I've been hoping that Aguilar can get himself a goal against this tired defense. I think it would be great for him.
I don't think that there's that much difference between our subs and most USL's 3rd division starters. Strangely, the only guys we've gotten much value from out of the minor leagues were John Wilson, Clyde Simms and Ezra Hendrickson. Of the guys we've sent down for seasoning, we've never gotten much of value back aside from Bryan Namoff, Joe Willis & Dykstra.
I think it is safe to say that, unlike years past, there is nobody on their team that we will be interested in signing.
You know, that's sad thinking. Vincent is better than Aguilar and maybe DeLeon, but doesn't have the upside, same with Kerr, he's as good as a third level MLS wide player, but again doesn't have the upside. Don't get me started on Earls versus a guy like Neal or some of the other stiffs in MLS. They also had a couple defenders who were light's out too, much better than second team MLS place fillers due to salary cap concerns. Just saying USL players are not that far removed from MLS. It's more down to their luck and connections than their play. They can play.
I would take Hunt or Flunder any day of the week as a backup wide defender, and Hunt can play centrally too. These guys can play.
Speaking of river hounds, the cameraman sure had the hots for the girls in face paint. For a while they were front and center in every crowd shot After his (I assume) highly artistic shot of bouncing boobies from below the production guy caught on and the girls were gone.
I'm having a hard time understanding your concerns in this matter. Seems like it was handled well from my end.
No concerns here, just noting one of the colorful aspects of minor league soccer. When watching a USOC game entertainment of any kind is valued.
TCB. Coria has been a pleasant surprise. Silva is slumping hard, he's not going to get much play if it continues, right now I'd rather have Coria come off the bench.
,, Yeah, I'm with you. In terms of lock starters, we have Espindola, Rolfe, grudgingly Deleon, Arnaud, Kitchen, maybe Halsti, and the defense all of which Kemp, Korb, Opare, Birnbaum, Franklin, and Boswell are starters or starter quality. So, how do you line them up? I'm saying our best lineup against NE is: Espy Doyle/Coria Rolfe, Arnaud/ Halsti, Deleon Kitchen Kemp/Korb, Birnbaum/Opare, Boswell, Franklin Hamid. Bench: Silva, Arrieta, and whoever beyond them. Funny. We have a deep roster, but then again we don't. We got a lot of second tier talent, not so much first tier and our third tier is scary.
Vincent may be better now than Aguilar, but he's Boyzz Khumalo -- a very good USL player who won't be anything other than filler material in MLS. You're right that they aren't far removed from MLS quality, but they aren't MLS quality and that is why they are in USL outright and not on somebody's loan program. Remember the bad old days when Kasper went mining for gems in USL? The best player he found was Thiago Martins and he was, at best, as good as Doyle is now.
Haha. Maybe true, but Thiago was USL MVP back then. Scored 3o goals in 33 games in USL. Still the second leading scorer in Riverhounds history after playing barely a year and a half. Not a bad guy to take a flyer on. And I think you favor Doyle to even mention him in the same sentence. No chance Doyle scores 30 goals in USL even back then. : ) I'm just saying, and you are agreeing by the way, that MLS second-third string is almost indistinguishable from USL starter. The difference is, the better players will take the starter money to play every day in USL, while the MLS bench players will take basically meal money to sit on the bench and hope for better.
I don't think Coria has played 90 minutes in months … maybe years … let alone 100+ minutes. I think it was the pragmatic choice to sit him. If someone was going to pull up with muscle cramps late I'd rather it be Jeffrey, Doyle or Mishu ...
I also wasn't particularly impressed with his defending either. His distribution out of the back was very good, but we gave up too many chances. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since it was a totally new partnership with Opare but I'd rather have him as my starting center mid. The guy just oozes calmness which we desperately need further up the field
I thought Halsti was surprisingly bad in the air. He lost a lot of balls to Cabrilo and the sub Russell beat him a few times.
I like Dykstra … I can think of a handful of MLS teams he could start with if he continues his form. I thought Robinson did OK. This is the first time I recall ever seeing him but I'm always pleased to see an academy grad get minutes in a competitive match. I'm happy Coria and Aguilar played tonight. They looked like they were enjoying the game. It's nice to see attacking players actually trying to attack. It's not every day you see a United player actually taking on a defender 1v1 and winning. I'm happy Arrieta got his assist. It was a frustrating night for him. The timing was off, he was constantly offsides and he wasn't getting any calls. But in the end he finds a little space and makes it count. But really this game reminded me again how badly we need a target up front for our system to work. A resolution to the EJ issue can't come soon enough ...
Yeah … I watched the Finland-Hungary game just out of curiosity and I thought he had a bad night there as a CB. I'd be surprised if he starts the next game in that position for them. He did save a goal off the line but he almost scored an own goal, picked up a poor yellow after getting beaten on the dribble and consistently lost his physical duels with Hungary's big center forward.