Don't tell @15 to 32 I said so, but I think Tony had a better successful cross ratio that Brooks - and Brooks is supposed to be a winger.
Our offense looks crisper than it has all season we’re getting the ball through the midfield. Lots of movement. Nice combinations. Only a couple of bad passes through 20 minutes.
That was a really solid half. Bofo was just abusing that poor right back Unfortunately we only have 1 goal to show for it. Hopefully the Dynamo jefe doesn't use the break to fix the awful defending by his team.
Where did this RSL team come from? I like it. They did let their foot of the gas after they scored and need to ramp up the intensity in the second half or Houston will punish them for sure.
Nice attack, and off the post for Damir. I like the sub of Baird coming in to run at the tired Houston defense (I mean, to run past the tired Houston defense!).
And with that, Damir Kreilach takes the team lead for assists with four. There aren't a lot of chest assists, but that was clearly what he was trying to do.
I understand Plata passing on that one - 3 v 1 is just too tempting. Should have looked up though. Two wins in a row!
Winning streak!!! . . . I miss the days where RSL played defence by possession. Houston was going to win the possession battle in the 2nd half. We conceded too much control of the ball to Houston
This was my favorite RSL game of the season thus far. They beat a HOT Dynamo team. I’m very happy for KB. Rimando was distributing like the Homeboy of old, then the bad one that led to the Dynamo goal. Give Dynamo credit for good soccer on that one. I can’t point a finger at Glad. I noticed that one of Baird’s areas of improvement is to be more situationally aware on transition fast breaks. Tonight he tended to keep himself in an offsides position and not available for passes. Bofo has sooo much potential. He has positional and creative skills that no one else on the team has... unfortunately he appears to only have one effective shot. Admittedly this opinion is based on a small sample set. For me the worst moment of the match was not Dynamo’s goal. Nope. For me it was when it looked like Luis Gil’s header was going to find the net. Had that happened I would have been breaking things.
Good game to watch, good intensity start to finish and a solid win, two in a row without Rusnak? Oh boy.
I think an argument can be made for the following after the last two games: 1) Beckerman and Kreilach don't work well together - Sunny should start alongside Kyle. He's still error prone, but the effort level has been huge in last two matches. 2) Kreilach is more effective in an attacking role. He does well linking in the final third, and has good vision - recovering defensively and building out of the back aren't his strong points. Not sure how to best fit him in when Rusnak returns (maybe a false 9?). 3) Maybe Savarino should sit (for now) and Plata and Bofo should play on the wings. Savarino tries to do too much, and can show some spectacular plays, but on the whole I think Bofo may end up the more effective of the two.
I was happy to see Plata come in for Savarino tbh. I agree with you. Regarding the d-mids, I would like to see Sunny and Besler instead of KB.
I dunno, IMO Besler did not have a good match overall. He had a few good moments later in the 2nd half, but his positioning was very poor in the first half especially. He was receiving a lot of instructions from Rimando and his back line, and I don't think they were happy with him. He has a bright future, but I'm not convinced he's yet at the point to be a full time starter. It is good, on the other hand, for him to get some spot duty wherever and whenever he can. I would guess if you looked at the first half stats that his touches were quite low compared to typical for a d-mid for RSL this year. This was largely because his positioning to receive outlet passes was not good, and the passing angles he was creating were quite limited.
I'm glad we had three games in a week. It forced Petke to try different things and some of them seem productive. Honestly the board has been barking up the right trees, from the central midfield pairing failures, to Beckerman's aging (nice sub), to the addition of speed/bite to the defense, to the return of 'doghouse' players. Saucedo, Sunny and others are making good bids for more playing time.
Last week of school...should of known I wouldn't get to the game for any live peeks but had no idea I wouldn't even see the result until it was over for nearly 10 hours. It looks like I maybe missed the best RSL soccer of the season so far?! Beckerman played hero but did his absence in the first 60 have a pretty important positive impact too? Bofo is looking great. From the highlights there were at least two amazing first touches from long balls to switch the field. Kreilach definitely seems to be a better influence attacking. Honestly, Petke got some interesting puzzles to figure out in order to best leverage some interesting pieces after this game.