Chicago Fire@ChicagoFire The club announced today it has loaned midfielder Sebastian Grazzini to Argentine side Atlético de Rafaela: http://bit.ly/NNMpDC #cf97 #MLS
Just to see what happens in the end.... 8/18/12 vs. New England (win) With Grazzini 7-3-4 .607 Without Grazzini 5-2-3 .600 (scoring 11 goals for a 1.10 goals a game) 2010 9-9-12 .450 (W-T-L) and 8/22/12 @ DC United (loss) With Grazzini 7-3-4 .607 Without Grazzini 5-2-4 .545 (scoring 13 goals for a 1.18 goals a game) 2010 9-9-12 .450 (W-T-L)
Anyone know where we're at with this right now? I know after an initial adjustment period we're settling in nicely without Seba. It would have been awesome to see Grazzini stick around in a non-ninety minute role but I don't think he had the character to do that. That said, Alex has now scored two nice goals in the last couple games so we haven't lost all of Grazzini's pluses. Go Fire.
Interestingly, about half way through the first half last night, as the Fire were being run all over the field, and Fernandez and Alex were sucking bad, I said to my friend at the game, "You know, the Fire could really Grazzini right now." Admittedly, it worked out in the end.
With Grazzini 7-3-4 .607 (scoring 18 goals for 1.3 goals a game) Without Grazzini 8-2-4 .643 (scoring 21 goals for 1.5 goals a game) 2010 9-9-12 .450 (W-T-L) So we have now played an equal number of games this year with and without Grazzini. We are statistically better without him. Yes I realize there a million factors for this, but fact is, the world did not end without him
It would have been nice if Pausehater had the intellectual honesty to keep up with it even after the numbers didn't support his argument.
I went through and picked out some highlight posts from this thread, for hindsight's sake So far, 7-1-3 (WTL) in the second half. Looking better than the first half Pappa leaves we were "forced to start Alex" yesterday, and are a point out of first, almost guaranteed a playoff spot See above We have won 7 of 11, so 11 of 15 is still possible, if unlikely. Winning the East is very possible we are averaging 1.79 ppg overall, 1.86 without Grazini 1 point out of first, 4 points out of the SS
It's a completely different team, when this started. If there were no moves then we would of been as bad as the 2010 team. That said, I glad that we are winning and the team is doing good, it would of been nice to have Grazzini in the mix also. If you want I will continue it SixKick, I just forgot about. I will finish out the season just for you.
It's not "provable" but I suspect it's not a case of Grazzini or lack thereof but it's Rolfe who is the difference maker. With the 2-0 loss to the Revs as the starting point of the Rolfe era, I get the following for the MLS league games: W/out Rolfe- 12 games, 5 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses, 18 points, 15 goals, 1.5 points/game, 1.25 goals/game With Rolfe- 16 games, 10 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses, 32 points, 25 goals, 2 points/game, 1.6 goals/game
I think Sherjill was the turning point. I'd like to see the numbers of post-seba w/no MacDonald vs post-Macdonald. He just gives us more options to attack than Oduro and he's linked up way better with Rolfe than Oduro ever could. Now, if we could have had grazzini and MacDonald, on the field at the same time...that woulda been something special as well. But that's just pure speculation, Klopas and the FO have done a great job this midseason window. I think Klopas is on the short list of coach of the year. He's turned Toyota Park into a Fortress.
Yep, signing Rolfe was huge, arguably the difference between potentially winning the East and maybe not making the play-offs. Kudos to Frank and the Fire staff for pulling the trigger on that deal. That said, it would have been nice to still have Grazzini as a backup. As it is, we're as deep as a petri dish at CAM right now.
The key to the formation we play is getting the attacking mids involved in goal scoring. Rolfe does this, not least by scoring goals himself. But he makes the kinds of off the ball runs that make all the players around him better. As much as I'd like to, I can't say that about McDonald.
Grazzini was an arrogant prick who never would have taken that role. ******** him. We can't blame the team for not keeping him if he wasn't willing to play a lessor role. ******** him with a Ruiz. ******** Ruiz too.
Out of morbid curiosity I looked up his stats in Argentina. He has played the last four games (presumably since he was cleared to play), has one goal, 2 yellow cards, and has been subbed off no later than the 75' every time. He has apparently been playing wide left. His team has 7 points in 7 games (5 in the last 4), and is 15/20 in the league.