The actual stats aren't as bad as you're making them out to be Besler didn't have an amazing game by any means, but he wasn't awful. A big reason why the Dynamo were so poor in the first half was because he and Sunny shut down anything through the middle. Do I think he could have played better? Sure, but he wasn't bad.
Color me surprised to see KB on the bench in this one. I thought the only way he wouldn't start is through injury or suspension. Is Petke... learning?!?! I loved the left side of the team in this game. I don't think I'm alone in that. Acosta and Bofo have a chemistry that is unique and really really fun to watch. More of that, please. It also makes me wonder if Herrera in behind Lennon would be something worth trying. Kreilach at that 10 was fun to watch. He's not the same type of 10 as Rusnak, obviously, so our attack had a slightly different flavor. However, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. In fact, I'm starting to think of a way to play that midfield trio with Rusnak, as well. Could he play the false 9? Does that remove him from the game too much? Something I would tinker with if I was Petke Largely because our 9 spot is pretty much owned by Baird. I like a lot of what Luis Silva brings to the table, don't get me wrong, but he is just too damn slow to play that spot the way he wants to. Dropping in as deep as he did in this game made it impossible to advance past the 3 attacking players of Bofo/Kreilach/Savarino. He wasn't in the space above them enough and/or wasn't making the right runs to advance the ball enough to be effective. That was what held us back from getting more goals in the first half, IMO. We were good at getting in and around the 18, we lacked a 9 that would work in the gaps to open things up. This became especially evident once Plata and Baird came on and made those runs/introduced that speed. Savarino had an off night. In fact, he hasn't been super stellar much of this season. He'll work his tail off, but he has become so selfish that you can see other players stop making supporting runs once he starts moving the ball forward because they know he isn't likely to turn and connect. I hope he is rested against Seattle. I agree with Ish, Lennon leaves a lot to be desired in his crossing. He's still far more of an offensive threat than Tony Beltran, though. I will argue that to my death. In fact, no way in hell Beltran hits the ball that lennon hit to Bofo on the first goal. Tony never had that ball, with that much pace, in his game. That was something that really jumped out at me last night: we were pinging the ball long and wide A LOT. It was good and by design, but it was somewhat shocking how much it worked. Like, how did Houston KEEP leaving Bofo alone?! I didn't get the Sunny sub. He didn't seem to be wearing down too much and was the spark plug in the middle. I would have preferred KB maybe get the night off (though at the end of the day, that looks to be a pretty good sub). Still, I think the dynamic of the team changed a lot when Sunny went off and was a big reason why we gave up the goal we did. Though, a majority of the blame on that goal goes to Nicky. His distribution, as we've discussed in other threads, is the one thing you can pretty confidently say has dropped. On that particular play, the right decision was just to clear the lines and reset on defense. Forcing possession in our half, with how high pressed Houston was, was a death wish. Elis is a really special player. I would love him at the 9 for us. His size and strength are easy attributes to point to, but his work rate was top notch and his touch was sublime. I'd love him in an RSL kit. All in all, this was our best performance of the season, IMO. A big reason why was our midfield was solid. More Sunny. I don't see how anyone can say that he shouldn't start. The team is so much better with him in it. I'm nervous for Saturday. It seems an easy win with how poor seattle is and our apparently found form. It feels like a trap. Hopefully Petke can tinker just enough with the lineup to keep the energy high.
According to David James this morning, this was the first game Beckerman hasn't started in 6 years... (Maybe that he was available? There wasn't any qualifier added to that mention.)
They sort of mentioned this during the game. They said it was his 1st appearance as a sub in 6 years. Not quite the same thing.
My only thought about the Sunny sub is that we may be expecting him to play a role on Saturday as well, and we wanted to keep some minutes off his legs.
Right before he was subbed Dunny observed that Sunny has a hitch to gait and needed to come out. I think the sub was warranted.
I'm hoping that maybe this is a sign that we'll see KB actually rotated out. He's a club legend, but they can't go forever. Very solid game though finally. I hope this is a turning point, but there needs to be more games like this before I can fully believe it.
Best game Sunny has played in a very long time for me. I may have been seeing things but it certainly looked like he pulled up on a couple of opportunities to make the dangerous Sunny like tackles last night. I was impressed. He played with a great deal of composure that I don't recall him having in the past. If he could continue that kind of play and avoiding anything that resembles an unnecessary or reckless challenge he is famous for RSL will benefit immensely. The first 30-40 minutes of play were very fun to watch. The team looked night and day better without Kyle in there, sad to say. The pace and speed that they played with was so much more that what we have witnessed in the season to this point. I am an admittedly huge fan of Damir even if it's a tad unwarranted at this point but that assist to Kyle was sublime. It just fell right to Kyle and almost found his foot rather than the other way around. I think Kyle even said that Damir let him know it was coming his way in a post game interview. This team has a long way to go to being a playoff team but last night lifted my hopes ever so slightly. One other point. Nick was awful in distribution last night. That was like the second or third time he sent a pass right to the Dynamo and they punished us for it. Everything else he's still amazing at though. Nice win. I'll take more please.
It's funny, as bad as we've been, and as frustrated as we've all been with the team... we are 5th on points and 6th on ppg in the conference. And the top 6 teams have put a little bit of separation between the rest of the conference. We'll be favored at home against Seattle on Saturday. If we win, we'll be 5 points clear of Vancouver after 14 games, who is in 7th now. The West has some really bad teams. It's pretty forgiving this year.
