This is such a trap game. Toronto have all the talent in the world but are playing out an abysmal season. While this should, by the standings, be the ideal rebound game, we've all seen how this match up plays out so many times. With all the injuries and suspensions, this one could be interesting.
Ilie should have been red carded so he indeed is lucky to be available for the game. SKC will need him and the best defense PV can muster since giving up 6 goals in the last two days. A probable Gerso, Shelton, Russell front line sounds OK, but they have misfired badly the last two games. Midfield will be a problem without Roger. Kuzain, Croizet and Ilie? I’m not sure of any other starting options. Outside of his goal, Ike was about as shaky as I have ever seen him. I’m sure he’ll start but it would be nice for him to get his act together. This game is going to be real test of the players and coaches.
Yeah, that's why I meant by Ilie being lucky he's available. "Double jeopardy" of that being a PK saved him from a red card, but it shouldn't have been a PK. Unless Medranda or Lobato are ready to go (I doubt it) I don't know who you start with Croizet and Ilie other than Kuzain at this point.
So if one of Croizet, Ilie or Kuzain go down to injury, who do you sub in? Especially Ilie, if he goes down the flow of the game with be very disturbed. I scanned the roster and can’t seem to find any answers. With the injuries and cards, the bench is awefully bare. I don’t see Brad Evans on the injured list any more,,,,,hmmm, could we see the mythical defender/midfielder actually play in a game wearing SKC colors? Suspended: F - Daniel Salloi, M - Roger Espinoza Suspended after next caution: None International duty: None Injury Report: OUT: M - Felipe Gutierrez (sports hernia surgery), D - Jimmy Medranda (knee injury), M/D - Cristian Lobato (knee injury), M - Gianluca Busio (hamstring injury); QUESTIONABLE: D - Amer Didic (hamstring injury)
Evans would be my guess. Or we put Russell in there like we kind of did against Salt Lake in the Open Cup
It's too bad that we're looking at playing Kuzain again. he had a very rough night, and throwing him right back into the fire could turn out all right, but if he has another bad outing his confidence really could be shot We could move Zusi into a mid role.
This is going to be a tricky game. Altidore is out with an injury, but Giovinco will be on the field. This is still a team that won it all last year and have a lot of talent and pride. One of the reasons they lost to a poor Minnesota side last week is that Quintero had the game of his life and scored a hat trick. That put Toronto on their heels most of the night and trying to play catch up. I’d love to see one the SKC guys have a similar “Quintero” type night , but I wouldn’t count on it. This could wind up being a snooze fest 0-0 game or something completely different. If that happens, I just hope the completely different is in favor of SKC.
Three games, ship eight goals, sneak one point. Toronto's second goal was bullshit, but that's not really why sporting didn't win. Fingers crossed that's just a bad week and we move on. Bright sides were Rubio, Lindsey, and Gerso all having solid outings. We're just too soft in the middle with Croizet. We need more bite.
That was a fair result considering the lineup and the way the midfield played. The most noticeable part of SKC tonight was the stunning lack of midfield presence. SKC will have to go a long way to replace a guy like Roger Espinoza. Kuzain got run into the ground and run off the ball all night long. He’s a promising player but tonight’s performance exposed his lack of strength and maturity. Croizet is working harder, but not smarter. He is better now than when he first got here, but there is a lot to be desired in his performance. The up side of this one-pointer is that both Roger and Daniel got some rest. Hopefully, that will mean Johnny can rest the next game and Kuzain can go back to the bench. I hope that Ike doesn’t have anything serious, but this is a good time to get him some rest too. I’m afraid that Shelton is going to be sidelined for another couple of weeks. He didn’t look good coming off the field after the injury. SKC is leaking goals badly and need some answers of how to button up their defense. 10 goals conceded in the last 5 games is not a good average. With the next two games away in New York and Houston, they need some help and they need it fast.
Fair play to Croizet, it was his hustle and fight that led to the second goal. Earlier this year he would have given up on that ball.Instead, he played it from the ground to Russell and we were off. He also had a couple defensive gut busting runs that paid off for us. His statistical night was below average, 133. But there were positives signs, IMO Overall, that's how our SKC drop points, though. None of this playing like total crap crap we'd seen for two games. Look at the Audi numbers, and we were back to our old point dropping best. Total team score, 4436, so statistically six times better than our outing at RSL, and 1400 points better than TFC. A dominant tie. our specialty. To me the most encouraging thing was Lindsey, and not his entire game but certainly the second half. this won't show up in the numbers, because they aren't split that way. But he came into some confidence about the time he did his little ball trick and beat whoever down the left side and IMO we saw a the first glimpses of a great player. If we can capture that level of play from him we're in very good shape. his numbers, 369, indicated an above average MLS performance. He lost 144 points for 9 bad passes. he did a lot of little things well to pile up the points to cover that, though. Ilie (676), Besler (579) and Russell (537) were all in the star turn range with their performances. Ike (517) Rubio (462) and Gerso (410) were just behind them. It was a good performance, just not rewarded with the goals we needed. I'd suggest Gerso's perfornance was better than his numbers. There's no way to quantify the chaos he creates in a defense when he's looking as fast as he was last night. He lost five take ons, and misplaced 8 passes in the attack, but IMO there is value in his take ons. Defenses change their shape to deal with him. Overall, lots of positives and not so many negatives. Of concern was Kuzain. He's obviously got some class to his game, but he also obviously hasn't yet learned that at this level, the game is 90 minutes and he has to be fully switched on for 90. His statistical night doesn't show many negatives. A missed pass, a lost aerial duel a few balls played out of bounds. More concerning to me were the moments he seemed to think he could coast and got caught. One was the second goal. I know our announcers were on about how that was a lock down foul, but it was also at the top of our box and wtf was he doing fannying about. He got stepped off the ball, and maybe took an elbow in the process, but he does not play the position, and was not in the part of the field, where he can allow that to take him to ground, esp if the ball is still in play. If he's going to tumble in that situation, and it clearly seemd to be a choice, he's got to take the offender down with him. Anyway, good to see us back to our frustrating normal.
The game illustrated Rogers true worth to the team. Kuzain is slated to be Illie's replacement, not Rogers and you can see why. He is a great passer, but he is not physical enough to be a ball winner. He needs a bit of time in the gym before he can play Espinoza style. Croizet still sucks. The contrast between the two players wearing No.10s couldn't have been greater.
A number 6 should be a ball winner too though (and Ilie does that), but otherwise I agree. It's similar to Salloi last year - and I feel like Salloi did hit the gym a lot over the offseason. Unfortunately Toronto's second goal is completely on Kuzain - even if some refs might call a foul there, his decision to start a dribble in this area showed his inexperience. Other than that I wanted to point out Rubio's performance. That was Dwyeresque hustle on stereoids by him. Seems like Vermes found the right words for him.