Kansas City vs Philadelphia (Sun Mar 10, 2pm CT) [R]

Discussion in 'Sporting Kansas City' started by Buzz Killington, Mar 8, 2019.

  1. Buzz Killington

    Buzz Killington Member+

    Oct 6, 2002
    Lee's Summit
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    League home opener, Espinoza suspended. Team was shooting to have Fontas back. Do we rest either of the 2 (Besler, Ilie) who have played every minute so far?
     
  2. kcfooty

    kcfooty Member

    Feb 16, 2011
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    At least one... I hope.
     
  3. Inca Roads

    Inca Roads Member+

    Nov 22, 2012
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    No rest for Ilie, maybe for Besler if he's feeling it. But as a CB he really shouldn't be suffering too much. Ilie is the one who needs a break, but there is 0 chance he gets it.
     
  4. Buzz Killington

    Buzz Killington Member+

    Oct 6, 2002
    Lee's Summit
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think Besler's resting will be dependent on whether Fontas is back or not.
     
  5. dgb09

    dgb09 Member

    Jun 11, 2003
    Overland Park, KS
    Can't imagine Besler and Ilie both resting the same game. Which is fine, because Ilie will not get a rest. Ever. It may even be in his contract at this point.
     
  6. Spassapparat

    Spassapparat Member

    SKC/Werder Bremen
    May 14, 2017
    This game reminded me of our game in Seattle last season. While we were playing a really good away game there, just about everything went against us and we lost. Same thing happened here imo for Philly. Soft penalty conceded, followed by own penalty saved, followed by Fabian black out putting them down to 10 men, followed by deflection own goal to put a nail in the coffin. On the second goal, Gerso might have even been offside - I did not see any replay that showed it one way or the other.

    That being said, I thought we had a decent game. Concern for me was the right hand side - I feel like Zusi gets caught out of position more instead of less since he is playing more conservatively, and Russell clearly is not yet in his last year's form. None of his take-ons work, and defensively he seems to help Zusi out less than Gerso does on the other side.
    Nemeth was another player that had a bit of an off game - way less effort by him as well compared to the previous games of this season imo.
     
  7. Inca Roads

    Inca Roads Member+

    Nov 22, 2012
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Russell looks way worse without a constant pocket Zusi. The new tactics are not suiting him at all. His take-ons work better when he has a great fullback pulling a defender away.

    Nemeth disappeared for a few chunks of the game, which is really not the worst thing. He did some very solid hold up play and ball distribution when he was given the opportunity, but really Philly absolutely killed our midfield. They countered Sporting really well and were incredibly unlucky to lose to us.

    I like what I'm seeing from Gerso. Busio played well and will look quite a bit better in a game where the opposing team isn't countering our technicality with their athleticism and organization. Our guys kept dawdling on the ball and getting pushed off it. Excellent work on their part to use their incredible physicality but in a (Fabian aside, haha) really legal way out there.

    I'll take the win and the clean sheet and all of that, for sure! But this game was the most concerning game we've seen all year, and we just lost two in a row before this.
     
  8. KopRules

    KopRules Member+

    May 31, 2011
    Beautiful South KC
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Hard to assess when Thursday is looming, but I’m a bit concerned. We just aren’t covering the field. I thought Zusi was really poor today (again). Russell was ball watching (which is less excusable than normal given the LAFC ending). If Russell doesn’t give us stretch... and our CF is a hold up forward... and we have older players at wing back... and we know Ilie isn’t exaclty a burner... I’m getting the feeling this team can’t cover enough turf. Maybe the Panama trip taxes more than I give our players credit (I hope), but we’ll see.

    Can be technically superior all you want, but if you can’t shrug a guy off the ball or keep an athlete from taking it, I really don’t care how technical you are. I sometimes can’t believe this is a club that played with Sapong, Bunbury, Kamara....

    This isn’t really a gripe. I see it both ways. It’s just something to watch for me.
     
    Inca Roads repped this.
  9. BenDover

    BenDover BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 4, 2010
    Rio Verde, AZ
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I saw a lot of the same things everyone else saw. The midfield without Roger was hurting. Busio is an exceptional player for a 15 yr old kid, but we really missed Roger bossing guys around out there. I can't really see why Busio was started over Rowe.
    I think the reason Nemeth looked lonely out there is the fact that the SKC midfield never really looked in sync. All of the attack went down the wings and just about nothing through the middle to feed Nemeth. He is playing a different role at #9 than the previous SKC strikers and needs more balls to his feet in the middle.
    The other thing I noticed is a bit of cooling off between Croizet and PV. I sit fairly close to PV during the games and watch his interaction with the players. He was chipping at Croizet and Yohan was getting frustrated. I guess I'll have to see if that was my imagination or something going on between them.
    Lastly, I had to hand it to Philly, because they came to play tonight and not park the bus like a lot of other teams. Without a couple of heroic saves by Melia, the scoreline would have been very different.
     
  10. KCFutbol

    KCFutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 14, 2001
    Overland Park, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Minor correction. Busio is 16 and turns 17 in May.

    That said, he's still quite accomplished at a quite young age.
     
  11. KC96

    KC96 Member

    Mar 2, 2013
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Tangential field story from the game that TV would not have picked up. Aurelien Collin is still loved by SKC fans, who were cheering him as he warmed up on the PHI sideline near the Cauldron.

