74' LePeilbet gets called for a foul on Heath in the box and that was a good dive job by Heath to get the call. Bad call.
80' Sinclair heads in a goal by a cross from Vero. Beautiful goal, but bad marking by LePeilbet again. She is really getting exposed out there.
Ugly match by the Blues, this is going to hurt to break down but its pretty obvious what went wrong. 1) Not enough possession, the Blues keep possession and thereby limit attacks on their own end, they couldn't do that today. 2) Turn overs, lots of them in their own half, starting too many counters, exposed our defense to, too many run of plays 3) Bad marking, on crosses since there were goals scored by crosses and some bad back to goal marking by one player that cost the Blues several goals.
Just landed in Chicago...talk about an insane game. I watched the 1st 20 and KC has some defensive lapses but were still creating chances, 0-2. Needless to say that changed. KC was probably too confident and under estimated Portlands will to win. I mean if Portland wouldn't have gotten a result they would have been out of the play offs IMO. Yikes! I hope Morgan is alright!
FC Kansas City 1-7 Portland Thorns FC I don't think anyone saw this beat down coming from the Thorns. For a team that struggled to score goals against a good defensive side in the Blues a 7 goal shellacking by the Thorns was a huge surprise. The worst loss by the Blues and I think in all of the NWSL in their 2 year history. As a fan I am slightly shell shocked by this beat down. Even without Lauren Holiday, if the Blues were going to lose, I didn't think it would be by a score this lopsided. Analysis of the match: -Part of the reason why Portland had so much of the run of play was the possession they had over Kansas City. Over the whole match, they must of had about 60% of the possession, something that normally doesn't happen against the Blues. One of the problems of building possession was the turn overs in the midfield by the midfielders. Katrina Gorry who was playing in the spot for Lauren Holiday could not replicate what Holiday normally does in the center of the pitch. Holiday is very good in avoiding tackles, able to dribble with the ball and keep the ball and wait for players to make runs. Gorry was not effective in doing this, she was constantly trying to take the ball but would immediately be under pressure by a marker and invariably would turn the ball over as she would get pushed to the ground for the 50/50 balls. Even when she had the ball, Gorry could not dribble around a defender and would get taken down and lose the ball. This created a lot of turn overs in the middle of the pitch and created counters for Portland to attack which they did score on. Gorry wasn't the only one having a hard time, Buczkowski had a very rough day, had her fair share of turn overs and also made a horrible pass that didn't get to Sauerbrunn and Long was able to intercept and go into the box on a 1v1 and score. -Katrina Gorry. She scored a goal, but as to being effective in the middle of the pitch, she really couldn't provide the necessary connection to the forwards. She never tried to hold the ball up and try to get players the ball on the run, she was bullied all over the pitch when she picked up the ball and a defender bodied her. She is just too small out there and not really able to play effectively as the focal point of the offense that the Blues needed. -Erika Tymrak: Needed to play where Holiday normally played. She had several good dribbling runs on the touchline, was able to provide some pressure into the box but for the most part without her usually interplay with Holiday in the middle of the pitch, was pretty much defended well by the Thorns and limited to what she could do. -Amy LePeilbet: What a bad day she had. Portland was just taking runs right at her and her angles all day have been poor in defending. She would either dive too deep or take a bad angle and put a lot of pressure on her partner Sauerbrunn to save her. So many runs through the box could of been better defended with better marking from LePeilbet. Examples of some of the problems LePeilbet had. Allie Long would receive the ball inside the box with LePeilbet having position over her on her back. Long would take the ball and turn on LePeilbet and completely undress her and get wide open 1v1 inside the box and then score easily. LePeilbet, her poor footwork is a problem since she just can't recover when a player turns her, or on instances when she is defending and they are dribbling at her, she then has to defending with her back to them which is very poor technique. She has to defend face up and keep the player in front of her. Jenn Buczkowski: Had an ugly day as well. Her turn over to Long would allow her to score easily. And just not doing enough to help her back line when it comes to back marking pressure. Amy Rodriguez; Was completely invisible today, and your not asking too much from her if the other team has possession, but with Portland having most of the possession, it would of been nice to see Rodriguez do more back marking to help the Blues fight for possession which she did none off. This isn't the story where we can say we didn't have Lauren Holiday and that is why we lost. It was a team loss, poor marking, poor defending and back marking by players when a turn over happened and just bad communication to watch for players on the run. The defense looked like they were chasing the ball, its why the Blues gave away several crossing goals. One to Sinclair and another to Brook. Just some bad defending in general today by the Blues.
