The Revs deserve all the credit in the world for this performance tonight, KC couldn't get much of anything going and looked abysmal in the final third tonight. Croizet looked like the Croizet we've come to expect from every game we play against 11 men. Meaning he was slow with his decision making causing him to turn the ball over.
a disappointingly just result. we weren't awful, but lacked any sort of creativity from the midfield and got little to nothing from the front three. khiry's never going to score. also, enough with the short corners. what was the deal with that? we had 8 corners, and i think all but the last one (in desperation mode) were short corners. uggh. about the broadcast... the replays ... my god. could we stop showing useless replays while the ball is in play? what year is it? shouldn't we be past that by now?
Okay, this is the sort of game that points out stats don't really define the game very well. We controlled possession, we had a much higher pass completion rate. They took more shots, more shots on targets. I thought this game looked like a disjointed mess, which is credit to NE, as that's what they're going for. But go to the Audi numbers (caveat, interesting but don't tell etc ) and they indicate that, overall, KC was the better team on the field, by a razor thin margin, and that both sides were performing at a higher level than a lot of MLS games. SKC had a total score of 3256, NE 3086. Statistically, our best play built from the back: Melia was our best overall performer, Zusi next and Ike after that. Among our attackers, Croizet was our top player according to the numbers. Again, please refer to standing caveat. Go inside his numbers and the negatives indicate he turned the ball over six times, five on passes, once on the dribble, and played it out of bounds another 8 times (which is also a turnover but I see it as a different sort of turnover). However, he won a couple tackles and beat a couple folks on the dribble, and had a decent pass completion rate. His overall score was 367, not bad in any MLS game, usually a top 5 performance. Interestingly, it was closest to the overall score of Russell (355), who had both more positives to his game, and more negatives. His passes were to the wrong side twice as often, he lost the ball on the dribble and knocked it out of bounds at about the same rate. The numbers don't indicate that either of them were our problem last night, however. Our biggest problems were Ilie (16) and Roger (31, who didn't get much credit for his assist). Roger's passing was abysmal. While in the attack, he had nine successfull passes. He also had 9 unsuccessful passes. Her won two tackles, and lost 3. He did have a successful long pass, but he added 7 unsuccessful ones. Ilie somehow was worse, though had a much better night passing the ball. Still, looking at his numbers I'd suggest they indicate that we were bipassing the midfield for the most part, as he was peripherial. I will admit that I went to the numbers expecting to see that Shelton just isn't ever going to be the answer at 9. The don't indicate he had a good night, which he clearly did not, but he wasn't as bad as he was in the eye test. He got off a couple decent shots and forced several corners. His passes was abysmal, but his overall was 136, which is bad but not vomitous. MO. Shelton has to bury that shot. The numbers indicate an okay but not spectacular performance. In games like that you have to be able to count a single moment from an attacker to grab points, and he is proving that he simply cannot be that sort of player. He does some little things well, but the really big one has to be to score, at least when presented with gilt edge chances.
I have to agree with PVs post game comment when he said the game looked like a series of car wrecks all over the field. There was a lot of Ugly soccer and more route one air balls than I’ve seen since the Wizards played at Community America park. Felipe can’t come back soon enough. The bright side is that SKC lost on the flukiest of fluky goals and the game should have ended 0-0.
If you look at the chalkboard on the MLS site though the problem with his decent completion rate is where it occurred on the field. As out attacking midfielder, he completed more passes in our defensive half of the field than in the offensive half and the majority of his completed passes were backward. His only 2 completed passes near the box were both backward. Now granted looking at how New England played they completely disrupted our system, but Croizet still seems slow in his reactions and has every time he's on the field save for when he was playing against 9 men.
Does Croizet translate to 'crap sandwich'? That play that led to the goal last night...I was mad from the moment he just watched the NE player take the ball and run away (and not really try to get it back), and that was before it led to a goal. It was not the first time he'd just fluffed something by indecision or inaction or what appeared to be laziness. I'm pretty sure I heard the color commentator refer to Croizet as 'dithering' at one point. That was perfect.
I keep trying to explain things and correct all the wrong info on the Internet, but boy is that soul draining.
Okay, this is true. But compare Croizet's chalkboard to Espinoza's and they're kind of similar. We weren't completing passes in the final third. This isn't a defense of Croizet. But Espinoza has been a really important part of our attack this year, and he was also shut down. Maybe Felipe would have made all the difference, but maybe we just weren't ready for their pressure.
We've looked very vulnerable to the high press all year. An organized press is very clearly Friedel's mo.
Croizet....The French are the best at identifying and developing young players. For a young French guy to be playing in Belgium and not Ligue 2, well lets just say that was not an endorsement. This was suspect from the get go and we now have enough games to see this for what it is. His field vision is average, his passing is below average, his decision making is slow, and his shot from distance is off target. Except for those issues, he's stellar. I understand that BF is past his prime, but man, he would be a much better on the bench option than Croizet. This guy is useless as the No. 10. If Guti is not available to play the No.10, I'd rather see Medranda or Zusi moved into the midfield.