It's really hard for me to concentrate on MLS league play when there is a freakin' World Cup goin' on.
First of 3 in 8 days (at RSL Wednesday, vs Toronto Saturday). Montreal has won 3 of their last 4, but 2 of those were against Orlando, while the 3rd was against Houston who are 1-4-3 on the road this year. That said, the name of the game for this game is rotation. Vermes has mentioned he needs to make sure to keep and eye on Russell’s minutes since he has been playing since August. I’d rest him for this game, start Gerso in his spot, slide Salloi wide (unless you wanna rest him and start someone like Belmar), and start one of Rubio/Shelton.
It looks like Montreal is a banged up as SKC. With those kinds of injuries and playing a Western division team, I’m not sure of what kind of mindset they will bring to CMP. Piatti will be in the line-up, so with him well defended, SKC should take care of business. Depending on the rotation that PV chooses, this game could be the low scoring snooze fest that SKC encountered last season with Montreal. However, if SKC avoids the howler like the one by Mustivar in last year’s game and the one that Ike did last week, SKC should get another W.
I hope they bring any mindset to CMP, cuz that means they won’t be bringing any mindset to Stade Saputo where the game is taking place
Unloading Dwyer to Orlando was the best and easiest money SKC ever made. Stay in Orlando Dom and enjoy the weather. We like the skinny Hungarian kid’s chances against Montreal.
Besler is back, but I thought we'd see some rotation tonight with this being the 1st of 3 in 8 days and this one being on the road vs the East.
Russell needs a break, everyone knows it. PV is going to run him into the ground and he's going 90 yet again. Gerso has completely lost his mojo. Salloi has a lot more confidence on the wing than in the center. No reason not to start Shelton or Rubio in the middle next game. Come on, Gutierrez, please get healthy again.
That seems a little harsh, yes this game has been boring, but it’s out 3rd loss of the season and 1st in 9
Bukaty and Matt spent the entire game talking about how bad Montreal's game plan was. Apparently they didn't notice that the score was 2-0. And that we were not at all dangerous in the attack. We looked like august/september skc today. And ike...boy, he's on a roll with the big mistakes lately.
I don’t think so. It’s not that they lost, its that they were mostly ineffective on the offensive side of the ball. Piatti’s game winning strike was unstoppable, but SKC had no answer against a really mediocre team.
KC looked like a team that didn't care tonight (including PV on the sideline). Which I'm totally fine with, especially with the upcoming schedule. My only issue is that if we were punting this game, I wish we'd have rested a couple people.
Yes. Since this was a non-conference game, it would just make sense to rest the guys, but then again, I would have been surprised if PV actually did it.
The nice thing about the Audi numbers is that sometimes they summarize an outing pretty well. The overall team score on this outing was just about exactly half of what its been through the non-losing streak (total of 1995). The numbers indicate Zusi was the only impact player out there, though Besler and Ilie (?) were also above average. Melia and Russell completed our list of players who, statistically, did not suck, though Lindsey would more fairly fall into the below average outing for an MLS player category. As for the others? A rating of below 100 is the sign of a very bad night. We had 8 players in that category. We had four players who were, statistically, outplayed by those who didn't get off the bench (NP is a zero score). Croizet's game score was ... 6. When he had his great game it was 1100. In the past, when he's been bad, it's been 200. Why was this outing so bad? He was given 85 points for his 17 successful passes in the opposition half. He was also given -126 point for his 7 unscuccesful passes in the opposition half. He lost 3 challenges and was docked another 81 points for that. He didn't record a challenge won, though he did win a "take on" for which Audi gave him 35 points back. Overall, his day was horrible because he really didn't do much. Everyone has negatives numbers, he just didn't have positives to balance them out. OTOH, Croizet outperformed Opara, who finished with a rousing -27 and they were both freaking statistical stars compared to Gerso (-66) and esp Roger (-98). As with Croizet, Gerso's night wasn't defined by the bad things he did, but the lack of good things to balance them out. He positive stats are, well, 1 clearance, 1 interception, 3 successful passes in opp half, 2 successful passes in final third. The list of stats from his short night is really short. There's not much there positive or negative. He just wasn't involved, and when he was, he screwed up more than he did good. Roger at least had a robust night of sucking. He completed a total of 39 passes. He had a key pass in that, and 10 succesful passes in the final third. For context, a normal Roger outing is between 400 and 600. He's pretty consistently above average to really good compared to the league. He lost four tackles, missed on 10 passes in the opp half, lost 2 challenges (somehow different than tackles), comitted 4 fouls, etc. I went back over our last 10 games and it's obvious that Audi stats love SKC. We are consistently among the best in the league in these things. When we tie, we have higher scores than not only our opponents but teams that win in the same week. Context on the overall score: Start with the Sea tie (4072 Audi pts), gloss over the Vanc blowout (I didn't check, it was like 7000), the NE loss (3256), Col, 5326, Atl. 5386, Minn. 5458, Crew (0-0 tie) 3685, Minn, 6185. Port 3833 and Houston 4890. You can even compare this to our other 0-2 loss this season, v NYCFC (in which we got whacked around and in which we statistically outperformed NYCFC) when we came in with a 3853. This was our worst performance of the season, by a long stretch. We didn't simply lose, we didn't play at all like we have this season. We were completely off and pretty much across the board. The lesson: Shit happens.