good way of putting it. We did well defensively except for that one moment, and finished our 1 really good chance.
After our preseason game against Houston I said that they're just about our anti-matchup. Given this I should celebrate a 1-1 in Houston like a 4-0 victory. Given our standings 3 points, although they would have been undeserved, woulda been really nice though. Wife said MOTM Sinovic 60 minutes into the game - definitely agreed on that one. Hell of a performance by him. Surprised he does not come away better in Audi Generally the defense did surprisingly well. I also like that we kept possession better than in some of the other games where we were trying to close a game out. Another bright light to me personally was Busio, as I so far have tended to be in the low end of the spectrum of Busio hype. He had a swagger about him that I did not feel like he had in any of his previous starts. Really feel like the U17 cup was good for that. This being said, if that is how our offense looks like sans Gerso/Russell, we're in trouble. Long pass by Ilie towards Croizet/Salloi looked like the only thing that is ever going to produce any kind of danger for Houston. Neither Salloi nor Nemeth seem to be able to beat opponents 1 on 1 (or even try to), and the chemistry between the two seems to be non-existing. Croizet looked like the only one capable of creating something, but his decisionmaking, as so often, was poor.
how elis didn't come out of that game with at least one yellow card boggles the mind. what a petulant sack of shit that guy is.
Other Audi takeaways: a good outing, solid enough. SKC 2372, Houston 2723. We had 8 players above the average line, though as noted, Sinovic was below that line and played well. Most interesting to me was the CB pairing, Smith and Bararth, worked quite well together. Barath's Audi score of 560 was just about on the normal MLS first 11 level, while Smith at 390 was well above an average MLS starter. Baratth's numbers were impressive: 7 headed clearances, for one, but also 3 ints, 2 other clearances, a tackle and a take on won. His passing: 53-8, with 52 of his connections coming in the defensive half, so one in the attacking half. Smith connected on 43- missed on 4 (all misses in the attacking half), cleared the ball off the line, won 3 aerials and a tackle. It was an impressive outing. Busio, at 291, had a decent Audi outing. but if he's taking the Roger role, his numbers indicate someone who wasn't doing much to control the game tempo (okay, so that looked to be tactical thing), but his passing was 26-4, accurate but kinda light. That said, he won 2 takeons, three fouls, added a tackle, int, aerial won, two headed clearances and in an hour. Croizet's goal was beautiful. His 398 indicates a great game. But 303 came for the goal. Outside of that, as noted, he was wildly uneven. What I see as most encouraging is that this was not our first choice 11, this was not our first choice tactical approach, we were playing a very dangerous side in decent form and we left a bit disappointed not to grab 3. Given that we had one SOG I'm not sure we should have expected more than the one goal, but the bunker worked, just as it did late last season. That's good news.