Disappointing performance by the midfield in general. I think too much was put on Gorry's shoulders and the usual starters didn't adjust to the change well. Portland ran right through the mids like they weren't even there which put a ridiculous amount of pressure on the defense. I would also say Sauerbrunn was invisible in this game. Portland's first two goals came against her/Robinson's side. I also don't remember her making too many attempts to help LePeilbet, something she normally does with Phillips. LePeilbet was isolated way too many times and probably trying to do too much. A couple of fouls were seriously questionable--and the Thorns must have agreed because they never show replays when they're scared they might be found out.
Several of us called for LePeilbet to replace Phillips at center back...and Phillips struggled vs Portland in KC so I think that's why we saw that change but LePeilbet struggled tonight as well. Such a weird game and a bit unfair for LePeilbet playing with a new formation in front of her and an off game by everyone... What's your vote? Phillips or LePeilbet?
If you're looking at resumes and accomplishments I think the choice would be LePeilbet. She's a natural CB and is normally stellar especially 1v1. On any other team she'd probably be leading the back line. Whatever happened in this disaster against Portland was certainly an anomaly. You're right it was probably unfair to throw her in for the first time paired with Sauerbrunn, in a brand new formation, and with Holiday missing on top of it. You also have to wonder how much practice time she had in that role if Phillips is always the starter. Sauerbrunn and Phillips have had the benefit of time together to establish their chemistry and partnership to be sure. But I think if LePeilbet has more practice time with Sauerbrunn she should be given another chance to redeem herself.
If you haven't been following Portland, Menges is an outstanding left back and if Tarr wasn't injured she'd be an outstanding right back. Talk about the worst luck, that Riley for whatever reason actually played Menges at LB. Ochs, OHara and Menges would be my top 3 at left back for the national team. Also, the worst luck, Allie Long is one of the worst DM's next to Kyle and they can't advance the ball, but Allie's got some Lloyd in her and she is a good striker. Brooks is not a finese DM, but she's a tank and goes for hard challenges. Still though, that was a beat down. There was too much space in the midfield with ARod and Apple up top, such that Gorry and Tymrak turnovers led to immediate counters and KC's defense got torn apart because there was no time for recovery. The solution is to go back to the 4-2-3-1, bench ARod for a half and play Silva at RAM. But Vlatko won't even follow his own system even though KC loses and even gets a smack down with the 4-4-2. Conversely, if Houston would just bench Kyle, e.g., by moving Ochs to DM, Houston would be deadly with Ohai and Henderson. What a loss with Henderson. Can KC trade Bogus for Nairn?
Catley was at LB for Portland, Menges was at CB. After the price KC paid to get LePeilbet, Bogus isn't going anywhere. If you want one, you have to take the other. I've been high on Gorry for a while, but I don't think she's cut out for the physical style of play here. KC might not play that way, but their opponents certainly do. She was given a chance to earn more playing time with Holiday's unfortunate illness, and she blew that chance big time. Probably the biggest takeaways from this disaster are that everyone collectively had a bad day at the office and Vlatko was doing some experimentation that just didn't pay off. I think come Friday he'll return to the lineup that won 7 straight matches and I also think they'll bounce back from this failure.
Haven't followed the team as close this season. But saw the score line today. hopefully just an off day. But not sure how you win a game 5-0 then lose 7-1. Pretty crazy.
Menges was LB earlier in the season, when Tarr was RB. I believe Menges shut down Robinson a few times. It's not a bad day at the office - When you take out a midfielder AND sub Gorry for Holiday it's a strategic mistake. Also compare ARod's defense to Ohai's defensive effort. Portland is still going to have to battle to make it to the playoffs.
