SKC, with injuries and questions about their ability to shake off the CCL virus, is not looking too solid for the NE game. Time for Rowe to step up and earn his pay against his former team. I would also like to see more of Salloi in this game.
Agreed on Salloi. I really liked the resurgence of Gerso at the start of the year, but Daniel brings a totally different class to the field. I can't believe he didn't snag the winner against RBNY.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/bh4hzi/spotted_on_revs_facebook/ Not having Gil would be another bonus for KC...
Home field advantage, fresh legs, incentive to win, good weather, and playing against a team with a leaky defense and a Wednesday night 3-0 loss. What could possibly go wrong.....
No one wants to talk about this game? I don’t blame you. The defense is a disaster. SKC allowed 21 goals in the month of April over 6 games. Take out CCL, they allowed 11 goals over 4 league games. And 3 of those league games were against some of the worst teams in the league (CIN, SJ, NE). That’s not going to get SKC in the playoffs. Fontas has looked good with Besler most of the time (the first two goals from SJ notwithstanding). Without Besler, he looks lost. Melia doesn’t look like Superman anymore. He’s not making the superhuman stops that we are used to. I don’t know that Croizet was particularly at fault for any goals allowed yesterday, and I liked some of the things he did offensively. But does correlation equal causation? With him at LB we allowed 4 goals in 2 straight games. With Lindsey and Wallace both out for most or all of the season, we REALLY need PV to forget about trying to replace Seth again for another year.
Yeah, that defense was a mess. Rwatubyaye looked good until he really didn't. Both Zusi and Croizet look poor on defense. Fontas had a really bad game. We are bad without Ilie. We are also bad without Roger. New England is a terrible, terrible team right now, so the fact that we needed them to absolutely lose their heads and get a red card just so we could sneak out of our home ground with a point... that's not good. I thought it was just post-CCL morale issues, but I think our problems are much deeper than that right now. We don't have the depth needed for a completely inflexible formation/game approach. Yikes.
Over the years, PV has slowly moved toward "defenders" that are good in possession over defenders that actually can defend. That works when you can hold the ball, and fails miserably when your midfield gets worked over. Pretty much as simple as that.
The first goal may have been the worse defending I’ve seen by KC in years. Zusi gets beat down the line, Fontas and Rwatubyaye we’re both pulled way out wide, and the Croizet stayed on his man on the back post instead of sliding over to cover the obviously more dangerous guy at the near post.
I feel like that mythological season where we finally see what kind of support this team gets when we really really suck is nigh. If we're getting these kinds of results against Cincinnati and San Jose and New England... just wait until we're playing Los Angeles or Los Angeles or Seattle or Houston. I'm putting on my tin foil hat early, folks, we're gonna be scrapping just to finish top seven this year.
That just drives home a point I've been thinking about a bit since the game, Fontas and Rwatubyaye just had no chemistry together. I mean it seemed like if one got pulled out they both got pulled out, there was little to no separation between the 2 CBs. It's hard to explain in writing but it was weird while watching the game.
Exactly. They're marking the same space yet marking no one. Zusi is also on the hook for this one, since he's also marking no one. And Gutierrez just got beat one v one by a rookie to allow the service.
Here's what's really odd about this game: Per Audi, we ripped New England to shreds. Game score, 4-4. Audi score? SKC 3868 (a good score, indicative of a solid win) to NE 1001 ( a score of a game a team wants to forget). Audi reflects a game we won 4-1, if not 4-0, implying their goals were very much against the run of everything. Individually, we had 8 players perform in Audi numbers at above an average MLS level, and Fontas was 10 points off making that 9. Again, that's a sign of domination. Now, Nemeth and Felipe were obvious high point players with 2 goals each (audi loves goals, as we all do). Nemeth for some reason was given an extra 136 point for the shots he put off target ( IMO, the first one should have been a goal, the next one could have been), which would be a failing in the numbers, though it is a consistent one. But behind them our third top Audi performer, coming in at a whopping 616 points ( an elite MLS performance number): Croizet. 3 ints, 4 take ons won (1 lost), 2 tackles won, 2 aerials won, 2 key passes (shoulda been assists),. His passing numbers? 66 completed, 9 missed, only one missed in our half. He was 6-10 on long passes, which isn't an unusual percent but is a high number. We do not often get this level of Audi performance from a left back, and he compiled these numbers without the standard Audi magic of a goal or an assist. by Audi, he was a stud. I'm really late with this, so I won't make it much longer, but the other most intresting per Audi was Rowe, who was shit, -179. He did this by failing a little bit everywhere. He lost 3 aerials, 2 challenges, a take on and a tackle (won one take on). His passing rate was 44 complete, 11 missed (pretty decent). A lot of negatives. So, interesting when you look at Audi and then the action map. Croizet's actions make a C around Rowe's. You can't tell on a screen what's going on when they don't have the ball in their area, but it's odd for one to have a stellar stat night and the other to totally suck, when they appear to be working that side pretty well together. Their actions fill in the side, almost entirely. It's just that Rowe's often reflect lost efforts. Still, maybe there's a connection I can't see on a screen or in the numbers. Comments from those who were there? Also, Rwat (-90) looked as if he wasn't ready to go for more than a late game injury sub in an emergency. On one hand, he didn't seem to get what we do. On the other, WTF was he doing? Again, he had 16 long passes, and 10 missed. His passing rate wasn't bad, 56-12, but the 5 incompletes in the defensive half are a bit high. Sorry I missed a couple weeks, btw. I was on a Euro road trip and reading Audi numbers on my phone without wifi is not a thing I like to do.
Lots of good information in this that validates a lot of what was seen on the field. Croizet and Gerso both did a good job causing NE problems. I hated seeing Felipe working in the D-mid spot. He is crafty and good on the ball, but he was sorely missed in the middle. The biggest disappointment of the game for me (of course, besides the missing SKC defense) was that Rowe was a flop again. When SKC picked him up before the season started I thought he would be a great addition to the team. Unfortunately, he has done nothing to prove that he deserves to be anything other than a late game sub.
Toledo gets it wrong (as usual) even when he has the opportunity to watch it in slow motion. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/05/03/go-inside-four-video-review-decisions-week-9
I really hoped this sort of thing would get worked out. VR makes it possible for the ref to see if there was contact with the hand, but it seems they're still so excited about having evidence that they forget the notion of common sense. Russell had no chance of avoiding touching that ball, but it was clearly ball to hand and hand in a natural position. There is no argument that the handball was intentional, and there is no argument that it stopped a goal scoring opportunity. It didn't even create an advantage for SKC. No intent, no chance to avoid and no advantage should always be no hand ball.
It was even worse when it happened. I think it was 40%. But yeah, a couple more games in and the percentage is not rapidly improving... It was a nightmare.
Between Colorado, NE and Cinci, I'd think that at least one would be interested, at least a bit, in KZ.
That would break my heart. I guess I could forgive Cinci, though I think they're going to want to aim higher. Colorado as a rival and NE as a pile of dirt both are not where I'd like to see him leave, if he does.