Pretty happy with the point overall. A couple scrappy goals and a fair number of decent chances. Larin should probably have been marked a bit better on his goal, but hard to point fingers on kakas. Sometimes great players make great plays.
I simply disagree. If you dislike Dwyer's personality/playstyle, whatever, but that doesn't make getting a yellow for it warranted. His yellows so far this year have been insanely soft. Getting suspended for it is lame. No, I mean other sports. I know the rules are consistent with regards to soccer, and I'm consistent with my dislike of yellow card accumulation across all competitions. Especially in cup competition when you have a guy sit out after two freakin' yellows in a round. That is stupidity.
Two goals. I'm playing Blessing over Saad or Salloi 100 times out of 100. I don't care for the diving, but c'mon, no one has an embarrassment of riches enough to throw away a goal scorer for some idealistic notion of how the game should be played.
Precisely this. I watched some of his highlights before he played a minute for this team, and a little guy in a big league like he was in... diving was a thing he always has done. He's of course gonna have to change his mind a bit and not look for fouls all the time, for sure. But people fussing about diving or embellishment really don't seem to know what century we live in.
I feel like so far this year Soony has spent more time falling over his own feet than doing any good. He was played a great ball there at the end of the game shielded off the Def but then couldn't out run an 80 year old lady. He has no pace and really no skill. I figured when we brought him back it was for trade purposes only.
I would love to see SKC trade Soony for all the reasons stated, but I don't think they could get much for him.
I'm glad that Blessing finally got some minutes and showed a bit of what he can do, but for my money, the man of the match was Gerso. He caused mayhem in the Orlando defense and was the reason that both goals were able to be scored. I loved seeing him skin defenders in and around the box as he did last night. He gets better every game.
I'm hoping that Blessing isn't gonna have to wait for Dwyer to be out to ever get minutes. At minimum, I think he should be first sub for any of the front three.
Four Four Two had an article this past week talking about the lack of trades at the deadline, big thing for teams seemed to be that they were asking top dollar for guys that weren't worth top dollar.
I'm with you on this. Any time we're chasing a game, we need to bring in Blessing in the ~75th to make runs at and in behind tired legs.
He also scored 2. It was his first start, and first time in the center. He proved he deserves more time on the field for us As was noted before the game, Blessing is not really built to be our center. He does add a dimension (speed) that was a nice change. I didn't like the diving, and for the sake of the game, it was good he got a yellow for that one. Up until that point, the ref had been rewarding him or ignoring him, so he pushed it. Twice in the box, I'd have liked to see him take a quick shot rather than go down. But it was a nice first outing
I still thought they looked good. Larin beat Besler to the first goal (he's a nice player, I'd like Larin), and as noted, Kaka, f'ing hell. Overall impression: If every MLS game was as good as the first 45 of this, the league would be realistic in it's claims that it is aiming for top-ish by 2020. It was fast and smart and intense. The defense were good and the pressure was relentless on both ends. For a casual, it would have been a great half of entertainment, and it was a great advert for the league. It was two good teams absolutely going at each other. Our issues were not those we are used to having. Benny couldn't get himself into the game until about 50. We were sending it long, but that was in large part to the fact that they were swarming us high, just as we were swarming them. Ilie was performing triage, more than pulling strings. Once their legs wore out a bit, we were the better side and we deserved the point. Not sure anyone deserved 3. It was a really even match. I will say one problem with Blessing was that when he left for Saad, it was painful how slow Saad is. There was one ball he was chasing down near the sideline in which he really looked to be in slow-mo, while the CB was making up a lot of ground. But I would agree with the sentiment that Blessing showed us more than Salloi or Saad have in that start. By the time he left he was done. He was standing between the CBs, he had been moving all the time earlier. I would like to see him spell Dom for the last 15 or matches. After banging all day, CBs would be have trouble keeping up with him. And maybe it would keep Dom a bit fresher for October.
