Pickens is playing hurt... how do i know? I caught pickens left glove... and he had his pinkie and ring finger buddy taped by rubber band..so theres that
I've heard of some keepers doing that even when healthy. It reduces the chances of the pinky getting bent backwards by a hard shot. I have no idea what Pickens does normally though.
Did an image search and it looks like he pretty regularly has something on his left hand, so it must be a regular thing. Strangely, I don't see anything on his right hand in any of the pictures though.
His only tweets this weekend (of interest to this subject at least) were agreeing with Burgundy Wave that the Fire Pareja, Hire Spencer idea is stupid and telling somebody that he would be happy to meet with them to explain the long-term Rapids plan after the person claimed Hinchey and Co. were ruining the team.
The notion of a "long term plan" smells like carving out a long term job in spite of results to me. It’s genius.
I would long a Season ticket holder event with OP, Bravo and Hinchey explaining player moves, overall direction and Jersey Sponorship (Somehow I want to put Fail after these).
Slighly better, have not noticed the dreaded (to me) 2 for 1 groupon deals this year. MLS ATTENDANCE* Club (2012 Rank) Week 18Home Games 2012 Home Average (in Red)2011 Home Average (Final)Chicago (13) 16,820 15,543 14,273Chivas USA (18) -- 13,127 14,830Colorado (14) 13,284 15,184 14,838Columbus (15) 17,588 14,572 12,185Dallas (17) -- 13,722 12,861D.C. United (16) -- 14,132 15,196Houston (4) 18,871 21,287 17,694Kansas City (6) -- 19,348 17,810Los Angeles (3) -- 22,483 23,335Montreal (2) -- 25,357 --New England (19) 12,180 12,455 13,222New York (11) 19,414 17,443 19,749Philadelphia (10) 18,544 18,398 18,259Portland (5) 20,438 20,438 18,827Real Salt Lake (9) -- 18,604 17,591San Jose (12) 10,744 15,868 11,858Seattle (1) -- 39,537 38,496Toronto FC (8) 19,821 19,123 20,267Vancouver (7) -- 19,123 20,406Leaguewide 16,770 18,736 17,872 * Attendance figures, provided by MLS, reflect tickets sold and distributed.
Here is an article which talks about the 'most effective' passers in MLS and the logic behind the decision. JL ranks right up there and another Rapid makes the top 15, one you may not expect. The art of analytics in soccer is coming alive. It may or not come as a surprise that RSL has 4 of the top 15.
It looks like we got 3. Unless Dallas signed another Drew Moor I don't know about. Yes, the other one was a surprise.
lol - good catch. I looked at the teams first, not the names. As for accuracy, yeah, that's kinda important
When I think about it, I haven't ever been annoyed with Zapata because of wayward passes, so it is valid that he would be on here. He can find and make good passes though like his one-two with Casey this last weekend that ended up in a shot on goal. My big problem with him when he has the ball is that he over hits the ball on his dribbles so it is easily picked off. Everything else that I get annoyed about with him is off the ball stuff - positioning, decision making, etc.
Interesting stat that just came out of an N&A discussion. Conor Casey has the best ratio of goals to shots on goal of any MLS player who's scored more than 45 goals in his MLS career. Stern John, at 44 goals, beats Casey's ratio. After that you have to drop down to Saborio at 33 goals, then Musa Shannon at 20 goals. I'm not sure how meaningful that stat is, other than saying Casey's got one of the most dangerous shots in league history.
Remember how I've been saying all year that Zapata is a midfielder masquerading as a left back? I rest my case.
If FCD are shopping Shea around, could he be a good pickup? I don't, I think he's more hype than substance, but its a thought.
Where do we go from here? To me its all about D-mid position and decision of single or 2 D-mids. Reason is your personnel decisions would be different depending on this choice. Very simplistic look: 2 D-mid: You need outside defenders who can jump into attack (ala Wingers) to support the 4 "attacking" players on field. The 4 "attacking" players must bring above avg offensive skills and defensive contributions expectations are minimal. Single D-Mid: Outside defenders must be more defensive in nature, to prevent instant odd man rushes. Outside Middies/ Attackers must be able to play 2-way to help out defense, so 5 man D is not overwhelmed. Rapids Roster, Season start we were starting 2 offensive outside defenders (Kimura and Zapata) to go with Pablo and JL (2 D-mid alignment). Pablo goes out and later we see Rapids giving Freeman starts at outside back who is more defensive in nature. Then we trade Kimura and bring in Wahl (also more defensive in nature). Mullan continues to get starts as 2-way Middie but we lock in Castrillon and Rivero in other 2 spots which play a more attacking style. So the key to me is OP/ FO call on 2 d-mids or not or even possibly both. I think we have seen the couple of times we have played this way, including the game JL sat out is, Rapids defense is better with 2 D-mids, regardless of who they are. We have a HG kid (O'Neil), who might be ready next year to start beside JL in 2 D-mid alignment, Nane has recently looked very good too. Castrillon stays the starting LM. However, this alignment does really allow for Mullan to continue to get starts since we need a more offensive player in that spot (someone who can take on defenders 1v1, create his own shot, mesh with a short passing style)- maybe that player is Kamani Hill. Wahl and Freeman would be our outside backs. Single D-mid: JL doesn't seem to be answer; Nane, O'Neil or maybe Mullan might be answer but hard to know at this point. Most likely we need to go find a stand alone D-mid with ball handling- distribution skills as well as top defender to man this post, they are not easy to find. Most likely this player would be an international as well since US doesn't have a history of developing this specific skill set. However, Mullan fits here and Castrillon does too when he is involved completely in game (which was missing for almost 2 months recently), or our Holy Hacker takes his spot. Zapata would get starts and possibly Armstrong (our other HG player) might get the RB starts or we go find someone who can. Since we are pretty close personnel wise for both. We actually could play both (strong teams or away, we go 2 D-mids) at home or weak teams we go more offensive with single D-mid. This also provides for built in rest periods for players do to formation switches. Biggest missing piece to me for ability to play both is the single D-mid player who is not on current roster. Plus, we need to find a young CB for the hole we have there depth wise. We will see what the next 24 hr period brings. Could be CB from Africa with that brinkmanship negotiation or maybe South/ Central America will provide us with a stand alone D-mid. We also need to find a another young forward to go with Akpan to groom for the future.
No, no wait, let me answer my own question everybody. Per the email from RFO it looks like SEPT 9th. Grandparents Day. I hope we've long since shaken off our curse by then, but if we have'nt it will be fitting cause this shit is getting old.
At least it's not in the middle of the week this time and people would have to drive through rush hour to attend.
I just found the disciplinary stats page on MLS's sute: http://www.mlssoccer.com/stats/disciplinary-points/2012 Look at that, FSL second in the league with 420 disciplinary points (expansion Montreal has 422). Colorado is 13th with 324 (next to last in the West). Which team is the thug-life team again?
Rapids hire a Chief Revenue Officer. Whats that you ask? This is what a CRO is. Maybe it's about time someone there looked into the future and at least asked "Are the disinterested dipping dot kids really the future of MLS?"
