I thought Baky's last game was fantastic. What I gather around here is that his distribution is terrible. I'll try an watch for that tomorrow but I expect he'll do fine and still get ridiculed.
I looked good against DC. Let's see how he does when we play a real team tomorrow. Portland are tied for second in the league in goal scoring. If Baky and Berry play against the Timbers like they played against DCU, we're in some trouble.
Like I said, I'm going to try and pay attention. Beasley played for the National Team today. I bet he cleared quite a few balls out of bounds but wouldn't be ridiculed for his distribution. I don't know where to look up those stats though.
Baky's passing against DC: http://www.mlssoccer.com/sites/all/...mZmlsdGVycz0xLDIsMyw0LDUsNiw3LDgsOSwxMCwxMQ== Baky's passing against RSL: http://www.mlssoccer.com/sites/all/...mZmlsdGVycz0xLDIsMyw0LDUsNiw3LDgsOSwxMCwxMQ== Nothing overtly wrong with either of these. I picked him for MotM in both of these games, which is extraordinary for his first two games with us.
He's more of a difference maker than you think. You can't just look at his play when we have possession. If you do that, he looks average at best. It's when we don't have possession that he makes the biggest impact, and he brings so much to the table that Alex, for example, doesn't. Alex is obviously better in the attacking end, but we're going to be on much shakier ground defensively, and we'll probably have less possession than we would if Pause was in the lineup. Last I heard, Pause will probably be back on Wednesday. Beasley did it with a lead, though, which is when you can afford to do that kind of thing. I had some problems with some clearances Anibaba made in the Philly games a few weeks back. The one that stands out most was really late in the game, down 1-0, he decided to clear a ball into row z from the sideline well away from the goal. You just can't do that when you're desperately trying to get back into a game. Unfortuantely, with Anibaba, Soumare, and to a lesser extent, Berry, we have a backline full of players that don't know what to do with the ball at their feet. Sega is the only one who ever looks comfortable in possession of the ball. Anibaba's crosses have dramatically improved, but that doesn't help when he has the ball near our own penalty box.
The historical record shows that teams captained by Mr. Pause have sucked. He literally means less than anyone realizes, he meant a bit more this season because Arne was injured as a D organizer, but how much can a team miss a mediocre player? A bad team may miss mediocre, a decent team won't.
The historical record shows that all Fire teams since Bradley left have sucked except for 2008 and 2009. Unless we can go back in time and replay past seasons, I only care about this year. And this year we're a better team with Pause who has done more for us this year than Rolfe, Lindpere and Deep Dish combined.
Baky: "I have played well in the few games I've been back...but my main focus is to one day live up to the expectations of ratdog..."
I'd rather he say "******** that asshole ratdog. I'll show him what awesome defending looks like. When I single-handedly stop a 4 on 1 breakaway and then score a hat trick, I'm going up to the skyway and tell him "******** you!"" And then I want him to back that up on the field.
This might be the weakest starting eleven Portland fields all season. Maybe we can catch them out. Their backline is depleted and the two top scorers on the team are also not available. COME ON YOU MEN IN RED
We in Section 208 are laughing at every scatterball Soumare has played. Milk is all we have to look forward to tonight.