Mostly I am glad that Sunny didn't actually turn that ball over for a late goal; he just almost did so.
Playing 3 days after a win that's a decent (and fair) outcome. Both teams were dangerous at many points. I worry more about yellow card accumulation - will Rusnak now miss with yellows in both playoff games so far?
Yes. Rusnak will miss the return leg at SKC due to yellow card accumulation. I wonder if Damir starts in the AM position and Baird starts up top.
Just watched the highlights and I must say, I feel like we score cooler goals with Rusnak and Kreilach in the team. Spectacular stuff. Also, something about playoff soccer has me missing Grabavoy. If somebody manages to score next game, I want to see the ol’ “needle in the arm” or “ice in the veins” or whatever that celebration was.
At the game, where the tired legs (and minds) showed up primarily were on 2nd balls and off the ball movement. KC did seem to be content to attack 1 v 1 and try to score on dead balls...it will be interesting to see if they even try to open it up for the 2nd leg. RSL's legs should be better next Sun. As far as I'm concerned, these are 3 games to help our young players get better.
I didn't expect a sellout, but under 15k is kinda sad on ticket sales. I realize the difficulties in this one were numerous, I was just hopeful we could do better. The first 15 minutes of this game were booooooooring. Zero energy. It felt like the game plan from RSL was to compartmentalize the game into 15 minute segments of actually playing with rest on either side. Onuoha is a slightly more technical Chris Schuler. And just slightly more. The guy is a beast and can make some great tackles, but he looks awkward as ******** a lot of the time. Kreilach at FW last game was an awesome decision - it flat out didn't work this game. The only really good piece of forward work he put in was on the Rusnak goal (which isn't to be understated, that was a great headed pass). I didn't understand Petke leaving him there the entire game when it was obvious we weren't going to be able to win the ball in the air through him. I would have rather had Baird up there for a stretch to try and get in behind like we did at SKC earlier this season. Rusnak's yellow card was really really stupid. Flying into a sliding tackle like that, on that part of the pitch, is just inexcusable. He made up for it with the goal, but the gap he leaves in the midfield will be really hard to replace. The MSilva sub sucked. I actually don't think Glad played any worse, though. The sub sucked because you knew that Petke wasn't going to sub another player until the 70th minute even if the game demanded one. And the game certainly demanded one earlier than that. Huge credit to SKC on their game plan for this one. They applied a good high line that didn't get stretched. Their outside backs were up to the task of marking our wingers out of the game. They played solid through the middle, as well. i hate them, but respect that execution. The diagonal ball with pace was our only way of breaking down SKC with any pace. We tried to build through passing at times, and it created half chances, but to really get in behind and create chaos we HAD to hit diagonal balls. It's not a bad thing, but it makes us predictable. Herrera finally cut in and took a shot! It's really annoying to have an outside left back who can't cross worth a damn with his left foot... The SKC goal was a result of a few things. First, we HAD to play out of the back. It's annoying to watch as the other team suffocates the space and the team doesn't just say "******** this" and clear the ball. Glad's pass back should have had more pace, no doubt about it, but he is near the bottom on responsibility IMO. Nicky holds the most with his rushed clearance. The SKC player was still a good 4 or 5 yards away and running at him straight. Nick is usually really good about recognizing this and will make a small touch to take the player out of the game. Instead he rushed it for some reason. Nedum is WIDE OPEN, if you watch the replay, to Nick's left and would have relieved all of the pressure. And then KB and the rest of the D just watched Diego ********ing Rubio buried a shot from the top of the 18. Super irritating. What is more disappointing to me, though, was the lack of a real response from the team. The legs looked really heavy for most of the game, but ESPECIALLY after we gave up the goal. Heads dropped. Players weren't really willing to put in extra effort. Essentially the exact opposite of the LAFC game. I'm also a bit confused why Petke took off the two wingers and didn't go for it with taking off a defender. Bofo was a waste. Baird tried but really didn't change things. He was obviously told to look for an early cross but couldn't actually pull it off. All in all, like was said, this wasn't a terrible result but it makes for a really tough task in KC without Rusnak. We have to score to advance, no matter what, and not having Rusnak is going to really hurt those odds. If I'm SKC I start Diego Rubio on Sunday. He gave our defense such a headache with annoying energy. He reminded me of Fabian Espindola. Annoying as hell, but damn good at it. For RSL, Petke has to find a new wrinkle because it's already very obvious how we think he'll respond. SKC doesn't have to stretch themselves in this next game. They can play "normal" and win with a 0-0 result. We have to do something different this week. Nothing crazy different, but something.
This is an additional advantage the top seeds get, IMO. Having to play an extra game leads to a bunch of yellow cards that the top seeds don't have. Seems like the "fair" thing to do would be to wipe the slate clean after the play-in rounds.
I had a feeling from Nick's first clearance that this was going to be the game where we gave up a goal from a botched clearance. He seemed too content to let the SKC's players get close, and he had several that their forward nearly got on the end of. I wish Petke would've pulled Rusnak instead of Plata. Rusnak was playing injured after the scare with his knee and was no longer making his typical runs off the ball. He seemed to be playing with some hesitancy.
You nailed it with the first sentence. I really don’t see a need to change it. The teams who play well during the season should be rewarded. As it is there are only 4 potential rewards that I can identify: 1) 2nd leg is played at home. This is not much of a benefit imo, but it counts I guess. 2) The knock- out round winner has a short week. This is a nice benefit. 3) Yellow card accumulation. Can be a huge benefit depending on the opponent. Not a guaranteed benefit. 4) A few days off by not having a knock-out game. Some observers see this as a benefit, others do not. imo it is a benefit.
this the additional game for your opponent should include the yellow cards. I see nothing wrong with it.
Can someone explain how Rimando was MOTM? That completely baffled me. I think that SKC goal falls on him.
Not sure how that is a thing, either. From the whoscore statistical perspective, Rusnak was MOTM (which I would agree with) with the next four best players being on SKC
I actually think Diego Rubio is sneakily one of the best strikers in the league. His G+A/90 rate is near the top of MLS. It's just he's injured a lot and used off the bench a lot, so he doesn't get that much attention. But he changed the complexion of the game pretty much instantly yesterday.
Maybe I was just projecting, but you could see/hear the mood of the game change as he got up at the sideline. Shelton just wasn't working against our D. Rubio was a totally different player and showed it.
I'm the guy that will always make the argument that our rivalry with the cRapids is bigger than most fans give it credit for. I think the streak of winning the cup shields just how close that rivalry tends to be and just how heated (especially in the early years and in the 09-12 stretch) it really got. However, I will not argue that SKC is our top rival at the moment. The way we always seem to run into each other in high stakes games. The way the games always get super chippy. Peter Vermes being an asshole. Roger Espinoza. etc. Like the video says, soccer is better when you hate each other. This is VERY true. This weekend should be a blood bath.
Espinoza definitely helps, but without Feilhaber and—to a lesser extent—Dwyer, SKC isn’t drawing enough of my ire. Oh and don’t forget Aurelien Collin. Anyway, somebody on their team needs to do something really dirty next time out to keep my fire burning.
You beat me to it. The absence of Failheffer and Collin has lessened my distaste of SKC. I still dislike Vermes, so there’s that.
It got heated for a bit, but currently I wouldn't call SKC a rival. I want to say we'll lose this game, but we did beat LAFC, so anything's possible. I think it's going to be a crazy game regardless.
Baird with the late equalizer (85th+) to tie 2-2. Espinoza then goes crazy and channels his inner Suarez and goes cannibal on Damir, who then pile drives Espinoza's head next to the corner flag during the celebration.