    After warming up, Collin ran back across the field seats to his bench, and what looked like Rob H. stood up with his hand out to high five hand shake Collin as he passed. Both persons smiled as they did that.

    Collin figuratively and literally painted our wall in 2013, both on the field during MLS Cup Final, and with a can of spray paint thereafter.

    It was a nice feeling to see that mutual respect between the persons involved in a tough decision re: player personnel years ago.
     
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  12. Inca Roads

    Inca Roads Member+

    Nov 22, 2012
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    A few of my friends ran down during the game while he was warming up and got photos with him. I can't imagine his teammates thought very highly of that.
     
  13. KC96

    KC96 Member

    Mar 2, 2013
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    I think when any of his teammates:
    1) score the equalizing goal in an MLS Cup Final, and
    2) also score the decisive penalty kick in the shootout in said final,
    3) were named "man of the match" for that Final, and
    4) were also a crowd favorite before the final...

    then they might have some standing to be annoyed - if they even were.

    I bet they were merely envious, and also hoping one day they would accomplish on field deeds that would merit opposing fans to still love them the way we love Collin :)

    And of course in a "boys will be boys way", they would likely acknowledge this by playfully giving Collin crap about this for the rest of the season...lol

    We did this for CJ Sapong too on his first return to SKC in a PHI uniform. The Union should be used to SKC fans still showing love for our historical heroes.

    By the same token, I'm sure no SKC players were annoyed when Houston fans gave Brad Davis a lot of love when he went back to HOU in Sporting blue.

    Anything like this that happens outside the lines and outside the game clock, is just all general US soccer fan love for league players in my book. And I think that's a great thing for our sportsmanship culture.
     
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  14. Spassapparat

    Spassapparat Member

    SKC/Werder Bremen
    May 14, 2017
    gotta say, being used to European soccer, i find stuff like that really nice. When a player moves to another club in Europe and they play his old club, the best he can expect is getting ignored by the home fans. More often, he is being booed and insulted as a traitor or the like.

    Generally the fan culture is just way more about enjoying the sport rather than diehard cultlike support for a team. I couldn't see many fanclubs in Europe inviting each other to tailgates..
     
  15. kcfooty

    kcfooty Member

    Feb 16, 2011
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks for the recaps here - I like the color it adds to the general match reports I can find online.

    I missed the game (spring break). The result sounds like karma for that 94' goal last the weekend prior.
     
  16. KCFutbol

    KCFutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 14, 2001
    Overland Park, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I really love this tradition of our league. Tailgating with the visiting fans is enjoyable. During the game we support our own team but before and after the game we're all fans of OUR league.

    If that makes us less in the eyes of the rest of the world, so be it.
     
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  17. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    So just back from Bremen and had a chance to look at the numbers. I haven't been able to see this game, though so don't have much to say. A couple things stand out to me, even in this blind state.
    I'm hearing a lot about Philly outplaying us, but the numbers don't indicate that. We had the sort of overall score we typically did duing ties last season, with 3373 points. They had the sorts of numbers that teams we beat by two or or more goals tended to end up with, 2055.
    That doesn't mean much in a vacuum, though 2-0 is also in there, so the bag is getting full. Our numbers are intersting. Besler (801), Melia (797), Borath (609) and Ilie (488) are our top Audi producers. The failure of any attackers to squeeze past the 488 level indicates were not at the top of our game, but defenders don't build numbers as easily as attackers do in Audi, and this colelctions says we were very, very good down the middle. That's good news.
    Barath was encouraging. He did lose 3 aerial challenges, but he won 7. That's the sign of a team pumping balls into the box against us, but also a good sign that he's attacking the ball in the air aggressively and effectively.It is good news that a player who is just figuring out how to play SKC style connected on 77 of 80 passes. I'm assuming almost all of those were sideways or backwards, and unchallenged, but even so, that level of involvement with a 96 percent compleition rate is getting into Ilie territory.
    Speaking of Ilie, his numbers were the sort we need from him. 74 completed passes, 12 misses, which his normal sprinkling of ints, clearances, challenges, etc. One point I don't understand is why he's pinged for a -147 Audi points for a penalty goal.
    Worrying from the numbers: The only attacking player we had in the above average for an MLS outing was Busio. He had a really nice, little bit of everything sort of afternoon. he won a couple tackles, blocked a shot, won an aerial and a corner, and earned a penalty, plus got off a couple shots. But while he only missed on 3 pass attempts, he only completed 27. A nice outing in that role usually is a bit busier.
    Speaking of busier, Nemeth could have been. One sign for why he wasn't might be in that he won an aerial battle, lost 3. We aren't going to be that effective if we're putting balls in the air for him. He only missed on 2 passes, but only tried 20.
    As oddity of the numbers: Felipe had a really pedestrian Audi outing, with a total of 131 points, but he was given a -370 for having a couple shots blocked. I'm not sure I see a blocked shot as being 6x the negative as a lost challenge or header, but whatever.
    Looking at these numbers, what I'm seeing is a team that continues to struggle in the attack after a couple massively impressive opening matches against Toluca showed what we can produce. We do, however, eventually have to get back to that level of play if we're going to be that team.
     
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