Lol my dream team is MY TEAM OF FAVORITE PLAYERS NOT THE BEST PLAYERS.....Jesus. And I'm not arguing Bieler is better on paper but why exactly has he SHOWN this season to indicate he should be starting over Dwyer?
Well, when I saw the penalty given on Ike, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, even from across the field where we were sitting. But, when the game was over, I watched the replay 4 or 5 times and for the life of me I can't figure out what the ref was thinking. If anything, the Rapids defender shoud have been yellow or red carded for a studs up stomping to Ikes leg. When he got chopped down, he fell on the ball with his arm and the ref calls a penalty for a handball???? Really???? Someone has to explain that one to me.
Best I can figure is the ref thought Ike lost his balance and fell... And decided to swat the ball on the way down. I really hope he feels bad about giving it now though
Did anyone get an update on Ike? There were tweets tonight to pray for him, so I wonder if there was some kind of fracture like Olum's last fall. Zizzo is growing on me. Two great plays (capitalizing on the ever-so-slightly poor touch of the defender on the Zusi goal, and the header back into the box on the Feilhaber goal.) It's still early, but picture a Dwyer sitting on 12-16 goals by the end of the season. Does Vermes let a "pit bull" (his term) like that go to Orlando City? Or does Dwyer's desire to play in England keep him here until MLS can sell him like Kamara? Kronberg, despite the shaky play outside the box, has an ownership in the area that Puma never had. Including almost breaking Ellis' nose.
Good news: Ike OparaVerified account@ikeopara Great news. No break or fracture. Thankful for the teammate and fan support! Proud of the fight for 3pts and the #roaddron was truly awesome 8:54 PM - 29 Mar 2014 https://twitter.com/ikeopara/status/450118738222661633
some ups and downs for sure. the first half, our play was really poor... and only about 25% of that was our fault. colorado was playing a high press (and doing a really good job of it) and it really unnerved our back half and stymied our attack before we could even get it going. it even caught kronberg looking like an idiot holding onto the ball too long. to his credit, though, kronberg stepped up immediately after with a couple of big saves. nags finally did something to contribute to the offense in that wonderful through ball to zizzo. i have no idea how the defender didn't cut it out, but it was a great pass to completely open up their defense and set up another great ball from zizzo to zusi. great play all around. like you guys, i fail to see where the infraction was on their first pk. from the looks i saw, my thoughts were that it was incidental contact everywhere. it looked like opara just kicked the boot of the colorado player and went down in a heap (and thumbs up for nothing broken there for ike). if there's any blame to be given for allowing that situation to occur that resulted in their pk, it probably has to fall on kronberg. it looked like he was trying to catch the ball and made a complete mess of it. he looked very unsteady there. maybe the ball was slightly deflected? i'm not sure. benny, showing his tenaciousness, took a dip by being too aggressive in our own box and then immediately righted the ship with his bite in the opposite box. i bet vermes loved that. benny was also getting tossed around all day. you could tell it was in their gameplan to get really physical with benny to knock him off his game. didn't work. chumps. then dwyer ... more of that, please, sir. the end product wasn't lacking tonight with the young brit as he absolutely smashed that high at the near post. bieler, whom i still start in most situations (if we can only start one), was largely invisible tonight, but i don't put the blame on him for that. he got zero service, and he needs the service more than dwyer does. 3 points on the road. good stuff no matter how it happens. great looking support too, for those of you who went. that solid pack of fans was in great contrast to the sparsity of the rest of the stadium.
Was interesting to see TFC's Cesar do the same thing in Salt Lake... well, Cesar did slightly better with it by not giving away a foul which could have been DOGSO (I don't think it was b/c neither player was going anywhere with their legs tangled up like that, which apparently was achieved legally, so I'm not sure how anyone scores a goal there) but I'd just say that Kronberg wasn't the only one who got caught like that yesterday.
And regarding Dwyer vs Bieler - I think it is important to note that Dwyer scored his winner when we were up a man (credit to Wynne, BTW, for being very professional about it and leaving without protest). All-in-all, I like Colorado this year. I'm glad we don't play them again at this point. Sure, they are having trouble scoring from anything but a PK... but I figure that will fix itself and then they'll be really dangerous.
Yeah, Kronberg held the ball to long on that one play. But I really do not understand how a player who makes a two-footed slide tackle, then while on the ground continues dangerous play by sticking his legs between the legs of the standing player making that player fall, is not called for a foul or given a yellow card. Can someone explain this call by the rules of the game?
I would just like to say, in a completely impartial way, that that was a frigging hellacious strike by Dwyer. Damn! Also, Damn!
Couple of thoughts on Kronberg: He reminds me of one of those over-developed, really athletic little kids you have on youth soccer teams, where he can't completely control his powers yet, and smashes into other kids, tackles them, and does really dumb things, but you still love him because he does more good than harm, and is just a crazy little kid who will grow out of this stage . . . except KRONBERG IS 30 YEARS OLD, and still doing this.
An experienced keeper should never get caught in that situation. He had time to get it out of the box, even if he had to kick it out of bounds. It looks like Kronberg is getting on-the-job training in these early games instead of playing like a savvy experienced keeper. I am still scratching my head over that play..
Just walked back in the door after returning from the weekend in Denver. I have got to say that the Rapids supporters put one of the best away tailgates I have ever experienced. They had great food, unlimited beer, and were exceptionally good hosts. I think everyone had an over the top great experience.
As I said earlier, Julio Cesar for TFC did pretty much the same thing (41:42 if you have the game or MLS Live). Can't say that he isn't experienced. Sometimes that stuff happens.
It happens in all sorts of leagues... and it seems like refs prefer to give the benefit of the doubt to the forward stripping the ball. I remember catching an Arsenal goal earlier this year by Giroud where he more or less hockeycrushes the keeper and ends up with the ball at his feet somehow. It's the one time keepers don't seem to be overprotected. Weird, that. Met Opara after the game. He was on crutches, but he didn't seem to be in tons of pain. Good spirits going around the team, as far as I could tell. Which makes sense. Roaddron was tons of fun, and frequently loud as well. The Colorado folks were quite friendly before the game, and in fact served us up a BALLTON of food. Which couldn't have been cheap. We need to mark our calendars next year for their visit to KC and really make it up to them a bit. Though I did find it sort of hilarious that Benny's goal came so quickly after their second PK that their supporters' section hadn't even taken down their big tifo yet.
He absolutely had time to get rid of it, but I still don't understand why a dangerous play wasn't called in the first place, even after watching the replay multiple times.
This is the type of competition I could get behind - SGs trying to outdo each other every year... like some sort of delicious arms race.
"Dovale scores in stoppage time as Sporting Kansas City beats Colorado Rapids 3-2" Nanaimo Daily News http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/spo...ansas-city-beats-colorado-rapids-3-2-1.935446 Gotta love accurate reporting. Complete with quotes from the phantom goal scorer!
What's worse is that it's an AP story so it was picked up locally too... http://www.kshb.com/entertainment/3...porting-kansas-city-beats-colorado-rapids-3-2 And FYI this is the station that covers the games...
Chicago must be freezing over if you're saying something nice about Nags. And its worth repeating that Zizzo had a good game. I think we might be leaning on him quite a bit in the near future.
i've said plenty of nice things about nags ... as long as he's at least 50 yards from the opponent's goal.
That first goal was the kind of quick counter that has been sorely missing from SKC's repertoire. Zizzo did exactly what he was brought here to do--used his speed to blow past a defender and onto a through ball, then threaded a pinpoint cross between the keeper and last defender for the easy tap-in at the far post. More, please!