Difference is, coming in he wasn't expected to be either of those 2 like there were when they were signed. Davis and Mapp came in with us all expecting them to be big to major contributors. Evans much less so, I think we all pretty much saw him as a depth signing at most to maybe occasionally get a game.
Fair points. I'm still being pessimistic about this one, though. That come back against LAFC last weekend was ridiculous.
medranda starting at left back tonight. that's a mistake. hopefully, he can neutralize that with some offensive production.
not a bad half. controlled most of the play, though nothing really to show for it. we're still quite awful at corners.
OK, let's get this out of the way first: LA hit the woodwork at least twice, maybe three times? And Melia had an outstanding game. 10 saves, I think; while several were straight at him, he also had several awesome "Melia" moments. So we were a bit lucky in those respects. But now the good part: we are a really good TEAM. No, no one is going to mistake Shelton for Zlatan. We don't have the star power that LA does. But tonight was a really, really, really good TEAM win. Roger played a great game. Shelton also had a great game at doing what he is turning out to be really good at doing. Defense was very solid. Subs were good. Very professional way to close out the game. I'm glad to see we are getting good at taking the ball to the corner and killing a lot of time off the clock when it matters. Oh, and by the way, that Russell goal was just killer. Nemeth who? I'll take our Scot and run with him, thank you very much. That was an awesome three points, on the road, without Gutierrez. WAY TO GO SKC!!
We knew that LAG had some defensive vulnerability and SKC exploited it. But SKC got lucky when a couple of LAG shots hit the post. Overall a great team performance (except maybe Croizet...really lame) and another 2 goals with a clean sheet. Doesn’t get a lot better than that.
Croizet is the one weak spot in this lineup. Medranda was great after he moved to CM, even after putting in a good shift at LB. Medranda has several "wow" moments every game, he is a crazy good dribbler in tight 1-on-1 spaces. Right now I'd rather see him as Gutierrez's backup. Croizet so far has been pretty underwhelming. Just thankful we were able to get Gutierrez because if Croizet were the every game Benny replacement, things wouldn't be looking as good as they have been. He does seem to be a really good locker room guy though, his twitter posts are full of SKC love.
nicely done. quality 3 points. hard to complain about melia after all those saves, but i feel like he got bailed out a couple times by giving up rebounds. medranda was alright, though thankfully that was mostly because the gals didn't challenge him much (the obvious example where the one time they did he was badly beaten on that header that clanked off the post). i liked him taking croizet's spot in midfield when we brought on sinovic, and i agree with sachsen that i'd rather see him there than croizet if felipe can't go. croizet looks like his mind knows what to do, but his body always fails him. his touch is awful. he's very ambitious, but can never pull any of it off. i still want to see more end product from shelton, but he does hold the ball up well (and it's nice to see him not flop around like you know dom would've in those same situations). salloi and russell deserved their goals, as both were causing problems all night for la's defense. i also think this might've been roger's best game of the season so far.
I thought Croizet wasn’t as bad as people think. I didn’t have high expectations for him this game but he was serviceable, and helped the team keep their shape, as well as having a few nice plays. One almost killer giveaway in our half in the second half was bad, but Ike had one of those in the first half. He could be an adequate spot sub for Felipe or in the Open Cup early rounds. Otherwise an exceptional game by the team and great tactical awareness and fight. Statement game on the road.
I read this and nodded my head. This is correct - not nearly the flopping and rolling around in near-dead heaps this year.
I think I will make a macro key to say this: Not that Audi stats tell the full story of a game, but they are at least interesting... Look at this week's numbers. They show a very dominant performance by SKC, and they show it against an LAG side that actually played pretty well. Melia was a monster, Russell was great. For them Ashley Cole was a force, and of our 11 starters, Croizet finished ... 11th. But the point of over stat-ing the beautiful game is that these numbers are supposed to mean something beyond the context of a single game. Look at them in a league wide approach, and they show SKC had the second best weekend of any club, NE (against a 10 man Montreal) were a bit better. But our performance was twice as good as most teams this weekend, and 4x as good as LAFC. Melia was the best player in MLS this weekend, by the numbers (POW? In the MLS context, not war context). Croizet would have been dead center of the starting 11 performance for the league as a whole (as he would have been for LAG). They show an SKC side that was clicking on all cylanders. Felipe returns, and he has been our highest rated player week in, week out, and we're seeing a side that really has gelled into an MLS force.
