First preseason game today against San Jose our lineup is below. I eagerly await word from Ghana that Blessing has won the starting job. We're playing 3 30 minutes sessions. Here's the first group to take the pitch and we're underway! pic.twitter.com/RtmsnMfCZm— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) January 31, 2017
FT: #Quakes74 1, @SportingKC 0.Thompson's 90th-minute strike gives San Jose the victory here in the desert— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) January 31, 2017
Who cares ... Wonderkid Blessing is starting and looking to cement himself in SKC lore with his talents!
I thought he was solid today as well. I hope he carry's that into the season and doesn't get to "big" as he gets more comfortable with the team and Nate.
Probably reading way to much into this game, and obviously players will play different positions as need comes up, but do we start pushing Zusi to the RB depth chart and Medranda to the midfield depth chart? Where does this leave SAS? Can't imagine Storm signing as a 4th option at RB.
Weird ending. COL was awarded a penalty kick after video review for a handball in the box. Center ref signaled it by drawing a square in the air with his fingers, indicating that the call was based on video review. The review occurred several minutes after the infringement because they had to wait for the next stoppage. I like instant replay to assist refs in principle, but implementation is going to be strange and difficult.
Yeah I don't love how it went about. What happens if KC had gone down and scored a second before a stoppage? Assume that goal would go off the board, that would go over real well at CMP late in a game. You think there was a lot of stuff thrown on the field in the stadium opener...
if the call is play on and the call will come later, as in a similar yellow card is coming but can wait a bit situation, it's play on. A goal scored for the fouling side would be a bit odd, but it's almost certainly happened somewhere at some point.
Play the 'Red Bulls' today. Red Bulls is in quotes cause their starters have returned to New York to prep for their CCL game Wednesday vs Vancouver.
Not a bad game yesterday. First team was a bit too content to just control the game, maybe, but players are looking close to fitness. Chemistry will come, I think. Blessing looked very bright out there (don't tell the Ghanaian papers). Salloi also. I didn't feel either Sinovic or Pasher looks particularly excellent though... suddenly find myself hoping Medranda doesn't get midfield minutes. Hard to judge just off that game, but things look okay to me.
The biggest bit of hope I got came from the announcers noting that what PV wanted to work on in this game was building out of the back. I got the feeling that they were just fine with sitting back to work on that element. They looked quite comfortable with the way things were going. OTOH, if the game plan was to play the normal high press and not to work on playing from the back, and a NYRB b team forced them out of their game, that would be disappointing. I am thinking what we saw was a plan, though.