I wasn't able to watch anything more than just highlights, but that makes sense. Zusi has been restrained a lot this season, and that's removed a ton of our offensive support on the right side. Johnny then has to do more work himself, and his effectiveness is reduced. However, Gerso isn't a player who is as liable to play off his fullback. It makes perfect sense to push the support up to the right side in possession and leave space on the left for (a happily very revitalized) Gerso to run around and cause mayhem. It's all looking great. Looking forward to seeing some rotation with Salloi in there too in the summer, cause everybody likes that guy and really wants to see him succeed. The minutes we're seeing for Busio make me super happy too. In MLS alone, he's started one and subbed on in two others so far--out of four! That to me says he will see a serious amount of minutes this season, should his form and health hold up. He's not there because anyone else is injured, either.
I was excited to see if this showed up in the numbers or on his activity map, but it didn't. By the recorded stuff, his game looked exactly like the past couple matches.
I was glad to see Fontas back. Apparently the injury was just a tweak. He's not as fast as Ike and Zusi saved his bacon on an amazing sliding tackle in the box in the second half, but he's solid playing out of the back. As for Zusi, at one point in the second half, he and Johnny completely switched roles for a couple of minutes. He didn't get any touches and when the ball rotated back to the left, they resumed normal positions. Overall though, I can't say that I recalled him being forward that much. He must have been though when Russell was forward and wandering all over. When we rolled into the three man back line, it seemed like that was (L2R) Besler, Fontas, Zusi. But also now that I think back, I hardly remember Seth being on the pitch, though he was forward on Nemeth's tap in and played the ball into/toward the box on that sequence. We were lethal on the balls out of the midfield to a streaking forward with trailing support. It was beautiful.
SKC is a tremendous team this year. They're capable of beating anyone when rested. My only concern is depth/injuries and the grind from a long season, but you have that concern with all teams.
This is what I’m seeing this year as well. If it’s not the actual assist, the decisive ball is coming from slightly further away. Gerso’s creative running, Nemeth droping off all over, scoop balls by Zusi and Roger, etc... and just when you think you’ve got our wings and Nemeth marked, someone else (like Gutierrez) pops up in the middle. Of course, as pointed out earlier in this thread, Montreal CBs didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory.
but Montreal had been good coming into this game. How much of what they were doing wrong was what we were doing right? They couldn't handle our truth.