Saturday, May 12 • Kickoff: 7:30 PM • Bayamón Soccer Complex The Strikers are heading to the "Hot Zone" down in PR next. Last game on the road trip before a nice 4-5 game homestand(counting round 2 of Open Cup on the 22nd and a possible round 3 home game on the 29th). Islanders will be coming off a 2.5 week break, Strikers off a 1.5 week break, so both clubs will be rested. The Islanders have the CFU Championships coming up later this month so maybe they'll be focused on that too, could play to the Strikers advantage slightly.
If our D can keep the "Oompa Loompa" in check we should do well. If not, it could be a long night for our guys. Go Strikers!
Going to depend on you guys to keep the tweets going on this match. Going to be at a convention and won't be able to watch online.
Islander 2 v 0 Strikers. Not quite the result we wanted..... We're now 2-3-2 w/a -2 GD & in 4th place, 1 pt above the Rowdies. We've only picked up 2 pts on the road. We've not won any games on the road. We need a win v 2nd place Minnesota Saturday @ Lockhart.
Only caught bits and pieces of this one due to my my low-quality stream. Did the team play poor, or were they just outplayed? Also, how did Yoximar Granado look at right back?
I missed the first half myself due to a prior obligation. What I saw in the second half unfortunately reminded me a lot of the last two road games prior to it - a lot of inconsistency, and just not meeting the other team's effort level. Here's my take on the good: Anderson continues to impress me with his calmness on the ball and his ability to create that little space needed to produce good chances. If he isn't a regular starter up front now until Herron comes back, I'll have to start believing Coach Shore is more befuddled than Mr. Magoo. It was good to see Granado back in the lineup. His speed creates opportunities down the wing, much like Lance's. He was rusty, but I think with some minutes he be effective. I liked the pairing of Granado at right MF with Lorenz at right back. If Granado can be effective, I think it improves our overall wing play to compliment Lance on the left and make defenses be more honest and not cheat towards him. I like the strategy, but let's see if it develops into goals. Now for the bad: We had our now commonplace defensive lapses in this game that cost both goals. Mental lapses in marking have killed us this entire road trip. Every game we see forwards running unmarked at Matt. He's been great, but he can only do so much. We really need to tighten up our marking. Morales. My weekly call for his benching will go on until he is actually benched, or a miracle occurs and he actually starts to make some frakkin' plays! He's a terrible defender, even by the standards of attacking midfielders, and he continues to show zero rhythm or chemistry with his teammates. He is constantly losing the ball and making poor passes. With Granado back, Pecka, and Otte getting healthy, I see no reason to be using Morales over any of these three. If you want more offense, start Granado. If you want more of a two way player with speed, you've got Pecka, and for more defense but still some ability to help in the attack at times, Otte. Send Morales back to Tigres already, sheesh.
Thanks for the recap Smoke & Mirrors. I think the main reason that Anderson wasn't starting was because he was still attending school, and couldn't make many practices. Now that the semester is over, I'm sure he's our first choice forward—probably even ahead of Hassan. I'm a big fan of Yoximar Granado. I know he's had some injury troubles which prevented him from playing earlier in the season, but hopefully he gets fully fit again and can show his potential. Glad to hear he had a good game. Good observation about "cheating towards the left side." The team definitely tends to use Laing's overlapping runs more than the right fullback's. I think someone who can make those same types of runs down the right, presumably Granado, can fix this. I agree defense needs to tighten up. Probably doesn't help that we have had eight different players rotating around. Once Shore settles on his ideal back four, (I think the only position in question is RB as Stahl, Stewart and Laing are all locks) we will see fewer mistakes. With several players are returning from injury, there is a lot of depth. Motagalvan is healthy now as well, and will probably get into the lineup easily. The way I see it, there will be too much competition in midfield for anyone who isn't quite cutting it. The best players will play.