Brutal stretch, the only thing that worries me is that loss this weekend. They’re 1 point up on Montreal in 5th in the East, 5 cleat of DC in 7th, level on games played. I would think they’d go all out vs Seattle to try to get something, rest guys vs us. But if they also lose in Seattle things could get dicy in terms of playoff position and they could be desperate for 3 points.
Given what they are this year, quite good but never gonna beat Atlanta to MLS Cup, I would think they'd be all in on their best chance. I don't think we see Bethlehem Steel, but I don't see us getting their first 11, either.
So it would seem to me that we've got two general rules of picking a starting 11 that are now in conflict: Rule one: Never punish players for getting called away on nats duty. Salloi, Russell and Rubio were clearly a pretty hot hand through August and earned themselves a perk. Getting called up, esp for players who haven't been regulars with their nats, is a huge honor. They now fully back and ready. Do they start? Rule two: would say no, becuase it's kind of the overrule, never change a hot hand. Croizet, Gerso and Nemeth not only won but looked quite good doing it. Two games, two wins, one fantastic road win and another solid effort. So, does Rubio come back into the 11 for Nemeth? Rubio is the hottest striker in MLS. He deserves to return to his starting role. Nemeth did a very nice job and broke his duck, which IMO means the pressure is lower, the confidence is higher and he could be on the verge of the Nemeth we used to know. And these results show he deserves another start. Gerso v Salloi? Gerso is the current MLS player of the week. I kind of think this is his job to lose now, and Salloi had been tiring lately in any case. Still, it is a tough call. Salloi owned that spot all year because he was better, and he has earned it. Croizet has done everything you could ask of him these past two weeks. It's tough to say that by the conventional wisdom of football he hasn't earned another start. But Russell is better, esp in that role. In essence, we have six hot hands for three seats. My guess is that Russell does return to the lineup, Gerso holds onto his spot and in the center, NFC.
Between starts and subs, at least five of those guys will likely see the field every game. Rotation results in no discernable dropoff in quality at any of the three positions across the top. I mean, last game against San Jose, we subbed off Nemeth and Croizet for Rubio and Russell, who promptly played a hand in the last goal, Rubio getting yet another assist or goal. Having those kind of options on the bench (as opposed to Jacob Peterson and Connor Hallisey) is just amazing. SKC currently has an embarrassment of riches at the forward positions which still blows my mind.
Paradoxically, I simultaneously want to believe it (is reality) while not wanting to believe it (is hype). Pinch me so I know it's real. Don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up.
Absolutely amazing. And it looks to be both the kind of depth that can sustain a regular season championship run and the kind of quality that could charge a playoff run.
If our midfield can stay healthy and fit, I think we're great. Also I expect we'll lose at least one of those six this offseason. Salloi being the most likely.
To Europe? I don’t think so, not yet anyway. I don’t think he’s done enough to really attract a transfer fee, he signed through 2019 with club options the next 2 years.
There will be inquiries. I'd think. I think he needs at least one more season in MLS to be ready. Right now he went from good to great for half a season He needs to reach great for a full season, Transfermarkt is not a perfect site, but with nothing else to go by they're guessing his value right now is $950k, which is a nice bump in his value but If that's accurate it's not enough that SKC wouldn't be able to turn it down. That said, he's worth quite a bit more than we're paying him right now.
Gerso - Nemeth - Russell across the top. Everyone else are the usual first choice starters. Salloi and Croizet available off the bench, along with the young 'uns.
The MLS site folks were saying he returned injured from nats duty, which is odd as he played last week.
Umm...have we ever played a game in the rain? Or on a crummy pitch? Because it sure appears that we haven't.
Every time we think this team is pretty good, they lay an egg like today. Not a good look for a team that is purported to be an MLS Cup contender. Hats off to Philly, they came to play. We didn't.
PV actually pretty pleased with the way the team played. Thought they had chances that should've been put away, would've changed the game.— Sam McDowell (@SamMcDowell11) September 23, 2018 FINAL- Union 2, Sporting KC 0. Excellent performance by Philly and heck of a 2 matches for Jim Curtin. His team wins a big one in Seattle, then a reserve side outplays the West leaders ahead of the Open Cup final. As for SKC, they've seen their lead atop the West shrink to 1 pt— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) September 23, 2018 Talk about two different opinions of the game. According to Galarcep, PV is trying to put lipstick on that pig.
Audi would agree. Our team score of 3007 would put us pretty much dead on an average MLS team performance, so it's fair for PV to insist it wasn't one of the worst performances of the year. But, Audi, inexplicably IMO, lists our top three performers as Zusi (makes sense), Nemeth (huh) and Ike (Holy FS). The only reasoning I can see in Nemeth's 456 (quite a good MLS performance) is that while they do give credit for Shots and SOG, they do not detract for weakass shots or SOG. Saying that Nemeth was on the line between very good and excellent in MLS assumes he was dangerous, but I am afraid the numbers flatter in his case. Not as much, however, as they flatter Ike, who came in at 455. They do deduct points for his two "aerial battles lost" but they count the same as any lost aerial battle, and they don't really have a way to quantify the damage that diving at balls and completely missing meant. Was that Ike's worst game for SKC? Was he playing on a heavy dose of cold meds? Zusi, aside from putting the ball out on a corner was Zusi, 72 completed, 15 misses. Three key passes, which is kind of a huge number. was about right for his overall 556 Audi score. Gerso came in at an MLS average performance rate of 232. Are they f=ing kidding us? He gets positive points for his shots off goal. There is no negative in the numbers reflecting, say, a miss on a completely open goal from three yards. In the attacking end, he completed 16 passes, missed on six. Not a great outing. But SKC's games are usually told in the numbers of Ilie and Roger. Sadly, this was indeed true. Remember that a 230 pt performance indicates an average outing. Ilie came in a whopping 42. Roger? -48. Both lost 7 aerial battles. Roger had a decent 80 completed passes, and a not bad only 13 misses. But on long balls, he tried 15 and connected on 4. This was a theme of the game, btw. Ike had 16 missed long balls. Zusi 11. Besler 12. Seth 7. Ilie 11. That's 52 misses on long passes. As a team, we missed on 63 long passes (only 2 by Melia, btw. WTF are we doing pumping out 63 long passes? We gave away possession 63 times on long balls. That's lot of giveaways. Anyway, that game sucked.