I try to pay attention, but I don't think there's another team in the entire league that I know less about than Montreal. Every year.
i am going to the game this saturday. driving up from springfield. has anyone had problems bringing in an external battery for their phone.
Montreal, if we use the Audi numbers as a guide, have been really impressive this year. Their team scores, last outing was a 4400, the first two right around 4000, indicate that they're doing quite a lot quite well. Those numbers dwarf ours to this point. Piatti is always a threat, but while he was their best Audi player in their last game, he's been okay in that regard in the first two. Taider, Cabrerra, Sagna and Piette have all been impressive as well. Diallo has been a solid defender, so thanks Dom! We are a better team, and we will be rested, at least compared to the early season. so I would expect us to take control of this game. but to me they are a classic example of how much better MLS is than it used to be. It's a very solid team, well managed, smart play, with a legit superstar level goal scorer, and nobody even gives them a second thought.
According to Pro Soccer USA, Ignacio Piatti is doubtful to play for the Impact against Sporting KC this weekend. Piatti suffered an undisclosed injury in a 3-1 win over Orlando City on March 16th and has yet to train with the team.
Okay, I was seeing Nemeth listed in the fantasy list as yellow, so a maybe. Is he injured? Did he get injured training with Hungary? they played Sunday, and he didn't play, so he should be rested, enough at least.
If I remember correct, Montreal beat us in KC back in June 2013 on a Saturday night game. (My bachelor party). No clue if Piatti was in their squad that night. That game was a sham.
gerso was rampant that first half. quality stuff from the boys. now, assuming we don't let montreal back into the match at the start of the second half, i'd like vermes to make a couple of early subs with an eye toward thursday.
Had to stay home with a migraine or something. DAMN. Also, I can't think of any 7-0 I've ever seen. It's always 7-1 because the winning team gets so completely comfortable.
Except when Chicago beat us 7-0 at Arrowhead. Half the Cauldron, as few as we were, turned our back toward the field toward the end in protest.
I got a kick out of the stadium announcer saying after JFR's second something like "Goal scored by Johnny Russell - unassisted because he's Johnny Russell!" Their center back situation was a total dumpster fire. My friend and I commented after the first goal that we could score 5 or 6. The distribution by Bush was also poor; his outlet was intercepted by Roger leading directly to the attack for our first. I love that we never took our foot off the throttle in this one. Every goal counts when it comes to tiebreakers and freaking LAFC didn't give up much ground yesterday despite our record breaking performance. Let's do this again.
We are a really good team this year. I kind of feels like bring on Monterrey right now. I mean, if we aren't up to it now, we aren't going to be up for it. A fascinating tidbit from the Audi numbers, the mostly highly rated player in that game was ... Taider, Rather stunning 1017 Audi points in a 7-1 loss. It's also interesting that our record breaking performance was not even close to a record breaking Audi outing. The numbers say were great, but we've been better. Aside from that, it was nice of SKC players to group themselves in sets of 3. Our top three rated players were, unsurprisingly, Nemeth, Gerso, Russell. Nemeth (961) and Russell (841) are screamingly obvious. Gerso was, as well, but he managed 880 Audu points without scoring, which is a trick. In addition to his two assists, he won 4 take ons, 3 corners and an aerial battle and had an interception. He even blocked a shot. Vermes afterwards said Gerso's off the ball movement right now is the best in MLS, and Audi doens't pretend to track that. None of the available stat sets track that. But we can see that this season he has caused panic is just about every defense we've played against when he's started moving at full speed. Okay, so the front three were nothing but a brightspot, but another is that if we look at their total touches, they really didn't do much with the ball. Russell was businer on the ball than the others, and tried 45 passes (29 completed), which is not exactly heavy lifting. Nemeth? 16 passes. 9 connected. The second SKC grouping was Felipe (516), Ilie (436), Besler (399). That means we had six players who rated in the exceptional category, which is a sign that, well, we romped. Ilile had a ton of the ball, 90 complete passes, 11 misses, plus another 20 long balls. That sort of night for him is always a sign that we're dominating. Felipe's accomplishments list is quite long. He did a little bit of everything and was busy. Besler missed on 14 of 22 long balls, but his shorter passing was impressive, 86 complete, 12 not. He also had 3 ints, won 2 tackles and a take on. Our next grouping was Busio and Zusio, 336 each, and Fontas (282), all solidly in the a step above average category. Busio's numbers, per minute, put him in our top group, btw. Zusi's passing numbers, 59-9, were good, plus two corners won, two ints and a clearance. Our player below the average MLS line: Melia (153 but, okay, tough to stand in judgement on a keeper in this one), Espinoza (199) and Sinovic (47), neither of whom was that involved.. All in all, SKC's 5306 was indicative of a good day, but we have scored much higher before, in games we have won by a lot less than 6 goals
It looked like Zusi was pushing higher up the field to attack in this game than in previous games. It was almost like he and Sinovic switched roles, where Seth stayed home this time and Graham roamed upfield. This seemed to unlock Russell, who has looked dangerous but was on fire against MTL. Anyone else see this? Also, someone commented on the stadium announcer. I heard part of the Russell comment, so thanks for clearing that up. That said, the announcer has developed something of a carnival barker vibe. It may have been that way for a while, but it really stood out to me on Saturday.