Saturday, June 23 • Kickoff: 8:30 PM • National Sports Center Watch Party: Duffy's Sports Grill Fort Lauderdale Another big game! 3 Points here and the Strikers move into 3rd place. Minnesota has slipped up lately, Tampa Bay just knocked them off at home so we should be able to do the same. Hope to see everyone at Duffy's! What else would you be doing Saturday night? Strikers > Messi
Ok, can the boys get a winning streak going? Can we get our first road win? Does Morales become the inspiring force behind a nice run of play for this team? Will Coach Shore answer all the great questions he gets on his new twitter account?!? LOL I was very disappointed by the 3-1 loss to the Stars at Lockhart earlier this year. We really just got outplayed in that game, no question about it. Time to turn the tables and go into their place and do the same. In another thread someone posted that Lance was going to be out a few more weeks. Don't know the validity of that, but if true, it really sucks. And how about Jim Rooney on Ultras Alive this week calling out Lance to step up and play better! What do you guys think about that? I love Stahl, but I don't think his game is really suited for left back. I'd almost rather see Shanosky there, and I would definitely rather see Lorenz. And would it kill this team to give the fans some player/injury news?!? Sheesh. Anyway, here's what I'd like to see for a starting 11 tomorrow night: Glaeser Blake - Stewart - Stahl - Lorenz Pecka - Restrepo - Anderson - Shanosky Herron - Hassan Restrepo made a terrific pass to Herron for the goal last week. But if you watch the highlights you can see that Anderson also made a tremendous pass to spring Walter on the right, enabling him to make the perfect cross. I think Anderson and Restrepo play off each other very well. Restrepo seems to have more confidence in him than he's had in other guys alongside him, and isn't trying to constantly make runs and attempt to beat 5 defenders like he was earlier in the season. I really like the combo of them controlling the MF for the Strikers and setting up the attack. We should have probably had four goals in the last game. Going to try and make it down to Duffy's this week. Hope to see some Striker Likers there instead of sitting in the rain and watching Messi kick a ball around with some buddies. Really love the song I'm hearing from over in 115 every game now....Strikers 'til I die!!!!
Again, can't finish scoring chances. Stahl at left back is troubling. Why keep him there? Even Herron had some head scratchers yesterday. Starts at the top. Might be time for a change.
Sadly, Red Harvest and LuckyStriker make some very fair statements. I said it before the game, and it seems unfortunately that I was a prophet - Stahl really struggled at left back. Unless there is an injury issue we don't know about (with this organization that is entirely possible of course) I can't for the life of me figure out why Shore wouldn't be plugging Lorenz, someone with experience playing left back, in for Laing while he is hurt. Stahl is a 2011 NASL Best XI center back, and his play this year in that spot has been just as good. He needs to be back in the center with Stewart. This backline played its best earlier in the season with this combination anchoring things in front of Big Matt. Even if DC United is wanting the Strikers to give Shanosky minutes at center back and that's why Shore is trying to keep him there, I don't care. We need to worry about our team first. Shanosky was definitely improving as a defensive MF prior to his switch to center back. Push him back up there instead of Motagalvan. The lack of finishing up front is rearing its head again as well. It seems we occasionally have a game (and it's always at home) where we manage to finish our chances and put more than 1 in the net. Watching Saturday night, I never felt like I did in the second half of that game in Edmonton where no matter what we did, we just couldn't find any way to create a decent scoring chance. We were creating them all nigth long Saturday, we just couldn't make that one final pass, or put that shot on frame in order to get a much needed road point. We've now dropped to the bottom of the playoff slots. Maybe the club thinks that's enough, just making the playoffs. After all, that's how the Stars managed to win it all last year. But if there is any hope of stemming the tide of the reversal in our attendance this year, of trying to push things in the other direction the rest of the year, we need to start finishing our chances, and winning consistently. Points on the road, win at home. Lucky mentions lack of poise, and that's to be expected with such a young team. But at some point the vets in the group need to step it up and show the younger guys how to get it done.