Well if week 10 showed us anything is that Sporting was not that unstoppable unit they were back in week 7. With 3 loses in a row the question marks start to build on what could have been a fluke start to the season. Yes KC has a lot of attacking power. NO that attacking power does not score and no matter how fluid or how pretty if you don’t score you don’t win. On the Fire end Sebastián Grazzini continues to show he is deserving of that contract extention ASAP. Many teams in Argentina or Mexico will be looking for his services if the Fire don’t act now. The REVS show they can revolutionize MLS. Lee Nguyen sticks it to the CAPS who let him go at the start of the season. No question that Lee Nguyen’s career has been given a boost after what was a 2 year isolation at Vietnam. The inconsistent Revs also get a win that puts them back into the pack. The Dynamo opened their beautiful and I do mean beautiful new stadium against a tight DC United side. Brad Davis, the most under rated American player out there, slams home a goal for the ages and continues to give the Dynamo some life after a rough start to the season. The Red Bulls are gelling into that team we all want as they get a hard fought win against the Union, who has virtually fallen apart. Today the bulls are on top of the East and the Union, made wholesale changes where there was no need to, and rightfully sit near bottom. The Union have only Peter Novak to blame for this poor season. He fought with his leading goal scorer and fought with his Captain. There is trouble in Phili. The marquee match was RSL and the Sounders. With a good level of play and only one goal difference Real seem to have the Sounders number. For The Sounders a reminder… There is someone just as good or even better out there. For RSL a statement… RSL when on is the best team in MLS no question ! Gold Star: Houston Dynamo. Everytime a SSS opens Soccer breaths a little easier on the USA. Silver Star: Lee Nguyen: 2 goals and life after Vietnam. Wooden Spoon: Sporting KC. 7-0 huh? 0-3 as of late….
Convey scored a goal based on Roger Espinoza's work this past week. But you rarely see Convey creating threats based on his own work. Sapong is fine. (but not great at creating his own chances ). Kamara is fine (although he is still a mediocre finisher) . That means offense must also come from the third forward........ What's missing this year is Bunbury. Vermes realized that Bunbury does not have the IQ that Sapong has. That's why he took away Bunbury's minutes this year and gave them to Convey this year, moving Sapong centrally, as #9 back to goal forward. To the untrained eye, it seemed ok at first. KC was winning. Convey however, was offering much less than the team needed. When you play track meet soccer much of the time like KC, you need wildly athletic wide forwards who can press like crazy and pin back the opponents defense at the drop of a hat. Convey tries hard but his efforts have little efficacy because he is not an athletic specimen and tends to SLOW things down when he gets the ball. If Vermes is as smart as I think he is, he will start Bunbury and pull Convey. Less thinking for him on the wing. Let him press and just run onto anything that Sapong knocks down. Worth at least 5 or 6 more goals this year.............. I'm afraid the cake was baked last year. The identity of this team was set. KC--stop pretending you can posses half the time and just let er rip. It's KC's best chance to beat the good teams in the playoffs. Recall, Sapong, Kamara, Bunbury were lethal last year in the games they played together. It was defensive lapses that hurt them.
Convey and Roger Espinoza provide the thinking and pause this team BADLY needs. Playing 3 forwards who are better suited for a track meet than a soccer game would be a terrible desicion by Vermes. The problem is the goal scoring not the creating.
SKC's biggest problem right now is they are beating themselves. In this three game losing streak, they have conceded 5 goals, 4 of which were were gifts from us: 2 PKs, 1 own-goal, and 1 where Kei tried to play hacky-sack in the box instead of clear. If we stop playing Santa Claus, these last three three games look completely different. The only one that really bothers me is Montreal: the only game you can decisively say we looked poor against a team we should not have looked poor against. Other than that, we just need to stop giving away silly goals.