Any word on the center backs? My optimism largely hinges on that issue. Felipe back is great though. Maybe we'll see a form change.
It is hard enough getting back into the swing of MLS after the World Cup, but holy hell our defense... Ike is a train wreck. Good to see Felipe back though. And what a goal from gerso.
Maybe it's me, but it seems like goals are being scored when Melia off his line early. I don't like seeing him come out, unless it is a true 1:1.
Sporting is a bad combination of Old and Slow. Even the youngsters are slow. Midfield is slow, forwards are slow besides Gerso. Lindsey is slow. I would expect to see Lindsey playing with tons of energy. But no. He is just trotting around like everyone else. Sporting has to combine on 50 passes and make a perfect play to score. Other teams just out run SPorting and score. Easy Peasy
When the goalkeeper and defender of the year last year both make howlers that cost the team a goal apiece, it is difficult to overcome an average team in the MLS, much less a team with as much talent as Dallas. Since I am not sure we can fix the defense this year, we better get a striker and try to out score the opponent. What a change in the team’s DNA.
I think that is a bit harsh about Lindsey. I thought he was one of the better players on the field for SKC. You may have noticed that none of the goals against SKC came down his side of the field. Felipe struggled with fitness and was outrun by everyone on the field. He didn’t even look close to being game fit. I thought it was premature to start him in this game. This should be the end of Rubio. He was fairly punchless most of the night and we only noticed him when he was whining to the ref. Yohan was Yohan with lots of action and not much accomplishment, but he still put more pressure on the defenders than Rubio. Let’s face it, FCD came in with a good game plan. They put a lot of pressure on Ilie by making sure Urruti was all over him disrupting the flow of the game. They countered well and scored when they needed to. But oh Ike. Barrios made you look foolish most of the night. Hard to watch.
Yeah, agreed about Lindsey looking like one of our better players. Felipe showed some technical flourishes that we're in dire need of, but he's not 90 minute fit yet and it showed. Can't wait for him to get back to 100%. But yeah, Ike has a major case of the yips, and is pretty much costing us our season. Can you even imagine where we'd be if our defense was playing anywhere near the level we expect them to be? As much as we complain about the CF situation, we're scoring the goals. Hell, we're on pace for a club record goals scored this season. The defense is the vast majority of our problem. Ike in particular.
I REALLY hoped that the organization noticed the mass exodus in the stadium around the 80th minute. I hope that was an embarrassment to the executives since it was on national TV. I hope that will result in a change in how the club is managed, but I am doubtful it will. It's another free fall summer for SKC. Same story every year since 2013. Start hot, cool down, raise ticket prices, then full collapse.
I can remember watching a dallas game on tv last season where barrios kicked ass, and fearing them coming to cmp the following week, and then opara completely shut him down. oh how different this game was. It's almost like post-concussion, opara cannot predict the trajectory of high balls over the top at all anymore. felipe did not look good unfortunately, and that worries me almost as much as the defense, since i was hoping that we can at least outscore our opponents. on a positive note, busio looked much better than in his first showing for skc.
My observations on last night's struggles: 1) For whatever reason (injury, mid-season worn out, age, whatever), Ike was just a bit slower than his usual self. This problem is magnified because Ike's decision making process (and field positioning) is based on his multi-season memory/experience of how fast his "usual self" is. Example: First goal - Ike's decision to go for the header clearance (and missing it) set up the easy shot/goal against Melia. Another fraction of a second faster, and Ike clears that. I think old Ike gets there in time, and last night's Ike, thinking he had "historical speed" also believed he could get there in time, otherwise last night's Ike would have stayed on his feet to stay between the ball and goal. Despite this, I still like Ike better than any CB backup - so Opara needs to find his groove again. 2) SKC passes are easily intercepted or pressured now, vs earlier in the year, because it is very predictable where the next pass is going to go - especially the "simple" square passes and pressure relief/outlet passes in the backfield or midfield. The other team makes a quick jump on our pass, whereas our players are already expecting the pass to reach them (not moving towards it) and seem to be 100% focused on planning their next move, instead of making sure they actually get the ball first. I read elsewhere that during practice, Vermes assigns positional areas for each player to be in, so even a no-look or corner-of-your-eye pass has a high % chance of finding an SKC player there. That made us look good earlier, but only works until teams study our film. Or a quicker/fast reaction team (seems like 1/2 the league - notably the ones in playoff spots) decides they are going to jump on the passes to disrupt the KC attack and start a quick counter. Which our defense is tremendously suspect against, partially due to our lack of speed. I still love Zusi, he's a crafty, technically skilled guy, but he's not fast. If my theory is right, it will be hard for SKC players to re-program many months of having their "in-possession" situational field position and reactions drilled into memory at practice. 3) Scoring two goals (granted one was a garbage time goal) should get SKC a result 9/10 times. That's our DNA, and style of play (for better or for worse). But the defense is leaking goals at a rate that disappoints me more than it has in almost a decade. If we had reliable and "scary" offensive firepower (e.g. Atlanta), this wouldn't matter as much, and games would be quite entertaining. Right now though, we are at best an uninspiring middle of the pack team, with no full side victories against the other 11 playoff spot squads, except the one LAG road win, and the vs 10 man ATL theft.
It's difficult to look at the Audi numbers from this game and see reality. By the stats, we destroyed Dallas. We put up almost a quarter again the total points by Dallas, and if you take away the hat trick killer, we destroyed them at just about every other position. We had nine players perform at or above an average outing for an MLS player. The stats indicate that (from best down) Salloi, Rubio, Zusi, Lindsay, Ilie. Gerso and Besler were all exceptional, Consider Rubio, one miss on a pass and a lost aerial dual. And those were his negatives. Lindsay was quite busy. His biggest problem was four interceptions on the defensive end. Other than that, his might in stats is a long list of positives, duals won, interceptions, high rate of completed passes. And on. Zusi had monster positives, weighed down by 17 misplaced passes in the defensive end. But he looked fantastic, by stats, And on, and on. We've dominated teams we've tied before, tough to be more dominant than this in a loss.