Well, I have been nothing but critical of Gerso this year, but dadgum. If he is going to regain his mojo, now is a FANTASTIC time to do it.
Yeah. The Audi numbers from this one don't really do justice to the best game he's had this season. OTOH, he did end up with a game best of 1344, a little better than double what the numbers consider a great game. His numbers are amazing. Beyond two goals, two assists, a SOG, a through ball and an aerial won, it's impressive just to look at his negatives. he missed on two passes all night, one was a long ball. That means in the general flow of the game, he was off target once. Oddest negative I've seen in these rankings, he had a negative 2 key passes. I don't know if that's two passes that should have been made that would have led to shots, or twice defending someone who made a pass that led to a shot? Anyhoo, he was spectacular. As was Felipe: His passing percentage might have been the lowest on the team, but he had five tackles and blocked a shot, in addition to the goal and assist. His 929 is also MLS team of the week worthy. Overall, SKC had a massive 5926 Audi score, not out best of the season but really pretty good. We had 8 players in the seriously very good category, above 300. Props to Croizet. A very solid game. A very decent SOG, two key passes, won 2 aerials, won a corner and a tackle, and a take on, cleared a header. But this was just a great game all around, and maybe is best seen in our worst full game numbers performer on the night. Sinovic (at 137, busio had a lower score but no time to build much more). Seth wasn't bad. He just didn't have much to do. He had 14 passes in the defensive end. Only 14. And he wasn't really called on in the attack, with a total of 25 in the attacking end. There are games he has that many pass backs down the wing. We were so in control that he was sitting deeper than usual and, you know, defending. Two SKC bellweather players, IMO, Ilie and Espinoza, showed our control of the game. Ilie had 73 successful passes, 11 that missed, added two interceptions and a take on in a game where he just seemed on. Roger had 61 completed passes, six on which he missed. He won a take on and a header, had a key pass, and 2 ints. I find this quite impressive, esp at SJ had nothing to lose in that second half, and only really put us under pressure for about 15 minutes. Heck or a lot of fun.
I just rewatched the goals, and his two passes on the 2nd and 4th goals were spectacular. The kind of curving, perfectly weighted through-balls that we used to get from Benny and are the sign of a confident, in-form midfielder with superior vision and skill. If he tries a bunch of those and misses some, lowering his percentage, it is totally worth it when he connects. Either of those could be Pass of the Week. (Thanks also to Gerso's perfectly timed runs to stay onside to receive them both.)
I'm not starting the next game thread because @vividox has been doing it and we've been playing really well. I'm not superstitious, I'm just a little stitious. But looking ahead, Philly has a brutal schedule which plays really well into our hands. After losing 4-1 to Montreal last night, they now travel to Seattle for a midweek game on Wednesday, then back home to face us on Sunday, ahead of their trip to Houston a week from this Wednesday for the USOC Final. Philly - to Seattle - back to Philly - to Houston. Fun traveling for the next 10 days. I'm guessing a bunch of their starters might get rested for our game to keep them fresh for the final, especially after playing in Seattle. I'm really hoping they win the USOC - whoop up on Houston's butt - which means they should make sure everyone is well rested beforehand!
Sigi, Stahre and ? Petke? Also, being committed to avoiding writing today I finally went through the Audi numbers for the league and realized I'd been a bit harsh on SKC players v the average. Just eyeballing it, I was calling an average performance a 250-270 pt outing. Actually running all the numbers it's more like 220-240 (233.27 is the actual average Audi score pp, so 2565.97 per starting 11 and a maximum team average of 3265.78 if all 14 players play). So, this is my way of apologizing to anyone who thought I wasn't quite getting the numbers.