Goal Frank Lopez! Completely unexpected by the cuban forward! Long ball by Engola, Lopez rounds the keeper and scores in the empty net. 1-1, 88th.
FT : 1-1 draw between two bad teams, not an interesting game. BJ4 had an anonymous first half (and was subbed off at HT), Buescher passing was terrible, Archeampong was too inconsistent and Zubak finishing will always be a concern. Alvarez was not very influential and I fear some teams will figure out how to play against us : isolate Efrain, the best player, because the guys around him are not dangerous. He put a few nice through balls as the game goes on though, when he was less marked. On the positive side, good games from Arellano and Jonathan Hernandez (I don't see a big difference between him and Shultz at RB, that's not a good sign for the latter). Hamilton should have stopped the RGV goal but made a beautiful save in the second half.
I'm a couple of games behind, but I'm still trying to figure out where the defensive problems are coming from. Maybe Archeampong is too long of a name.
Game against Las Vegas Lights FC in less than an hour. Llanez and Mendez starting, I believe Alvarez is on international duty.
Goal Las Vegas, 7th minute. Goal started by a ball behind Requejo, Appiah badly misses his clearance on that play.
Goal Zubak! Good response from Los Dos, perfect cross from Buescher and great volley by Zubak at the back post. 1-1.
2-1! Goal Zubak! Good counterattack by Mendez and Llanez, the ball luckily falls to Zubak who has en easy finish.
Hat trick Zubak inside the first 18 minutes! Beautiful movement by Zubak, beautiful give and go by Mendez and the finish from Zubak is perfect! 3-1, entertaining game.
Finally watched the Portland game. I see what you mean about Archeampong. He has spirit and tries to make things happen and we seem to be missing that in the midfield. The defense, however, is a mess. Shultz just doesn't have what it takes, Engola isn't very skilled, and Arellano is a hothead who makes too many mistakes. It's a shame because there's opportunity to play.
4-2! Fourth goal by Zubak! Mendez wins the ball in the middle, gives it to Llanez on the left, who crosses to the back post to a free Zubak who easily finishes.
Lassiter, finally!!!! Buescher wins the ball in the midfield, through ball to a running Lassiter who calmly finishes with his left foot. 5-2, and we could see more.
And 7-2 now. This time it's Buescher who feeds Lassiter with a ball through the defense of Las Vegas, who's in shambles.
7-2, final score. Our last five games : 3-4, 6-3, 3-7, 1-1, 7-2. We just scored once during the first five games of the season. What happened? Easy answer : the rise of Alvarez, Llanez and Mendez. Both (Llanez and Mendez, Alvarez is with the young mexican NT) had interesting games. Llanez played as a LW and his crossing was clinical. Mendez played as a 10 behind Zubak and had a good game, but I think he's more suited to play as a 8. His passing is solid but I think he doesn't dare enough to make dangerous passes. First touch is great. I still need to see more of him to have a better idea though. Buescher had his best game of the season, 1 goal and 3 assists. He was everywhere, his passing was good, and great cross on the first goal. Zubak was the easy MVP. He scored the fastest goal in USL history last year, I think he has now the fastest hat trick. Finishing was on tonight. I think he benefited a lot from the arrivals of Llanez, Mendez and Alvarez, who now give him service. I'm still cautious with him, 7 goals in 12 games is very good but he scored in only two games. But he's clearly in the right direction since the beginning of May. BJ4 was more involved today, but didn't success to be dangerous. He's still in preseason form. Very happy for Ari, who scored his first two goals of the season tonight. This should give him confidence. We may need him for the USOC campaign, right now he's third in the striker depth chart. Oh, and Las Vegas is not only bad, but also dirty. Not really surprising from a team coached by Chelis, I guess.
Home game against Tulsa in less than an hour. Tulsa is currently last in the standings, we're 12th. Stupid from Munoz to bench Lopez in favor of Hamilton.
1-0 win from Los Dos. Not a very interesting game, early goal from Aguilar (6th minute) following a corner kick, and then bunker. Buescher was sent off at the end of an heated game. G2 were very lucky to now allow a goal, Tulsa had at least a half dozen very good opportunities but did not score. Their finishing was terrible but Hamilton was outstanding and saved his team a couple of times. Sometimes he looks shaky but he has also shown awesome reflexes. Appiah once again looked good at CB, which is not his natural position. He was my MVP, and I feel sad for Arellano, who we don't miss. On the other hand, Engola was once again terrible and directly gave up a couple opportunities to Tulsa. I'm done with him. I like Mendez as a possession machine (and he has an outstanding first touch), but I'm more and more convinced he's better as a 8, and Alvarez is the real 10. Very disappointing game from Llanez, who didn't do much during the first 70 minutes. Had a couple of late opportunities on counters but didn't finish, and forgot to pass to Lopez on the last one for what would have been an easy goal. Don't forget it's a collective game, kid.
Pulled some USL stats - here's where each team falls on the shot quality vs quantity spectrum pic.twitter.com/8pSjbbsOWU— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) June 4, 2018
Watching LA2 versus OC - so who is the color commentator announcing with Tutino? Seems to be a former Galaxy player.
1-0 loss against Orange County. Not a deserved loss TBH, LA got the best chances through Zubak, Aguilar and Llanez. Appiah, back to the midfield, was my MVP of the first half, his passing was great. He's slowly becoming one of the team leaders. Mendez and mostly Llanez (MVP of the second half) brang some sparks in the second half. Llanez showed his dribbling skills and created a few good chances. He was way better than last week. Good performance by Aguilar too, his finishing has been solid this year. Archeampong is a mixed bag. He's clearly one of the most talented player of the roster, his first touch can sometimes be exceptional, but he's too much inconsistent. He played as a CAM but I think he's better as a 8, but we have too much CM in this team : Buescher, Mendez, Zanga, Archeampong, you can also add Aguilar and maybe Vera. Speaking of Zanga, he got a lot of starts recently. I admit I see a few improvements from last year, but his limitations are too much apparent. I prefer when we play a more attacking-minded midfielder next to Appiah. On the defensive side, not a bad performance. Shultz was better than he usually is, but still nothing outstanding. Requejo, Engola and Arellano did OK but I'm waiting for more from Hugo. Oh, and I'm still waiting for Vom Steeg to be decisive.