Ha ha, midseason form. They showed a replay, but it was hard to see. Klute and the RCB seemed to lose him in some traffic with another Portland player, the ball might have been deflected to Alhassan.
Have to say I was also one of those guys. Not going to look it up but he is like 5'6" and 140 lbs and he was far from even remotely dominate in his year at Akron. This is pre-season and Portland, enjoy it, hope for the best, but don't set this as his yard stick of expected play.
Gota love the free kick camera. It stays on the kicker while they talk about what happens near the goal.
Kindle looking good, as well as LaBrocca. This half more fun to watch than last, even though we're down 2-0 right now.
Don't want to read too much into a preseason game for obvious reasons, but Oscar's still got a ways to go with the team defense.
I agree this half is much more fun to watch than the last. Unfortunately, the young back line is looking like...well, a young back line lol. Getting eaten alive fairly easily.
Even that's reading too much into it IMO. The "first team" defense minus Wynne, got beat once on a pretty damn good free kick to the top corner. The team of trialists and new players is getting worked but they're trialists and new players.
Mauer really making a case for making the team. Back line with Wynne would probably push out kindle and Claderon out wide.
I don't care about the size thing, just don't, not for the position he'll likely play (wide attacker)....middle of the park, maybe more of a concern, but what I've seem from him technically and with respect to being able to hold the ball convinces me he'll be fine. YOU guys are the ones with the yard stick.....specifically, he "isn't ready for MLS" which implies to me that he has no business on a roster and/or will never play. You can't then say "well, it's just preseason and Portland" because even you have to admit that he hasn't looked out of place or over his head and well, Portland is in the MLS and is comprised of MLS players. I find it hard to believe that 1) you watched enough Akron games to make the claim you do and 2) he would continue to be called into US youth setups if he was "far from even remotely domiNANT". How far is "even remotely" from dominant anyway?
I only got to watch 10 minutes of the first half, so I'll take your word for it that the first 35 was better. Realistically, we should expect Oscar to have a lot of work to do anyway, because otherwise there'd be no point to preseason. So don't see it as overly critical.