Pretty excited for this one. After a couple of shut out wins on the road, we return home to face a very hot Portland team (well, their 15-game unbeaten streak was just snapped by Vancouver this weekend, but they're still flying pretty high). With Gutierrez starting to look like his old self, Russel getting back to match fitness, and the addition of Nemeth, we've got a pretty interesting team again all of a sudden. With Portland just 2 points behind us in the standings and 2 games in hand, this is a massive 6-pointer with lots of playoff ramifications.
We stumbled through July, but that Houston match we were able to grit it out, and in the LAFC match we started to look good. I think we're going to see a hell of a good SKC this weekend. Now, I think that Portland is probably the side that will most worry us this year, so playing our best won't necessarily mean a win against them, but there's a lot of reason to be excited. And I do believe we're stretching this streak to 3.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Portland rested some of their starters against DC United. I think they would be happy to play for a tie to save some fresh legs for sporting on Saturday night.
I hope that do. For the teams confidence, I would prefer that they play and beat an in form team of starters. It is much more fun to watch as well.
Considering how they played it should be. Rubio is great in short bursts, he’s a great sub but I’m still not sure he should start
You should reward good play but some squad rotation is needed for long term success. Though with that goal Rubio justifies his start.
Lots to like about the game tonight; the passing accuracy 90%, Rubio with a brace, Nemeth/ Russell combo for a goal, Felipe back in form. I really didn’t see anything I didn’t like. On the other hand, Portland came in looking tired from the starting whistle. They hung in there with some great defensive stops early, but as the game went on, it looked like SKC was playing 11 vs 9 with the amount of time SKC had the ball. During the latter part of the game I looked over at the Portland supporters and felt a bit sorry for them. Kinda like I felt sitting up in BBVA stadium watching Houston thump SKC in the playoffs last year. And Sam McDowell with the appropriate tweet of the night:Portland fully in "get us the hell out of here" mode.— Sam McDowell (@SamMcDowell11) August 19, 2018
Impressive stuff. I especially liked Sinovic and Gerso giving a full 90. It looked to me that both of them worked hard and played well tonight.
Okay, that was fun. If we go to the Audi numbers, it was also kind of amazing. As has been our wont recently, we were dominant. Crazy dominant. In the Audi numbers, go around the league and 250-270 points is an average outing for MLS starters. Nothing wrong with those performances. Above 400 is the very good category. Above 550 is the in contention for best 11 (might not make it, but some weeks they will) Against Portland, we had 13 players above that average line. 13. Statitically, it was one of the best performances in MLS this season. Croizet failed to crack 100 points, so was ouir clear laggard in statisical performances, but it must be said that he had a couple nice challenges, hustled and I believe was actually a force for good in the match. If he managed to put away the golden chance he was given, he'd have joined the statisical success party. Overall team score 6523. For comparison's sake, Portland came in at 2634, statistically not abysmal (if you will recall, at our nadir, we turned in a team total in the 600s). As for the individuals: Rubio was the leader, obviously, with 1089. He missed on a total of three passes and put a ball out of bounds, lost a single header. That's it for his negatives. His positives are kind of long. Espinoza (809) connected on 93 passes, missed on 11 passes, though 6 of those were attempts at long balls. He was a monster. Zusi and Besler (both 689) were fantastic. Watching the game it was so good to see Besler doing everything at his highest level again, but I was thinking "a lot of this is just great stuff that stats ignore, positioning primary among that." The stats captured quite a bit. He completed 94 passes, take out the long balls and he missed on 7 (plus 25 long balls, so there is that). Zusi, well, f-me he was brilliant. 121 passes found their mark. 26 missed (9 of the long ball variety) or he would have been up around the 1000 mark. but, as I note frequently, best RB in MLS, and he showed it. Salloi managed a night with almost not a foot wrong, but wasn't overly involved, only 26 succesful passes, 5 missed. Felipe, 76 found their mark, five non long balls missed, plus 6 of those. but his number show he's getting back to his early season self. The 350 total is very solid, but the way he amassed it, key passes, clearances, tackles, interrceptions. He isn't quite back to his old self, but these numbers indicate he's close. Everyone was good. It was a great game.
I didn't mention Nemeth stats, because, 20 minutes though in that time he managed to beat the MLS average number. But it was really nice to see that very smart ball to Russell for the goal, and he made a couple really smart runs for us, as well as held up quite well in traffic. a very nice sub performance
I have got to hand it to Allen Chapman for the job he did last night as Center ref. When you hardly notice a ref is on the field and he doesn’t become a factor in the game, he did his job right.
I was worried as I watched Portland park the bus with 5 men on the back line most of the time but even before Rubios first goal my worries melted away with good patient play leading to some dangerous chances. And after the goal we kept pressing to make the lead greater.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...ehind-defense-and-slots-it-home?autoplay=true OK, disclaimer, it's late in the game and Portland knows they're beaten and they are just ready to go home, so the defending is subpar. That said, there are so many things I love about this goal. - When Johnny receives the ball, he pulls it in so nonchalantly, like he's going to just walk around with it. Then boom, takes off toward the box out into open space with a quick burst. - Nemeth with the very quick trap and redirect, and then just strolls away all cool-as-you-like. - Russell timing that run perfectly to stay onside. - I love it when goal strikes are so perfect they hit the back of the net and just bounce right back out. - Russell pointing to Nemeth for the credit on the assist, and then punching the air with a primal Scottish yelp. Man, if Russell, Nemeth, Rubio, Gerso, and Salloi all stay healthy, and Shelton is reportedly ahead of schedule with his recovery, the forward lineup is flat out amazing. Best attacking corps that Kansas City has ever had.
As soon as I saw Olum in the starting lineup, I was pretty confident we were going to score goals. He was merely serviceable when he was here, and now he's a couple years older. Portland needs some defensive upgrades.
Rubio is killing it and I didn't really care for Nemo's body language when he came on. Keep starting the man until he gives you reasons not to. I didn't notice that casual stroll off from Nemeth like he just dropped the mic after the pass watching the game live. That is hilarious. He's like, "Yep...he's got this."
So, just how good did SKC play on Saturday night? He is an unbiased quote from our friends at Stumptownfooty.com: "SKC were better in every facet of the game. Better on the ball, better off the ball, better in effort plays, better in skill plays, better in fitness, better in coaching. For 90 minutes, it looked like SKC was playing a high school team."