flooding my mind, twisted and distorted.

With a flash of light I found myself on a field much the same as the first, yet here the midday sun blazed down and I felt a stifling heat. The setting seemed idyllic. Up above, strips of clouds lined the sky – rows of light blue and white stretching to the horizon.

Taking a step forward, though, I realized that the ground was littered with corpses. Some were fresh, others just skeletons that appeared to have been there for years. All wore shirts of darkened red.

I bent down to get a better look at the poor fellow closest to me. An eerie feeling crept over me and my heart began to race.

His eyes opened.

Shocked and horrified, I recoiled and stumbled, falling backwards. Everything went black.

—–

I awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, my heart still pounding. Sitting up in the darkness, my mind was filled with the images I’d seen. They seemed so real, but they couldn’t have been… Could they?

I reached for the rouge and gold scarf hanging from the bedpost and pulled myself out of bed. Those things must’ve been products of a fever dream, terrors of some forgotten past that never really was.

I walked to the window and drew the curtain. It was early and quiet. The first light of day turned the horizon into a swath of purples and blues as it began to chase the darkness away. Wrapping the soft scarf around my neck, I caught the scent of sulfur in the air. My pulse returned to normal and I felt a growing warmth within.

A new day had come.

Season Previews - Stats & Analysis

Season Preview 2016: Predictions

by 0 Comments

PART I: Reclamation  PART II: Forwards  PART III: Wingers  PART IV: Center Midfielders
Part V: Fullbacks  PART VI: Centerbacks  PART VII: Goalkeepers  PART VIII: Team Overview

break

2016pocketfin

U.S. Open Cup

Last year’s highly anticipated matchup with the Michigan Bucks went about as poorly as possible, a 3-0 smackdown in which the home team looked superior to Le Rouge in every phase of the game. This year’s rematch will take place at outdoors at Oakland U, which should level the playing field to a certain extent. The memory of last year is still fresh in my mind, though, so I just can’t pull the trigger on a happy prediction. It will be a much closer match, but I’ll pick the Bucks to win 2-1.

Midwest Region – Great Lakes West Conference

Every year when I get to this section I try not to pick City to finish first, but every year the other teams in the division fail to give me enough evidence to choose them instead. This year seems even more cut and dry – Ben Pirmann has upgraded the overall talent on his roster while his team has been placed into a conference made up mostly of expansion and second-year sides. The complete lack of long road trips, which should cut down on player availability issues, is another positive development. Here’s how I see it shaking out (the top two teams make the Midwest Playoffs):

glw16

The stiffest competition should come from AFC Ann Arbor. Eric Rudland – HC of Lansing Utd. in 2014 & 2015 – is a very good coach and will get the most out of his roster. They may not start fast, but I think they’ll surge in the second half of the season to grab the other playoff spot.

They’ll have to beat out a revamped Michigan Stars team that now features a quality, non-felon head coach in Andy Wagstaff, and several former DCFC players such as Shawn Claud Lawson and Michael Lamb. I went back and forth, unable to decide who to pick to finish second, then I remembered this guy and made up my mind. (context)

Lansing will still be a tough matchup, but losing both your best player and head coach is not a good omen. Additionally, their attendance dipped last season, so this will be a crucial year to see if the club will bounce back or continue on a slow decline.

From this point, I see a big drop off. Dayton and Kalamazoo are both brand new clubs, which generally doesn’t bode well for first-year success in the NPSL. Grand Rapids has tremendous fan support, but they were a .500 team in the GLPL last season and there are big questions regarding how much they’ve actually improved their roster. I see them about on par with Dayton, and I’m extremely confident in my pick of Kalamazoo to finish in last place. #SmellsLikeZanesville

Playoffs and Beyond

Ah, the playoffs, every City supporter’s favorite topic of discussion. For whatever reason – unavailable players, long road trips, back-to-back matches – the playoffs have become Detroit City’s bugaboo. This year, as with every year, they have a very good chance to change that narrative. Deep down, though, I have serious concerns about the central defense, and I think it will eventually prove to be their undoing. They’ll make it to the final, but no further. And it will probably be against Cleveland or Erie because of course.

5 Wild Guesses

(1) City will host the Midwest Playoffs. I obviously hope I’m completely wrong about DCFC’s playoff outcome, and the best way to break the bad mojo of years past is to play the matches at home. The teams in the Great Lakes East will beat up on each other enough to allow City to collect the most overall points in the region and host.

(2) Three City players will score at least 5 goals. Believe it or not, this has never happened in a season before. I’ll go with Deakin, Bautista, and Adkins.

(3) Average home attendance will top 4500 and the 5000 mark will be broken. Last year’s average was a shade over 3500, so this is a big jump. With the increased publicity, the success of the Keyworth investment campaign, and the fact that the stadium is in the middle of a residential neighborhood with plenty of potential new fans within earshot, I think an average of 4000 is too conservative. As for the single game mark, the best chance to break 5k has to be the FC United of Manchester friendly.