Menges was a left back before Catley arrived. I think Catley is set as the LB. And, Tarr apparently is just about ready to play, she was listed as Probable in the last injury report although she was not on the roster for the game. Whether Tarr will get back into the starting lineup, I don't know, but if she is back at RB with Catley at LB, those are two very fast outside backs.
Ochs to DM? That's just crazy. She's a winger. I still think she should be more forward. A front line of Ohai, Henderson, and Ochs has a ton of potential. Just Ohai and Henderson linking up with Jackson in the MF was impressive last game. Imagine if the 3rd forward wasn't invisible. Hahahahahahahaha. No, Washington's not that stupid. Boston would probably do it.
What I meant was Edwards and Jackson need one more advancing midfielder and Houston becomes an above average team.
One thing I noticed at the KC/Portland game was that as the game wore on, Hagen drifted more and more away from the middle and towards and even all the way to the sides. This might not have been apparent on the video. I thought to myself, "What's she doing out there?"
In response to FCKCEvans on who should start at center back. I've always stated I wanted Kassey Kallman to play there and partner with Becky Sauerbrunn. What Kallman brings that neither Nikki Phillips or Amy LePeilbet does, is physicality. She is very physical, uses her body effectively to shield players off the ball. She would bring what Kansas City was missing with the Sauerbrunn and Sesselman partnership, that added physical dimension. Sesselman was the hard edge to the duo, while Sauerbrunn was the finesse, the ball handler. They need to bring that back and they can with Kallman. Plus unlike LePeilbet, Kallman always faces up defending a player 1v1 and is very hard to turn or dribble at her because how physical she plays and her body position. LePeilbet is very quick to give body position over to the other player, which is why she does get turned on and has to recover and when a player dribbles at her, her technique is horrible. She turns her back to the player and back pedals backwards, this allows the other player to dictate on the dribble, she can either go left or right and there is nothing LePeilbet can do about it, which is why she got pushed into the box on the dribble, not only in this match but the last match, she got dribbled at. That is poor defending. At least with Nikki Phillips, yes, she has poor footwork, she can be turned, but she plays very safe, she understands her weakness so she doesn't take risks like LePeilbet does. She is an actually safer centerback to partner with Sauerbrunn because Sauerbrunn rarely ever gets exposed by Phillips, unlike LePeilbet who was taking some horrible angles to take dives to make tackles which would leave Sauerbrunn as the last defender and she has had to several times save the day and knock the ball out before Portland could attack up the field with it. Going to have to agree with BlueCrimson, Katrina Gorry isn't suited for the physical style of play in the NWSL. She got bullied on the pitch and couldn't retain possession. My hope at the end of the season, they let go Amy LePeilbet, Liz Bogus, both these players would free spots for our rookies. Kassey Kallman should be given a shot to partner with Becky Sauerbrunn and Gorry's contract should not be renewed. That free international slot, they seriously need to consider taking another look at Shelina Zadorsky and bring her in, since like Kallman, she is a natural left footed player and was a center back in college. To me they make the best defenders and Zadorsky has good speed, technical skills and the ability to send good crosses in. If Zadorsky is not an option, then Kansas City must draft one of the 3 top outside backs that are coming in next years draft. Who ever is left footed, they need to draft her. LePeilbet or Phillips is not the answer for us. This does pose some problems since Kansas traded their first pick to get LePeilbet, and I guess the thinking, Kansas City was getting a national team player, but she really has looked exposed and she is already over 30. Bad investment of a pick in the strongest draft to date. Its going to be hard for Kansas to choose on team needs or maybe trying to pick up Shea Groom who is an Erika Tymrak clone. Same height, same build, the deer legs, fast fluid gait and able to dribble through an entire team and score. If teams by pass Groom and allow her to drop to the second round, she is going to be a tough choice for Kansas City to choose from. Which is why I think they need to bring Zadorsky in and play her left and move Kallman to partner with Sauerbrunn. Whether Kansas does this remains to be seen.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: FCKC needs to draft Caprice Dydasco. I expect she'll still be available in the 2nd round, and she'd be a perfect fit for their system. I can just imagine her linking up with Tymrak and it would be awesome.