Central defense very weak. I agree with others who have said Price should be the 6, Benny should play the 10, and Mezquida should play 8. I guess Hudson probably thinks Benny wouldn't help enough in the "high press" system, but I think he could put in 65 to 70 minutes there. Wilson seems like he'd be a better CDM than CB, though I'd rather see him only as a sub. Kei Kamara was best Rapids player on the night, followed maybe by Acosta, Serna, or Rosenberry. I think substitutions should have been made a bit earlier. I would have brought in Shinyashiki for Rubio at 65', Bassett for Feilhaber at 70' (Price moving to CDM) and then Jackson for Mezquida at 80' and play 4-3-3. I do like the players on our team better this year than last, but still missing more quality pieces to be playoff contender, though there is an outside chance of squeaking in.
To clarify, C38 presents the oar to the MOTM, but C38 doesn't choose the MOTM. The Rapids do somehow (I don't know if press is involved or what). The only time we "took it into our own hands" so to speak was the decision not to award an oar after the 6-0 RMC debacle, something that the Rapids were on board for considering they didn't announce a MOTM for that mess, at least as far as I can remember.
I’m going to humbly disagree with the Kamara love. I thought both he and Feilhaber both looked a step slow. No doubt kei hustled back to hold possession but oftentimes he slowed down attacks and didn’t put himself in good positions for crosses. I thought Feilhaber was completely lost playing deep in the middle, way too many giveways and ball watching. Can’t do those things playing that deep.
I think one problem is we don't have a real 6. I've seen several articles making a good case that Price was pretty poor as a 6 last year. And even though I saw just about every game, my attention was not all that detailed so I can't say I had a real good read on his performance. He seemed careful with the ball but I don't recall him breaking up a lot of plays. As much as a guy like Diego Chara is another yellow card magnet, unlike he Price he does have very good range on D and does break up plays. We could use a guy like that.
The (apparently correct) non-call for offside on Seattle's first goal is up for call of the week on the PRO AR site. That's two weeks in a row where some borderline calls against us were nailed by the officiating crews. It sucks, but I'm glad to know they're getting htem right: https://www.proassistantreferees.com/mls-week-in-review/week-2-march-9-10