I know its early in the season, but SKC has gone 10 hours of game time with only one goal from a forward and that was from a PK and not through the normal run of play. Lots of chances came and went with Seattle, Dallas and San Jose with very little to show for it. I personally love the 4-3-3, but it just doesn't seem that PV can get it to work for the forwards. What is the problem?
Schedule congestion. Five games in 15 days and Bieler working his ass off in the CCL games means we rested him during the MLS games. I'd imagine he is the regular starter now that the craziness has subsided.
The problem is the same we've always had with the 4-3-3 we create a number of opportunities and you finish a couple. Nothing's changed from last year to this year.
Well, maybe not, but it seems a bit worse this year. Even if nothing changed from last year, I don't think the status quo is the path to another title, especially when Columbus, Toronto and Houston all made improvements to their teams.
The outlier is 2011. The team scored 50+ goals. Kamara, Bunbury, and Bravo all had around 9 i believe. Sapong I think was around 5 - 6. You would never accuse 3/4 of those guys of being great finishers, but for whatever reason (pure aggression) it worked. I was talking about this on Saturday. It's a little baffling, because i think our line up is better than 2011, Beiler, Zusi being closer to goal, Benny being a mad man etc, but we just don't score consistently.
I don't remember quite as many teams sitting back and bunkering in 2011, which led to a lot more quality scoring chances compared to the half chances we have now.
The formation has done a wonderful job and I don't know how anyone can blame it. The 4-3-3 has done a great job of generating chances for us. No formation change is going to allow us to finish better.
Chances? Sure. Quality chances? I don't know about that. Do we count a good chance as a whipped in ball from 20 yards out to an undersized forward? That doesn't sound great to me.
Julio Cesar providing a different kind of service to what we have seen (think of the two balls in the houston home game) The Kei-on-wing experiment clicking, and his interplay with chance in 2011 provided attacking runs with speed. -Those two hadn't been figured out yet. Bunbury had his speed and used it against the high line. Roger was winning balls higher up in the mid Zusi was hitting good corners in to 2-3 vertical threats each time when teams weren't as prepared for it. We had that knack of scoring between the 25-45 and 80-90+ times, good for some psychological warfare against opponents.
Well, on Saturday we had Zusi all alone with the ball from the penalty spot and he miskicked it, Zizzo who probably deserved a PK, Dom at the penalty spot and decided that shooting wasn't a good idea... That's not including set piece opportunities like Opara's header over the bar or the Zizzo-Opara double post after Opara got his header on the goal on a long throw in. That's 3 quality opportunities from the run of play and 3 quality opportunities from set pieces. I'll take that, personally.
If your talking about the quality of chances opponents have against us it's not going to happen. You know why? Well it's because the opposition put 8-10 men behind the ball and bunker.
Oh it's gotten better for sure. I just get flashbacks to the stagnant offense against Houston in 2011.
I would love to see more goals, but I refuse to criticize. As has been said, the 4-3-3 has never been a goal scoring machine. We have gotten results based on outstanding defense, usually dominating possession, and "just enough" offense. This has been good enough for an MLS Cup, an Open Cup, and a couple of conference titles in just 3 seasons. Results matter, and this team has been getting them. That doesn't mean that improvement isn't possible or desirable, of course. But the MLS season is still early and I don't think it's time to panic already. I'm putting the lack of scoring down primarily to fixture congestion, playing a tough Mexican opponent, and general early season rustiness. 1-nil to the KC Wiz!
Cesar also played an extremely good ball to Bunbury in the away leg against Colorado (playoffs). And damn, when I think about it, even he would show up and score every now and again. Roger's play though, rings out. He was like a bull dog chasing a laser pointer out there and was able to force turn overs in the attacking third pretty often. And from there, with athleticism (Kei, CJ, Bunbury), we were able to turn on a dime and bum rush the defense and make the ball go in. It really worked well unless it didn't (Houston).
Considering we changed our approach from 2011 to 2013/14, I don't know if the comparisons to Roger and Cesar are entirely appropriate. While Cesar was good for a couple of really cutting passes from time to time he was not, for the most part, involved in our attack as much. For 2011 he averaged 38 passes about over 90 minutes. Uri averaged, in 2013, 59 per 90 minutes. There is some truth that we took people by surprise in 2011 when we started off poorly and then got hot later. Teams do not approach us the same way that they did before - it used to be that KC was a game you had to get at least 1 if not 3 points and now teams are happy with 1. I like the way we play right now. Sure, people concentrate on the physicality of our defense - and since that's what really sets us apart I can understand that. But when we do get the ball we do play a nice style... in my opinion at least.
One thing that I love about our team is we normally don't kick the ball long out of the defense when under pressure. I still hear it in the crowd..."Get it out of there" "Kick it out" Stop passing and kick it long". I know we have been scored on a few times ( over the last 3 years) for bad passes back to the keeper, but I love that we maintain possession of the ball. To me this is the part of the American game that has always needed to improve.
run of play goal = check (x 3) goal by forward = check (x2) goal by midfielder = check It is only one game... but it was nice to see offense again... I hope it is a trend...
Well, they finally found their offensive attack in Denver. Rocky Mountain high.... Scoring 3 goals in an away game is rare for this team, but it certainly came at the right time.
Interesting stat I just read - Zusi had 2 assists from the run of play in the COL game, which is 2x more than he had from run of play all of last year. So was Zusi's COL performance a statistical abnormality, or is it a shape of things to come? Hopefully more of the latter, his 2012 performance being a good indicator. Or maybe he gets more goals directly - his 2nd vs MTL at home in the first meeting last year was a stunner. Only time will tell....
Kind of hard to say. My gut reaction is that 2012 is the good indicator and 2013 is the abnormality (in 2013 Zusi had 1 assist from the run of play and 8 assists total), but you also have to remember that, for the most part, Zusi was converted from a central midfielder in 2012 to a winger/forward in 2013. And with as many goals as our defenders have scored lately, it's kind of taking the joy from the forwards'/midfielders' stats.
I was distressed at the stats myself - 5 goals from 5 games does not a champion make. Then I looked at the career stats of our starting XI. Peter didn't playing anyone, with the possible exception of Dwyer, who has a track record of scoring goals in MLS. And Dwyer's limited career totals are barely better than Josh Wolff - who was more of a setup forward than a goal scorer. goal every (minutes) div/0 Sinovic 0/9071 5,665 Besler 2/11331 4,317 Myers 2/8634 1,783 Zizzo 2/3565 1,626 Nagamura 10/16257 1,526 Rosell 2/3052 736 Collin 10/7356 713 Feilhaber 9/6416 494 Zusi 18/8898 255 Dwyer 4/1018 Peter needs to stop scouting overseas for d-mids and outside backs and start scouting for someone in the habit of putting the ball in the back of the net. We started a forward who averages one goal every 20 games.
That's honestly not as easy as it sounds. I mean look at Bieler. HE IS A GOALSCORER but the problem is our system is so established that we need a specific kind of CF and so far Bieler has not been fitting the bill. Sure we could change the system but PV has not and shows not signs of doing so, rightfully so. I mean why change a system that's given us 2 cups and 2 conference titles over 1 player?