I might have to cancel my ESPN+ subscription just so I can stop watching these games. In the first few minutes of the first half when Matt Lawrence said Croizet could excel as a #9 I face-palmed so hard. Sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut...so....maybe......you never know.
When you've got Slowy McSlowerson at the tip of the spear... We've never been good at breaking down a bunkering team and when we've got Salloi playing a not so great game and Gerso can't hit a decent shot to save his life...where is the O going to come from? Felipe is trying to get back to fitness and has largely been invisible too this game. I think the Houston game plan coming in was to keep the ball away fro Felipe and Ilie and its working.
Rubio as a starter: 3 starts, 201 minutes, 0 goals. Rubio as a sub 9 sub appearances, 87 minutes(up to the 79th minute tonight), 4 goals.
This broadcast is abysmal. Get the shot of Rubio getting smacked. Bukaty practically begging for the right shot. Also, are the 30 or so fans at this game in Houston really throwing stuff on the field. Pathetic.
Well, that was a well rounded game. SKC sucked, Houston was thuggish, and Pensó was a disaster. It’s the first game I’ve watched where a win felt like a loss and I was just hoping the game would end.
I was thinking that if they'd just get another three or four reds, we'd get a second goal. I'm not sure the Audi numbers mean anything on a night like this. Consider that Houston, as a team, had a total score of 383 and SKC had seven players rated higher than that, and an 8th who was 4 points back (to be fair, Rubio got his points in a pretty short appearance). But there were a couple notable numbers. First, was there anything wrong with Busio's game last night? I've seen him a couple times before, in various settings, and this to me was the best he'd looked. He had a total of five unsuccessful passes while he completed 46. He lost one tackle, but balanced that out by blocking a shot. He got dinged a point for an unsuccessful corner, but it was a good corner and the lack of success was not on him. really. Shortly after his assist, the joices might have been flowing a bit much, as he had Gerso all alone on the right wing, and chose a 20+ yard shot instead (which required an odd body twist) but you can't really fault him for taking a shot. His overall score of 569 puts him in the MLS standout performer category. He trailed only Besler (who was very good, did little wrong, but come on, they were a man down so a 602 isn't as impressive as it should be) and Ilie, who was in control of much of this game. 107 (or 116, not sure how they count long passes) successful passes, and 20 that missed, but of those that missed, 12 were long balls. 9 long balls connected, so not that bad just on long balls, but outside of that, he was quite excellent. An overall score of 710 is vintage Ilie. It was interesting that Ilie had a serious amount of the ball during a game in which Felipe went 90. That had been a worrying statisical trend earlier this season. Felipe, 71 successful passes, 11 that missed, had a very solid 439 points outing. He won three tackles, had a key pass, won an aeril and a corner. It was encouraging to see them both produce good stats while on the field together. Croizet as a very false 9 had a below average, poor statistical outing for an MLS starter (149). His problem wasn't so much what he did wrong, which franly was obvious while watching, it was that he didn't do much right, so he didn't do much at all. He only missed on 2 passes, but he only connected on 10. I'd be interested to see his heat map from the game. I remember game three of an over 30 tourney i was playing so very long ago, it was on a sunday morning and the whole team was hungover, but one guy moreso than others. During the game, from the goal, i watched him and laughed, as he coulnd't have covered more than 10 square yards in 90 minutes. He never left the center circle. That was pretty much Croizet, it seemed. Maybe he was hungover. Aside from this, Audi seems beside the point, or rather the three points. What counts here is that we did get 3, and there weren't any extra on offer for pretty.
After a night of sleep, I thought I would feel better about the win in Houston, but I just can get the bad taste out of my mouth. I just can’t understand why essentially the same defense last year that was fairly solid, is so flimsy this year. If Houston does not go down a man early in the game, SKC probably loses. Even with a man down, Houston is making great counter attacks and getting shots on goal. Meanwhile, SKC is struggling to get a shot on goal. I was fairly sure that the game would end in a tie or SKC would lose. I think this proved the Croizet experiment at striker didn’t work. Rubio off the bench is better than Rubio the starter. Busio is not a starting quality midfielder, but he did a good job last night. With game experience, he is going to be a really good player in coming seasons. I forgot Salloi was on the field for most of the night, but I chalk that up to the complete lack of team coordination in the attacking third. I’m just not sure what the rest of this season is going to look like, but I hope it doesn’t resemble the fiasco last night.
I didn't see any of the game live, but I'm watching highlights now. First red card: Busio is facing away and Fuenmayor charges in from behind leading with limbs. Houston announcers on the highlight reel are aghast that it's a red card. If you want to say it's a bit soft, okay, fine, but I have absolutely no problem sending off a player who goes into a challenge like that, ever. Yeah, you can say he's going for the ball and just mistimed it, but that's reckless af. It's something that happens way too much in MLS and CONCACAF in general and I wish refs would hand out more reds for those kinds of plays. Had a couple of good long range looks in the first half. Any of those could have snuck in. Busio looks sharp. Houston's break away in the 62nd minute... Jesus. Our defense is Swiss cheese. If the pass to Elis isn't behind him, that's a goal. And that follow up had teeth if it wasn't sent sailing over the crossbar. Goal: Great ball in, great assist by Busio, great finish by Rubio. Man, Busio, though. This kid is 16 and I'm already really starting to like him. That is such a calm, collected, precision first time pass from him. The stoppage time red cards are barely even shown in the highlight reel, so I won't comment. Sounds like the last few minutes were a brawl and it was pretty ugly. I'll definitely take three points on the road, though.