Who: Seattle Sounders (WlwDw) vs. Columbus Crew (WwlWW) Where: CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA When: 1PM, Saturday, 8/27 Watch: KONG 6/16 Listen: KIRO 97.3, La Gran D 99.3FM Internet: Justin TV, Channel Surfing, Veetle This should be another challenging game for the Sounders. The Crew are top in the East and only 5 points behind the Sounders in the overall standings. The Crew are also on a roll winning 4 of their last 5 games, including wins against RSL away and Philly at home. However, the Crew will be without Julius James, who has made MLS's team of the week the last two weeks, due to yellow card accumulation. Sigi rested most of our starters in the Monterrey game, so they should be ready to go for this game. The only question is what to do with the starters that did play. Are they rested in this game so they are ready to go for the USOC semi against FCD. The Sounders are completely buried in fixture congestion for almost the next two months with a game every 3-4 days throughout that time and the next break not currently scheduled until the week between October 1 and 8 and that is when the USOC final is scheduled. This stretch will really test the Sounders depth and Sigi's coaching ability.
Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted Line-up: [LINEUP-4-4-2]Fucito, Montero, Friberg, Evans, Alonso, Rosales, Wahl, Hurtado, Ianni/Scott, Riley/Scott, Keller[/LINEUP-4-4-2] Games in Dallas and Monterrey for Parke, Gonzalez, and Fernandez probably means they get a rest, but obviously this is Sigi's old team and the Crew are probably looking to get their first regular season win against the Sounders, so who knows.
Not a bad looking lineup. Ianni and Hurtado have paired well in the middle before. Scott on the right would be okay but he played both matches as well so maybe the iron man that is James Riley sees this match as well. Especially since Scott will probably draw USOC duty marking Shea again.
Actually, if I read the schedule right, we have a nice long 10-day break after USOC semi on Aug 30th. Next scheduled game in any competition looks to be Sept 10th against RSL, and that's a home game. If I'm right, that means everybody will be available for the USOC game, then there's basiclally 2 weeks of home cooking and only 1 game before heading to Costa Rica for a CCL game on the 14th of September. In that respect the schedule is breaking perfectly for us to get some rest before gearing up for a brutal, but potentially exhilarating stretch run.
What?? You mean I have to pay attention to dates that cross months? Pshaw. But yes. I actually knew that, just had a brain fart. So we have 2 more games of this short stretch of hell, then a month of pain after a very relaxing 10 day break. Eek.
Greetings, I come in peace as a member of the Sigi Stardust fan club. Congrats on the win in Mexico, fantastic stuff. As you mentioned, missing James will be tough for us. We traded Iro to TFC for Tchani (who is out injured). Danny O'Rourke has missed every game but one with off season knee surgery. The reserve game last week was his first action in over a month. Williams would be next on the list, but he hasn't played this year either (injury + steroid suspension). Rookie of the year candidate Rich Balchan could play back there, but he's been out over a month, and has been used exclusively at LB/CM so far. We might have to move Kevin Burns back. Rookie Eric Gehrig is also an option, but he's mostly played DM. Eddie Gaven is also out, which obviously hurts the attack. Injury report: Out: Gaven, Tchani, Veeder. Doubtful: Francis Questionable: Cunningham Probable: Renteria, Balchan, Rusmir, Riggs. Recovering from surgery: O'Rourke Best shot at lineup: -------------Hemser------------ Miranda-Marshall---Burns---Gardner --------------Ekpo------------- Duka--------Rusmir-------Rogers ------Renteria-----Mendoza------ Bench: Gruenebaum; Balchan, Williams; Gehrig; Anor, Meram, Heinemann.
If I remember correctly, O'Rourke wasn't a favorite among most Crew fans last year. Did this change? It appears to favor us as long as we're rested enough but seeing as how we played almost pure reserves vs. Monterrey it should be good.
Lest it go unnoticed, that would be Josh Gardner, former USL Sounder. He was a favorite mine to "come up" with the MLS club, along w/ Le Toux.
Yes, it is. He started a goodly portion for LA in 2005 when they won the whole thing, and then caught on with you guys. We picked him up from the Carolina Railhawks (along with Captain Caveman/Heinemann) this year. Balchan started out as the LM, but then when he moved to DM, Gardner took over the LB spot and has been starting ever since. He even takes some dead balls now that Gaven is out. O'Rourke and Francis were the ones most Crew fans had penciled in to play LB, but neither has started a game yet due to injuries. Garnder and Balchan have both stepped in very nicely.
Smart move based on what I've seen of his TFC performances! Not only do you get rid of a liability, you give him to one of your rivals. Smart, smart move!