(4) City will not drop any points against Dayton, Grand Rapids, or Kalamazoo. Six matches, six wins. Mark it down and fight me if I’m wrong. Or be a decent human being and just tease me about making a bad prediction.

(5) The noise at Keyworth will visibly affect an opposing team. This one is a bit tough to prove because it’s not quantitative, but at the Hamtramck H.S. soccer match that a few dozen of the Northern Guard attended back in October, the noise level generated with a mere 100ish total people was incredible. With the re-finished concrete and 4000+ people in the stadium, I fully expect to see at least one team experience communication problems and appear visibly rattled. Hopefully it happens to all of them…

 Recap: Predicted Finishes

USOC: 1st Round

Great Lakes West: 1st

NPSL Playoffs: Midwest Region Runner-up

Hype

CU3A0834

CU3A8331

Photos by Dion Degennaro
Photos by Dion Degennaro

Reminder

Click here to subscribe to the BIR email list and receive notifications of all new posts throughout the season.

end

Season Previews - Stats & Analysis

Season Preview 2016: Team Overview

by 0 Comments

PART I: Reclamation  PART II: Forwards  PART III: Wingers  PART IV: Center Midfielders
Part V: Fullbacks  PART VI: Centerbacks  PART VII: Goalkeepers

break

Photo by Dion Degennaro
Photo by Dion Degennaro

Even with the permanent departures of Will Mellors-Blair and Zach Myers, the top two goalscorers in club history, the number of quality attacking players on Detroit City’s roster is staggering. This should allow Ben Pirmann to interchange and rotate pieces freely without too much, if any, drop in the level of play from one match to the next. A good early test of this theory will come in the very first week of the season, when the Open Cup rematch with the Michigan Bucks on May 11th will be followed up with a return to Wisner Stadium to play Michigan Stars on Friday and a longer away trip to Dayton on Sunday.

Scoring goals shouldn’t be too much of an issue; the biggest question heading into the season is how the heart of the defense will hold up. The starting goalkeeper and central defenders have the talent and experience for City to win a healthy majority of its matches, but for the team to seriously challenge for a Midwest title, they will need to develop a strong relationship and progress together over the course of the season.

The depth at those two positions is what will be foremost in my mind heading into the final preseason match. It’s comparable to the situation at striker the past couple of years where the main man (Myers in 2014, WMB in 2015) was very good, but there wasn’t an obvious replacement for him if he was hurt or unavailable. Needless to say, both of those seasons didn’t end on the notes that anyone wanted. While guys like Deakin, Al-Gashamy, Adkins, and a healthy Javi should provide plenty of firepower up front, centerback and keeper are the spots to watch the closest, starting this Saturday.

A possible strategy, and one that was experimented with in the first preseason friendly, would be to go with a three-man back line. In this formation, one of the center mids, probably Troy Watson, would drop deep while the other team attacks…

3mld

…and would push back into midfield when City has the ball.

3mla

This may be something to watch for as the season goes on, but I’d be surprised if they lined up that way against the Bucks. Here’s what I think we’ll see on the 11th:

openingday16

I believe Channell and Bautista are roughly equal in the pecking order at striker right now, so it’s really Pirmann’s preference as to who gets the start. Since the Bucks’ pace of play was something that City couldn’t cope with last year, I think he’ll go with the bigger forward in order to maintain more possession and get the talented attacking midfielders more time doing what they do best, rather than chasing the ball around the field trying to win it back.

Similarly, you could pick any two of Saydee/Adkins/Al-Gashamy to start. I think Cyrus gets the nod for his ability to keep the ball, and the other side will be a coin flip. Bautista and Al-Gashamy would be my first two options off the bench, for what it’s worth.

For the remainder of the season, the goal will be to find the best combinations with an eye towards (hopefully) the playoffs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see fewer total players make appearances than in 2015, though there should be plenty of variation in game-to-game lineups, especially up front.

break

3 PREDICTIONS

Key Player: Troy Watson (CM) All of the exciting forwards, wingers, and attacking mids won’t be able to showcase their skills without someone getting them the ball. Watson is the most important player in the starting XI not only for his ball-winning proficiency, but for his responsibilities in shielding the back line and tracking all the way back when needed. His performances in the early part of the season will be crucial, especially if the defense is still finding its footing.

Breakout Player: Danny Deakin (FW/Att. Mid.) Not to put too much pressure on him, but Deakin is a future pro and should have a definite, noticeable effect on how City plays. He should lead or be near the top of the team in both goals and assists, and it may get to the point where everyone gets a little quieter and pays extra close attention when he’s on the ball, a la WMB last season.

Unsung Hero: Cyrus Saydee (Att. Mid.) This may seem odd, given that Saydee is one of City’s best and most recognizable players, but with the extra talent around him, I think he’ll blend in more and won’t draw the same attention from defenders because of all the other threats. This should allow him to have one of his best seasons, you’ll just have to watch more closely to fully appreciate him.

end