Minnesota can't do us any favors, had a PK to force extra time and have Houston play another 30 minutes tonight, but no.
Looking forward to see who might be back from injury for this one. Obviously Shelton and Croizet could be in the XI. But who else is ready to come back? Don't get me wrong, the kids have done great. But I would like to see PV continue squad rotation throughout the season to set up well for a playoff run, anOpen Cup run, a Champions League run. . .
In particular, I worry about three players: Russell, Zusi and Espinoza. All three play a balls out style that suffers, a lot, on dead legs. Two are over 30 and Russell is playing a very, very long season. IMO, we are already seeing Russell fading a bit. He isn't quite as explosive as he was a month ago. I woudln't mind seeing him in a sub role or simply left out for a week or two. We know the drill with Espinoza. He puts in so many miles before September, and is a limping, clanking version of himself come season run in. Zusi runs so much, and I believe isjust about the most important player in our team. Maybe Kuzain takes a week off, then comes back and gives Espinoza a day or couple days off in a week or so. Maybe we give the very impressive Lindsey a run at his actual position in early July and see if we can recharge Zusi. For Russell, we do have Gerso, esp if we want to give Rubio a run or if Shelton is back.
I feel like we should be resting our players now - starting with Jul 7th the following 6 games will be as though as they come and I think we'll need our first squad for those games (barring injury, of course). september would be a good month to keep some of our starters out again given the opponents.
Would be nice if we could get Medranda back to fill in at left back or midfield. Anyone heard any timeline on his return?
Left side looks awful. Croizet might complete one of every 10 passes. He's got to be one of the worst attacking mid in the league.
Quick Question - On the second goal, the first pass to Beasley, he (Beasley) was on, but Manotas was off. However, when Manotas received the pass from Beasley, he was on. Should this have been allowed? If so, is this goal on Smith for not tracking Manotas?
Yes it should have been allowed, Manotas' positioning on the first pass doesn't matter. It matters on the pass from Beasley. And yes I think Smith plays a big role in that for not sliding centrally more with Opara out of position.
When Houston pulled Quioto and Elis we were able to just put so many more numbers forward at that point. Elis caused our left side headaches all night and once both were out it was pretty much 1 way traffic.
Thanks. I still get confused on the rules for offside. Even if I knew it, It was hard to tell at the time, since the play was coming directly at me. I was just surprised to see Manotas so open. Good play by Beasley to see him.
I just watched the post game interviews on the league website, Carter interviewed Ilie, Smith, and Shelton. I am so impressed with the quality of guys this team has. Ilie in particular, went out of his way at the end to call attention to the two police officers they were playing for tonight. He has such a kind, caring soul and you can see it in everything he does and in every interview. And Shelton - cheeky little wink at the camera at the end - nonstop Instagram stories - and just a sense that he is grateful for this chance. He knows he hasn't scored as many as the fans would like but he also knows he is doing a lot of things to help the team. Smith mentioned how much help he has gotten from Ike and Tim and Ilie and Roger and what a great organization this team has. This team really is a family this year. Every single one of them seems like they are loving each other and wanting to fight for each other in everything. I love following the guys on Twitter and Instagram, they are so supportive of each other. Loving this team!
I can't stop watching the 2nd goal. So, so, so pretty. Rubio to Russell, Russell with the perfect one-touch pass to Salloi in the middle, Rubio with the run up the middle while the defense all collapses to Salloi, and Salloi making an INSANE how-did-he-do-that, no-look pass PERFECTLY weighted right through two defenders, in front of Rubio who doesn't have to miss a step, and then Rubio with the beautiful curler into the back corner of the net. Three players perfectly in sync with each other, instincts exactly tuned to know what to do with the ball at the right moment. Another moment proving that this is The Beautiful Game.
I thought Croizet was good, until he wasn't, at which point his play was essentially falling on his knees and begging to be subbed. The interchange with Lindsey was, uhm, what? After about 68-72, he was visibly done. Look at his Audi numbers and he's put in a better than average MLS performance, about 40 points better than what we normally see from him. He was at 315, which isn't bad, but he had 14 unsuccessful passes in the attack, and that's a huge number (it was the difference in Audi points between him and Russell on the night). How bad was 14 bad passes: Consider Zusi in his worst game by Audi numbers of the year (career I think). His overall score was ... 10. He misplaced 9 passes in attack and two in defense. What that says is that Croizet did actually do a lot of the little things that make for a good game, but looked worse than he was because he was screwing the pooch on one of the really big things. I would say Gerso reflects an Audi fail. A very solid night, and his overall number (500) was quite good, but he seemed really dangerous all night, but got dinged for missing on 9 passes in attack. Even so, I'm not sure he can be blamed for not having an assist, which would have turned a very good Audi night into a great one. Melia was going to stuggle with two goals against, neither on him, I'd think, but stats on keepers are always going to be harsh on goals. Russell was our second best player, by the numbers. I thought it was one of his lesser games, though still solid enough. Shelton had a great number right, though of his 559 score, 303 came from the goal, and 175 from that same goal being the match winner. But he only had a single negative play during his cameo (ball out of play). But more than all of that, f'ing Salloi. Really sadly for SKC, he isn't a 9. He's too easily knocked out of the game. But crikey, he may be the most dangerous creator in MLS from the left. Salloit's pass on the second goal was yet another example of a 21 year old somehow coming up with a pass that seemed to freeze the opponents, almost stop time. His second assist, again, stunning not just for the placement, but for finding the path through the defense with a ball that couldn't be any easier to convert. He gets the geometry of the game at a level that you usually find in Champions League players. You can't talk about the players he reminds you of, because it's insane to put a young MLS player in that company. But jeebus he can ball. I was as harsh a critic of him last season as anyone, count me totally and completely sold. If we go the Audi numbers, we see that about Salloi's performance, his rating was 1025 which is good to have in perspective. Manotas was the next highest rated player, scored twice and was 60 points back. Salloi's negatives were almost non-existant. He lost two balls on bad passes and once out of bounds. His positives are a long list of all the big and little things that go into a great game. I never talk about Espinoza, but game in, game out, he is an Audi monster. He's always around a 500 score. There are very few MLS players who produce that sort of high level consistency. Just saying. The numbers don't break down by half, but I would guess Ilie's average overall numbers (263) would break into non existant, negative first half, nice second. Once again, SKC putting up very impressive team numbers, over 5000 again.