Awful. We had no attack today. Without Zusi and Espinoza that makes sense I suppose. I was really hoping for a no 10 in the off season. Now I'm really missing Bravo on the left too.. I hope we are not mid table this year. Doesn't feel like our signings have added much improvement, just depth. Hopefully we'll make a run at open cup and get into CCL.
Me three. I haven't been impressed at all with Convey, Nagamura and Peterson. Hopefully we look better with all of our starters. Even so, our starting back line should NEVER give up three goals - even during preseason and even with Kempin in.
Ya, we didn't get better with our signings. We filled holes with bodies. We're totally banking on our core players from last season having more experience, thus being better. I'm not jumping off the deep end here. I think we'll still be competing for the cup and being there in the end, but this team is gonna have games just like they did today. Jut like they did last season. Very few of these guys are "world beaters." They're just a solid team. Which can still win.
Do I really have to say it? Okay, its Preeeeeeseason. Example: New England is 3 - 0 out there in Arizona with wins against LA, RSL, and NY. How concerned should we be that the suck fest that was New Enland last year has wins over LA and RSL? We were terribly poor yesterday, but I thought we looked very good against Houston, and our reserves did fairly well against Montreal. PV is still looking at players, combinations, trying to get guys fit for the season. Games like this aren't necessarily about results. That being said, everybody, from top to bottom, SHOULD have learned from a stinker like this. Better now than a month from now. I also don't think you can come to a solid conclusion on whether Convey and Nagamura are going to improve the overall. Nagamura sucked yesterday, but he's also coming back from injury, trying to get fit. Convey hasn't done anything great, but he's still trying to learn this system (a system that is not really attempted by other teams in the league). However, I'd be lying if I wasn't worrying about this result just a smidge.
http://www.sportingkc.com/news/2012/02/sporting-speak-wake-call-loss-whitecaps Post-game reactions from PV. Zusi had a quad issue, rested.
agree with you on nagamura. i'm still not sure, from these games, where we're planning on putting convey. left wing, but a left wing who moves into the middle, or a left forward who tracks back (which seemed to be how both convey and, on the right, kamara played vs houston)? he was listed as a forward for the houston game, but either way he seems to be pretty far down depth-wise in a 4-3-3. do we have a third MF we know will start with zusi/espinoza, or are nagamura/cesar/sassano/convey all chasing the same spot?
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/01/mls-roster-compliance-deadline-today-5pm-et Roster cutdown is today, with waiver draft scheduled for tomorrow.
All in all, I think if we'd been offered our current position (hosting USOC final & 3 pts clear in Eastern Conf & 4 pts back in SS race) back in late Feb, we'd have taken it every day and twice on those that end in y. I'm happy. Now let's paint that wall.
. . . and the first tiebreaker, which is head-to-head. The problem, as I noted in another thread, is that SJ has the easiest remaining and overall schedule in MLS. They have eight home games left, and only six on the road. They are done with RSL (won all three) and still have two each against Chivas, Colorado, Dallas (both at Buck Shaw), and Portland. They also play Seattle twice, Chicago and LA at home, and Montreal and Vancouver away.