Out here live at the pre season game between SKC and Col. About 15 minutes in and SKC up 2-0 on goals from Shelton and Gerso.
Interesting that SKC is playing a possible starting 11 except with Lindsay and Lobato as outside backs. Both doing very well. Croizet is a player; fast, has a cannon for a shot and has already skinned most of their defensive line.
Croizet playing the Feilhaber role with Shaloi and Gerso on the wings. Croizet is easily up to the task distributing the ball well.
I mean, yes, preseason Colorado, but I am excited to hear that. Croizet was signed really early and the buzz about him has been a little mild, but he seems clever and tricky and I really hope he can bring that to Children's Mercy this year.
I'd misread the earlier comments. I'd been told the game today was closed to the public so I'd assumed he was going off twitter.
Shelton looked good. They played him in the striker position. Receives the ball well with his back to the goal and is good with his feet. He jumped on an errant ball from a defender and slotted a nice goal past Tim Howard.
This is my take on the game today against COL. SKC lines up in a 4-3-3 (no big surprise here). Lobato Besler Opara Lindsey in back, Ilie Espinoza Croizet in the middle and Shalloi Shelton Gerso up front. I think COL fielded their starting 11, but can’t be sure. No surprises in the way the team played e.g, deliberate ball control working the wings into the offensive third. Ilie was pulling the strings in the middle until the ball moved up to Croizet. Croizet is very good with his feet and seemed to move at will through the midfield. Shelton showed well at striker. His size and strength is a plus and he has good movement around the box. Had a nice goal. The big surprise is how well the fullbacks played. It’s the first time I have seen Lindsey play and he was impressive. He has really good speed and was not afraid to jump into attacking up the wing. I never saw a Colorado player get by him. Lobato seems to have found his place as the left back working very well with Bes and Ilie. For Shalloi and Gerso....basically no change from last season. SKC controlled most of the ball in the first half taking a 2-0 lead. After halftime, SKC came out with basically an SPR team with Sinovic and Rubio. I only watched about 15 minutes of the second half, but the Rangers again had most of the ball and chances on goal. Noticeably absent was Zusi and Medranda.
After watching the pre-season game vs NYRB it is still very evident that the offensive problem has not been fixed for SKC. The addition of Gutierrez and Russell should help, but they still haven’t seen the pitch with the first game just 17 days away.
We played against a team that is on a schedule to be ready for competition weeks before we have to. I expected to get torn apart, so I'm happy with how they stepped up and looked solid. Croizet looked a little rough on the ball by he was being excellently industrious and was constantly getting into dangerous places. More time and more chemistry with the actual starting front line and I think he'll shine. Rubio looked good. Cleaner touches for sure. Kid wants to rock this season, I could see it in his attitude out there. Lindsey looked raw but not terrible. Not sure he's ready to see tons of mls minutes, but at least he's not Storm. Busio is. A. Pros. Pect. He should shape into something. Use of the ball, comfort on it, positioning? All the important traits are there to build on. Roger does not want to lose his spot, haha. He looked good out there. Gutierrez looked like he's seen limited minutes lately. Those were my biggest impressions.
Slight quibble with Lindsey. He looks much stronger than I thought. I expected all speed and no nous. He had a bit of both. He needs to learn, and time with SPR will be great, but he really looks to be capable of handling some SKC minutes. OTOH, not sure how likely that is. To add, Amor had a couple nice outlet passes. He looked confident, strong on the ball and looked to be way out in front of Didic should someone go down, or the US suddenly be a late, mystery qualifier for the WCup. Didic looked a little lost.
Don't be surprised if Khiry Shelton is starting at CF on March 4th....and I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
Our 2nd goal was one of the nicest team goals I've ever seen with a nice bit of skill by Roger Espinoza to set the whole thing up. Very well done by 4 different players