I think the frustration is still, at least for me, that this team was looking so damn good last year. Was there really any other team you wouldn't have had confidence in RSL giving a game at a neutral site or in a home/home? No. We were flying at the end of the year. We tempered expectations given some of the big moves around the league, but nobody around here thought this wasn't a playoff caliber team. With the right approach, and maybe the right summer move, we'd be really good. Instead, we're in the shadows of these better teams and at the top of the rest. Which isn't a bad place to be, but it's also not worth a whole lot. What was encouraging last night was that it was the first time in awhile I watched this team and wasn't bored or disgusted with our product. That means a lot to me. To others it doesn't. This is about winning, after all. But I would have taken a draw last night with that type of performance vs the shit show wins that were Vancouver and NYRB.
I've slacked on this the last few games, I apologize. Some interesting stats from last night: We had 2 shots from inside the 6 in this game. Those were the first shots inside the 6 for us since the NYCFC road game. Sadly, this game wasn't a whole lot better from a shot perspective than the Vancouver and NYRB home wins. Games that were ugggggly. We only got off 12 shots in total, with 5 on target, 6 off, and the Damir shot off the post. What is hard to account for in our stats, especially when comparing wins, is the red card advantage we've had. Games like last night are probably the norm for this team and, sadly, it's not the greatest in final product. We had a pretty strong game in possession. We saw 56.1% of the ball. Oddly enough, Glad (8%) MSilva (6.4%) and Rimando (6.1%) lead all players. This was interesting to me as normally we've seen the possession numbers high through our midfield and wingers. We seemed comfortable in the press that Houston was applying and the stats reflect that. For notes, the midfield trio went like this in possession: Sunny (4.9%), Besler (4.7%), and Kreilach (4.7%). Leandro (5.9%) and Beasley (5%) lead Houston players. We had 663 touches on the ball, a pretty middle of the road number for us. Again, this gets skewed by red card games, though. Glad was far and away the highest on the pitch with 84. Next closes was Beasley (69). Bofo had 64 touches, a great number for him. We completed 82% of our passes. A good number, but nothing amazing. Though, shocking here, was the highest player in the game that wasn't a sub was Jefferson Savarino. He had a pass completion rate of 96%. The only player in the whole game that was higher was Luis Gil (100%) who hit 2 total passes. Savarino hit 23. Again, Glad jumped to the top of the pack in passing. He went 64 out of 72, a good number for him. An area I was super concerned about with Rusnak gone was key passes. In this game, his presence was filled by committee. We had 12 in total as a team, with Kreilach leading the pack at 3. Saucedo and Lennon both had two. The remaining 5 were individually split up across the squad. Another area of interest without Ruansk: final third passes. We had 145 in this game. The only games we've had higher were either losses (LAFC, TFC, @Van, @Orl) or red card advantage games (cRapids). Thats a good sign if you ask me. Interesting enough, our defensive third passing numbers were not as high as I expected. We had 116 in this game. A low mid range number Our dribble success rate (69%) was okay, nothing too great. We attempted 25 dribbles, though, which was a lot higher than most games. So an okay rate on a higher frequency is good. Savarino attempted the most (8) with the most successful (3) as well. Bofo went 2 for 6. Acosta 2 for 3. In the not so great stats: Savarino and Silva lost the ball 6 times each via either turnover or dispossession. They lead all players.
So if I'm reading right, it seems like overall, our stats were better this game compared to non red card games? That's a good sign, and seems to reflect KB not being on the field. Obviously it's only one game, and we'd need a couple more to see if that was a one off or a trend, but I'd like to see it. I still want to see a Rusnak, Kreilach, Sunny midfield to see what they can do. I feel like that could be a solid trio, especially if Rusnak and Kreilach can play off each other since both seem to be good on attack. Sadly, KB just isn't fast enough to be a mostly lone CDM. Sunny imo provides enough coverage that the trio may work out. It likely means Rusnak is the furthest forward with Kreilach as a support slightly back, but I think it would work. Especially if both of them are good about pushing forward and dropping back as needed. If we could get them in sync, having two midfielders that can punish a team should help leave some space for the forward line. It's been hard to judge the forward line when the midfield has been in shambles. If we can get the defense somewhat sorted out, and especially the midfield, it should help us judge the forward line better. I still think we have a mid to upper playoff caliber team if we fit the right pieces in. It sucks, but I don't think KB is that player outside of 20-30 min sub stints, or at least resting him enough between games that he can go a full or mostly 90. He needs to be managed a lot like Rio, Giggs, Scholes, and Carrick were in their later years. Their bodies couldn't keep up week after week, so it wasn't surprising to see them sit 1-2 games at a time to keep them fresh for bigger games. The less knowledgeable fanbase might pitch a fit, but it's what honestly needs to be done.
From a pure numbers perspective, no. The numbers were higher/better in the red card games. The point I was trying to make (and likely didn't make very clearly) was that it is hard to say these numbers were "bad" given they were lower since what we're comparing them against isn't the same situation. I think, overall, the Houston stats were solid. Nothing amazing in any particular area, but a good set of numbers. I'd call it the (hopeful) norm
I think what @DrownedElf meant is that the stats in the Houston game were better than our stats in other games that did not have red cards. Comparing to games with red cards isn't apples to apples, as you point out.
ah, yes. The stats were better to "normal" games that we won. That said, we haven't had a whole lot of those so the sample size is very small
It's available on KSL's site now. You can't fast-forward or rewind, and it plays the whole broadcast, but it works. https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46290489&nid=857