I don't know if it's a trend or not but season tickets have to be down. The attendance for the Independiente CCL match was 13,212. This game was part of the Season Ticket Package. If no single tickets were sold, which I'm certain, was not the case, Season Ticket Packages were down 788 or so from previous years when 14,000 was the number.
Back to the match... and some rambling thoughts. I felt our passing was really off. Just not good. Everything that the first Toluca match and Montreal match wasn't. The eye test said that while Croizet is faster than Seth, he was burned more than once by either ball-watching or trying to hold a line while *his* man ran past him into open space in the box. I also wish he would have played Gerso into space two or three steps earlier than he did (about four or five different times, I noted). Agree with above comments that he seems a more expensive Answer. While I'm at it, he's the reason NYRB's first goal was on-side; he's just jogging around ball-watching as the ball is played over the top. I saw Peter call Seth over to the sideline in the MTY match and yell at him for a solid 10 seconds - I guess we now know who the post-game comments were directed toward. Now, I wonder if he's done for a while? In second half, the sideline ref on the bench side missed at least three off-side calls against NYRB. Section 128 applauded sarcastically when he finally got one right. When Zusi overlaps to the top of the box, I wish he'd take the ball to about 16' and just laser it. Why won't he shoot? He needs to practice doing that and keeping it on frame. I appreciated when Gutierrez shot from 22' in the first half and forced a diving save.
i don't know about that. what's strange to me is that, yes, while sinovic was clearly at fault a number of times vs monterrey, if he's the only one that's suffering any consequences from vermes, then vermes has been blinded by his zusi-love. zusi was a goddamn defensive catastrophe the whole series with monterrey, and honestly, he's been awful on defense all season so far (hasn't actually been good going forward either with his errant passes and getting caught in possession over and over again). i love zusi, but he's been twice as disappointing as sinovic... maybe because i expect more out of zusi, i don't know. then again, if we're really assigning blame for the monterrey debacle and having those responsible sit some pine for awhile, then vermes should show some character and have zags manage a game or two, as vermes holds at least as much blame as any one player. his management of the first leg especially, was amateur at best. also, i'm a little confused by the praise that besler keeps getting on here and on reddit. unless i didn't see the right replay, he was clearly to blame for rbny's second goal. he fell asleep and lost his man. not the first time he's done that lately, either. one last thing, i hope people check themselves before they start hoping for medranda to save our left back woes. i mean, i'd like to have him back as well, but you're out of your mind if you think he'll help the defense. he'll add some definite, much-needed, quality going forward, but he's always been positionally deficient as a defender and prone to make rash challenges. i hate defenders that dive in, and he's a prime example. sometimes it'll result in a strong tackle and winning the ball, but too many other times it results in free kicks in bad areas or, worse, him missing and completely taking himself out of the rest of the play.
Yeah, Zusi has been rough. He was beaten like a rented stepchild last night time and again, and it's really concerning me. I'm kinda okay seeing what Hasler has. Besler got beat on that second goal, but what the hell was our shape? Fontas was nowhere near the box, Besler marking two guys at the far post, and Croizet on walkabout. The truth is even if Besler had been marking a man, the one behind was wide open. That one was on Croizet or Ilie more. It's hard to blame a single center back for a back post overload. Really, he stopped a lot of crosses and intercepted a couple really dangerous balls, including a low early cross late in the first half that would have been really disastrous. Medranda is just a better athlete than his competition. I like Seth's brain but he just does not have the wheels to compete with the more and more prevalent speedy winger type attackers that MLS teams have been soaking up.
Honestly I'm not sure whether playing Croizet instead of Sinovic was some sort of punishment. It should be noted that he had to play most of the Cinci game as well cuz of the Wallace injury, so perhaps that is why he got a day off. And I don't think Vermes should let Croizet off as easily as he did during the press conference (though obviously that might've been just him not wanting to drag things out into the public). That was a super amateurish ********up. It would be one thing if there was a winger that he was trying to cover dragging him into his own half. But in that moment there had to be only thing on his mind - holding the line with his teammates, and he didnt manage to fulfill that simple task. That being said I thought he was ok defensively and better than Sinovic offensively otherwise. (On the second goal, you could argue he would be at fault if the second player instead of White had scored the goal, but I'm pretty sure the second player was offside so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt on that one, arguing that he 'knew' that that player was offside and therefore did not have to cover him)
The still picture kcfooty provided says a lot about Croizet as a LB. Positionally clueless, ball watching, and clearly at fault for the first goal. I can cut him some slack based on his jack of all trades (and clearly master of none) roll, but where I can't cut him any slack is how he jogged back during the play. Croizet's reported salary last year was near $700K. When The Answer left KC, he was on a salary of about $140K. Utility players don't make DP money. Time to cut him and move on. Like Inca said, Medranda is a better athlete and will improve the LB position when he gets back, or at least give us a real alternate to Seth. Watching SPR last night, Alex looks like another option at LB that might be an option for the future.
Croizet is no Jake Peterson. Jake was absolutely not flashy. He had his set of skills and his athletic ability and he both worked completely within those boundaries and did it well. Croizet is a better athlete and has greater skills on the ball, but he is not nearly as effective with the tools he has. Jake was always showing his intelligence as his primary feature, but Yohan does not seem to work that way.
All I can say about the crowd Sunday, was that it appeared to me that there were far more people at the Monterrey match than I’d have thought (albeit aided by some Monterrey fans). Agree with the comments above about Zusi this season. He’s an asset when you can pin another team back (Montreal), but he’s been a bit of a liability otherwise.
Agree that the players aren't the same, but Peter used/uses them in a similar way (as utility players). Signing a utility player to a DP contract is a giant waste of money.
So this is going to be on the news tonight about the Kaku incident.... https://www.facebook.com/65981045469/posts/10157107372400470?s=506325157&v=e&sfns=mo
Here’s the story: https://www.kctv5.com/news/man-stil...cle_811bcb1c-8e3e-11e9-826c-5336860d4793.html
“He deserves the dignity of the response and the respect from the league, the team and the player,” DiPasquale said. “There's been an irresponsible response by the responsible parties.” i don't know whether i love this wording by the lawyer or hate it. i think i hate it, but i'm gonna come back to it later.