True. But the fact is, Iro looked pretty good playing next to Chad Marshall. In Toronto, not so much. And at this point, at least he's healthy and has played this year. Something no other possible CB candidate on our entire roster can say. As for O'Rourke, I don't know why so many were down on him. I certainly wasn't. He does have the tendency to go haywire every once in a while, hence the nickname, Danny O'Red, and thus a lot of people prefer him either as a DM or fullback, where dumb fouls usually take place outside the box. Still, he's a versatile guy and a good one to have on the team. Especially for games when we set up defensively and try to make things, er, difficult for the other team by playing physical (borderline thuggish). He's the guy who makes the other team uncomfortable and gets under their skin.
I bet we have our standard lineup with the addendum of Fucito/Montero and Neagle starting over Flaco.
I dunno about Neagle.. With Evans back and playing "well" and Neagle having a less than productive game against FCD it will be hard for Sigi to get over his mancrush and bench Evans in favor of Neagle.
While I think we've only seen it once or twice, if Evans is going to start along with Friberg I'd prefer it Evans on the wing and Friberg in the middle. IIRC, it seemed to work well.
Im not a big fan of DannyO this year after getting a red in the USOC and getting burnt in Dallas on their second goal. He needs more reserve minutes and I hope he stays away from the field this week.
It's really tough to tap in the mind of Sigi. I think he's start both LN27 and BE3. EF8 would sit (maybe a 2nd half sub)
I would agree if it weren't for the fact that Evans played a full 90 down in Monterrey and Friberg rode pine. That would seem to imply that Friberg is going to be the man. But then, we can't discount the mancrush Sigi has for Brad, so for all I know now that Evans is healthy he could now be the starter for the rest of the season.
I'm basing my premise on Evans playing a full 90 in Mexico and Flaco playing 70ish. I think Sigi would want Flaco for FCD next week.
Yeah, Evans on the right wing worked incredibly well... For one game... and that game was against........ Toronto! Now-- TFC is bad... like really, really bad. Kind of mucking between just horrendously bad and stupefyingly terrible. We could've played Kasey Keller at right wing against TFC, and Sigi would still have looked like his "tactical scheme" was genius. Evans is good for 2 things-- winning headers, and maintaining possession when we have the lead, fighting off numbers being thrown forward against us. Oh and PKs, I guess he has a knack for those, but it's kind of embarrassing as a team to have to mention that.
A point that seems to have escaped TFC's FO. In all fairness to Andy, Chad has had some concussion/injury issues the last couple of years, and Andy (and Brunner) both filled in nicely. TFC is just a cluster****, it's hard for anyone to look good there. As for Evans, he is former Crew. Sigi liked to give guys a shot against their former teams when he was in Columbus. I doubt that has changed much. Especially if Evans isn't in your first choice XI, which I'm assuming you'll want to trot out against Dallas in the USOC Final (I mean, SF, full disrespect to Chicago/Richmond). You guys have some time off after the USOC, correct?
To be fair, their offense is something formidable now. I can easily see them dropping 4 goals on someone soon... and still losing 5-4. Evans was not a starter in Columbus right? When I've had the occasion to read the crew boards, I always thought you guys kind of viewed him with GBS-colored glasses.. As for Sigi... my feeling is he has been more flexible than people give him credit for. I think he wanted Rosales to be another GBS, we even gave him #10, does anyone think that was on accident? But from last season, where we played 2 high-wide wingers very rigidly, Sigi finally let Fernandez and Rosales play the outside MF positions the way they want-- very narrow, very imbalanced, very roaming. And earlier in the season Sigi said it made no sense to play Fucito and Montero together... Who does he start up top in the wins over FCD and 1st game of CCL group play? Fucito and Montero. Nobody really knows who the best XI is. It's kind of like Crew '09, where we're pretty sure we have the best XX out there... But the XI has some glaring question marks.
Hmm.. Ianni most likely out for Saturday's game: http://twitter.com/#!/joshuamayers/status/106846079777120257 So.. three games in a row for Parke or Scott.
Whoa... you play Ekpo as a holding mid?? I remember last year, the game we somehow won 4-0, Ekpo torched us again and again and again down the right wing. To be honest, that game was pretty much the beginning of the end of Leo Gonzalez. If I were you guys, I'd shove O'Rourke's injured ass at holding mid and put Ekpo on the wing, and bombs away... cuz we're even worse at LB than we were last year. (Although Fernandez gets back on D pretty well, unlike Zak).
Cbus preview, +quotes from Sigi, +video preview issued by Crew: http://goalwa.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/hot-sounders-host-columbus-crew-saturday/ “Saturday’s match is a big match for us because obviously we want to stay where we are at. We worked hard to get into second place in Dallas and we want to be able to hold on and maintain it. We know Dallas has a tough game coming up. We know L.A. has got a tough game on the road. We are at home so this is a week maybe for us to extend some distance between us and Dallas but more importantly maybe make up some ground to L.A.” ---Schmid