While TAM and GAM have changed how people look at the DP some, it hasn't fully, a player in a DP slot has certain expectations for fans and it's not being a "spot sub."
Not sure what happened second half. We came out flat and they were all over us. Something seemed to change though and I can't say I've ever seen it before -- seemed like Ilie was given tons of room to carry the ball north-south. Was a good release valve for us. I'm so accustomed to seeing opponents try and step on him, it just seemed different to me watching him carry the ball to the next level. Thought that was a mistake MLS teams figured out last year. Agree with the opinions the midfield looked better after Medranda moved up in formation. Jimmy seems to have the ability to turn well in traffic. It was a boost. The woodworks were kind to us, but no apologies for two goal win on road.
Wow. Awesome result. We got a little lucky with the woodwork and Melia giving up a few rebounds, but we looked much better in the back overall. That was a great overall performance from everyone. The midfield was an absolute chess match in the second half, I especially liked how we looked when Sinovic came in for Croizet and Medranda slipped into the midfield. I'm still, quite frankly, a little shocked by the result. Johnny Russell's goal, though.
What TAM and GAM are doing to the league is making it a DP at the level of Croizet a necessary gamble. No club gets a home run, or even a hit, every time up. I don't know enough about baseball to continue to this metaphor, but sometimes it's enough just to be a spot starter if you offer enough in the right situations. That said, changing leagues, continents, languages, clubs, playing styles, isn't always a quick process. We've done very well with Russell and Felipe and Ilie. Croizet could yet turn into a player. We've seen flashes, but no where near the consistency he needs to show. Example: I was a kid in Reading, England, so i support them. Back in 04, they brought in Convey for a lot of money, and he flat out failed, in year one. In year two he was a force. Shorter version, I live in Berlin so back the local Union club. They brought in Bobby Wood as a record signing, and through three months, he was a disaster, everyone in the stands wanted their money back. three months later, he had 17 goals and folks were thrilled. Croizet's problem is that he's getting graded on a curve and the other new kids are making him look stupid.
I actually had that discussion at the home opener. With all this TAM running around, the identity of DP is basically meaningless these days. It's no longer a "designated player", it's literally just a roster mechanic used to bypass salary cap requirements. I mean, DPs were good for the league, and I think TAM is again moving the league in the right direction, but one of these days someone is going to have to recognize that the roster mechanics are unnecessarily complicated and need to be steam-lined. And unless you institute a hard cap and a soft cap (MLS pays for everything up to the soft cap, team pays as much as they want to up to the hard cap), that probably comes with a whole new can of worms called 'single entity'.
Technically any shot that hits the bar or the post AND is not a goal isn't even a shot on goal. I don't think it's a matter of luck. The Gals missed their opportunities. Some of that has to do with them and some with us. For example, Ike hustles back and pressures big Z so he cannot get a clear shot on goal. I'm kind of tired of the sour grapes on Croizet. Yes, he is not Felipe. But I will maintain that he is a very good player. He is trying too hard to impress. And right now he is doing what PV asks of him. It was clear last night that he and much of the team was defense first. And without him last night, this TEAM would have suffered. Yes, he had a bad giveaway in our defensive third. How many times did Benny do that in all his appearances in Sporting blue? Without knowing the stats, Benny averaged a bad giveaway in the defensive third about every other game. If you start Medranda in the midfield and Sinovic at left back last night, I think we give up at least a goal in the first half. The Gals are the kind of team where we needed Medranda's speed in back for a good portion of the game. I think Sigi missed a golden opportunity. The Galaxy should have started Z and run a 3-5-2 formation against an SKC without Fellpe. Run Ibra until he's gassed to start the game. Put SKC on the back foot and boss the midfield. Score goals. Protect the lead. I really think if Sigi had used that strategy, LAG wins.
The team we started last night is our best lineup when Felipe is out. I also think Croizet will continue to get better for us as the season progresses. The fact that he isn’t a starter on this team only shows that our depth is so much better this year. I have no problem having a “DP” coming off the bench and when he occasionally starts not having our team performance plummet. Likewise with Gerso.