Perfectly fine preseason match. Arturo was solid, as was Higuain while he was in. Santos and Meram looked just like last year's models. The Fire suck. Not the fastest, tightest match, but, again, it's preseason. Trapp's red was a stretch (I'd have had no issues with a yellow, but not a straight red), but it was a useful opportunity for the team to have to play short handed without a key midfielder. All in all, they handled it very well and still controlled a lot of possession. Until Higuain came out, anyway. Almost no offensive threats once Trapp went off, but that's perhaps not a shock. Pedro was poor, but Meram, imho, was worse. Just my opinion, though.
Both goals before Trapp's red ('31). We had three guys attack the ball on their goal. Left Mensah alone with Fire player who was hit in stride with pass & first timed it home from top of the box before Mensah could get there. 1 guy should have stayed back to bracket the striker. With the overcommit, he had space to his right. Our goal, Pipa sprays wide to Francis who kind of scooped in a cross over the defense for Zardes to head home. Subs: Jimenez for Meram '65 Clark for Pipa '70 Abubakar for Sauro '77 Robinho for Santos '81 JJW for Zardes '84 Do not know what to read into the subs. Meram subbed first. But both Jimenez & Clark give us more D down a man. Is Hansen still hurt? Is Josh Williams? Do not know if Lalas is ahead of Josh. Doubt Hector is ahead of Hansen. Though Robinho could be. JJ for Zardes instead of Mullins. Could just be we wanted the superior aerial guy late. Or not?
The Fire goal started with a really poor "fancy" clearance by Mensah. It looked like he could have easily nodded it back to Steffen. Instead he bicycled it poorly and because it only went 15 yards upfield and he wound up on the ground we were instantly scrambling when the Fire wound up with the ball. I hope we're not in for that type of stuff from Mensah this season. Other than that I liked the hard press to force long GK clears and turnovers. Meram and Santos didn't rediscover MLS caliber wing play in the off-season. It was great to see the team, 2 weeks from now can't come soon enough.
Trapp’s card really made reading into the subs an impossible task. Jimenez for a winger can not be a sub that is made on a regular basis unless we’re up 3 goals and sitting on a lead. Clark coming in is the same thing. I figured JJ might be in for some minutes during these games but I suspect he was brought in last night because he’s taller and more athletic than Mullins so he could try to play keep away. Doubt you can really read into his regular season status there. I will say I’d much rather Mullins be kept to do that and JJ sent to a USL team to get regular minutes so that he can grow as a player. Unless JJ can provide quality sub minutes and be a legit super sub in an attacking formation. I can believe that Mensah/Sauro is the preferred starting CB duo with Abubakar as first man in. But Josh’s injury status does make it difficult to make those assumptions strongly. Same for Robinho and the wingers with Hansen. It was great to see the black & gold again. I’m in the stadium focus group during Wednesday’s match so looks like I’ll be watching it on tape delay. I’d like to see another strong performance setting up a championship match vs FCC next Saturday. That way we can win that and cancel out their Open Cup victory over us and go into the MLS rivalry equal on meaningless matches prior to the legit thing.
Isn't Williams likely to stay as Jahn's replacement? Maybe he gets game to game loans for playing time in USL.
JJ definitely has Jahn’s roster spot. But Jahn spent most of last year at OKC and only got 68 MLS minutes. If JJ is in line for the same amount of minutes, I’d rather him get shipped off for a full season loan instead of going back and forth similar to what Martinez did with FCC a couple years ago. He didn’t get any playing time either place and I felt it screwed with his progress. If he has legit MLS talent already then I’d like him to stay and get like 30 minutes every few games with a start here or there (i.e. Mullins role last year). If he’s still a work in progress and is only going to get garbage time minutes, I think he can grow in the right USL loan location. Will be much easier once Crew 2 gets set up.
Jahn played 10 games for OKC, 863 minutes, and moved at the end of July. He was their starting #9 until he got injured at the end of the year. Just sayin'... https://www.transfermarkt.com/adam-...lus/0/saison/2017/wettbewerb/USL/verein/38946 As far as JJ goes, does Louisville need a striker? Two time defending USL champs, is just one state over, near where JJ went to college (UK), opportunity to still practice with Cbus every once in a while, easy for staff to visit and scout him further. Could be a nice fit.
My thought exactly. Louisville just lost their top scorer and league golden boot, Cameron Lancaster, to Nashville. May be an opening there. FC Cincinnati has already loaned their draftee GK, Ben Lundt (Akron Zip) to Louisville City, who's former starting GK, Greg Ranjitsingh was just signed by his former coach James OConnor at Orlando City. It would seem kinda weird for us to share an affiliate with our rival team but maybe it's not that big of a deal? Weve partnered with Pittsburgh in recent times and as recently as last year with Indy Eleven (our drafted GK Lundgaard).
That's the thing. Any USL team will probably be happy to borrow one of our promising players if for nothing else to have depth and have an addition on the training field....that they dont have to pay for. But if we want that player to be assured a solid amount of playing time....I would imagine we should commit to a season long loan. How else can that USL team really plan around that player if were just going to rip him away at our convenience. An ambitious team like Louisville City isnt going to make a guy like JJ William's (who could easily dominate the league) their lockdown starter at striker if hes only going to be there for a collective half of a season. All the more justification for our own USL team.
Honestly, the affiliate thing is stupid. I seem to recall MLS mandates either a reserve team or USL affiliation now, but not sure. Pitt and Indy are dumpster fires, that have produced nothing for us. I’d rather just loan players wherever they will get time, like Crognale last year.
With Zardes potentially going to the Gold Cup in the summer, legit chance JJ will see minutes in Cbus.