agreed. congrats on the two goals for latif, but the motm was gerso. medranda had a nice little pass into latif (that latif wasted by diving when he could've easily had a proper shot, which was unacceptable and terrible decision-making), but he also had his patented 20-rows-deep shot that was wasted. so while medranda wasn't bad this game, i'd rather that left forward position be occupied by latif than medranda. then again, maybe i only play that at home, as medranda offers up a little more on defense than i reckon latif would (even though he terrifies me when he goes into challenges), but that's only a minor concern given that that position's primary role is creating offense. on orlando's first goal, i think there is some blame on zusi and besler, but nothing to raise a stink about. i think it was just a fantastic, pin-point cross by rivas and good movement/finish by larin. i think that's completed like that on average in mls at a rate of less than 10% of the time, so credit to the team when it's executed like that. their second goal was similar in that i think some blame has to fall on ilie for misreading that ball and looking silly on trying to get a head on it, but it still took pure quality from kaka to bring that down so perfectly and finish it with aplomb. the way these two teams have played up 'til now, and especially in this game, it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that this would be a fitting final come playoff time. that's a long-ass time away, though, and plenty can change.
Only issue I had on the goal was Zusi was well off Rivas basically inviting him to cross it, at least give a little bit of pressure.
I don't think it's right to blame and shame Besler for losing Larin. These things happen, and Besler played a good game, But on that play, a good striker got the better or a good defender. I happens, but he was just behind him, and in an ideal would, would not have been beat. On Gerso, when this season is he not our MOTM, or at least in consideration. He also really looked like he was going to score a couple times, except for a couple brilliant saves.
He and Blessing have the mentality to get into the box in any way possible to create chances. To have a couple of fast guys who can do this is something that SKC has needed for years. Gerso is maturing into his role well. Now if they can only get Latif to stay on his feet...
There have been moments in the last 4 or 5 games when our attack has looked the most dynamic it has in the Vermes era. The diagonal runs and second runs we're making are something we quite frankly haven't seen before on this team. Gerso adds so much to this attack, and having a guy like Blessing on the bench is huge for our late game when we are trying to pry apart a bunker. We've got all the pieces for a very deep run, and if we can get all the pieces to work come August/September, it's going to be tough to stop us. The toughest stretch of the season, in some sense, is going to be the next 10-12 games - getting through the heat and the fatigue and the player call-ups while still being able to pick up points and stay healthy.
I agree, but I do think it is worth noting again that until the yellow, Blessing was being rewarded for his dives. He was getting free kicks and produced a yellow (that made the player back off a bit). Smart players do work in areas where they get rewards. He also passed up a couple nicely promising chances in the box, which was too bad. I'm not saying he should have been diving, but there were reasons to continue it in that match.
i disagree. there were 3 dives by latif. two were no-calls by the ref, and the third was the yellow for latif. the two free kicks that were given were actual fouls. i could get behind what you're saying if you changed it to "not being penalized by the ref" instead of "being rewarded." actually, the way i look at it, there's three results that happen from diving ... and two of them are negative for the diver's team. the first negative is that he gets a yellow for simulation, obviously. the second negative is a no call from the ref. it's basically a negative in the same way that medranda taking a shot from outside the box is a negative - nothing comes of it, and the attacking maneuver is almost always ruined. the only positive is if the ref bites on the dive... but then you have to deal with the shame and embarrassment from having a player like that on your team. i'd rather drop points than earn them from blatantly deceiving the ref. if i was manager today, and i didn't have a pesky players union to deal with, latif would currently be running laps until he throws up. then i'd make him run more.
I wasn't able to watch the game. Aside from the dive that earned him a yellow and a subsequent highlight video on MLS, how many of these dives were actual dives and how many were just embellishment?
the yellow was the definition of a dive. I'm not sure anyone was within a yard of his feet. The others were falling with style, IMO.
On Blessing's performance, Vermes seemed happy with more than just the goals. “I know the focus will be the goals, and we needed him to score goals. But there were other things he did in the game,” Vermes said. “I thought he worked really hard. I thought he was dangerous. I thought he was good at keeping the ball for us. He gave us everything. I commend him for that.” I don't think the falling down bothered him much. I would agree that he applied good pressure. especially early on