Back at home. Gruenebaum had an MRI today on his shoulder team is awaiting the results. We've apparently been allocated former Chivas USA keeper, Time Melia as a pool keeper just in case. Defoe is still out by the looks of it for Toronto.
Gruenebaum had that mix-up last week and Kempin has been on a roll. Has he earned the start this week even if Gruenebaum is OK?
Some thread mentioned all the fretting on Dom sitting one yellow away from an accumulation suspension. (So are Nagamura and Feilhaber). And then there's the Bieler fretting. What do we do about a problem like Bieler? Would you take this scenario: Assume that Bieler is hanging around to pick up playing time in the CCL games. Lord knows how that is going to work out since without playing time, no one has a feel for his form, but assume that fact (and the fact that there are no offers) means they'd keep him around. Dwyer is less than a 50% chance to work off a card due to good behavior. What about just having him get it out of the way against TFC, play in the CCL game, serve his time against DCU (who always seems to bunker anyway and would seem to neutralize him). Every game is critical, but with multiple competitions raging, would you take Dom against TFC and in the CCL game but not against DCU, or would you sit him out in CCL and hope he gets through TFC and DCU unscathed and 2/3rds of the way to getting out from under the gun?
A few thoughts/opinions: 1) At this point I doubt we see Bieler on the field again. Even for CCL. If Dom gets suspended, CJ will be up top at CF. 2) I know Vermes won't do it, but for me, Ellis > Juliao. I'd go as far as to say Igor isn't ready for MLS and he needs a season at OK City. 3) I know Vermes won't do it, I know a lot of fans will disagree with me, but for me, Kempin > Grunenbaum > Kronberg. Kronberg is pushing the boundary of not good enough, Gruenenbaum is better but occasionally gets caught out, Kempin is a beast who is the future of this club at goalkeeping. The only knock against Kempin is his age, and he hasn't shown that's a problem.
I would disagree, for his faults, Juliao has shown he can play at this level. And personally at this point I'd sit Sinovic for Ellis, his last 2 games (TFC & Vancouver) he's been bad.
I don't agree with Buzz much, but I am with him on this one. Juliao is not the best fullback around, but he's proven that he can play at this level. I am a big Sinovic fan, but he has been off in his last couple of performances. I think some time out of the starting line up will do some good for his focus and for his physical well being.
I'm going to agree with this and Buzz's above post, but to an extent. His athletic ability is ridiculous, and that has served him very well in this league for the most part. I think his real test is only just beginning, however. Based on the passing maps of the last couple games (I think Buzz posted the one from Vancouver) it looks like teams are starting to play longer passes either ground or air to his side. The intent seems to sneak someone in behind or double up and make Juliao lose track of one or both. He has had problems tracking back though he is starting to get better. I'm betting we see more of this pattern at least in the near term.
players already on loan can't be loaned out again, so igor either stays here and learns to play defense or we terminate his loan and he goes back to fluminense. i'm ok with juliao when put into perspective of who we have available. i think maybe the rb position should be a platoon. like, if we expect the opponent to be sitting back, then play juliao. if, like in vancouver, we think the opponent will actually come to play, put in ellis who has a better grasp on the defensive line. EDIT: wait a minute... what am i thinking? that'd be tactical management, and this is peter vermes we're talking about here.
I keep forgetting he's on loan. Thanks for the reminder. Yeah, but I can't think of too many situations where I would really want Juliao over Ellis. Unless we are just banging against a bunker the entire game and our defense is nearing irrelevance, I want Ellis back there.
Unbelievably, this happens to be our last Saturday home game the remainder of the schedule. Will be interesting to see how PV makes good on his post-game comments in Vancouver. Reminder: Defoe will be watching only.
just wanted to say how extremely sucky this is. i get that we're on national tv now more than before, but i've been disappointed at, what i perceive at least, the low priority robb and co. appear to put on getting as many saturday night games as possible.
Do front offices have any say in their schedule setup? If I understand correctly networks would dictate kickoffs and dates more than FO's trying to sell tickets and whatnot.
my guess is that the networks get priority, but i would think front offices would get some input about the times of non-nationally televised games.
Took a look at the schedule and as Buzz pointed out we still have DC at home on a Saturday as well. After that it's Houston on a Friday (NBC Sports), New England on a Friday (NBC Sports), Chicago on a Friday (KMCI), and New York on a Sunday (ESPN). So three non-national TV home games left and two of them on Saturday. That ain't terrible.
i probably should've looked at the schedule myself before trusting koprules that this was the last saturday evening game of the year. obviously, that would change my comment a bit. not entirely, though.
After all these years I finally got my work schedule to work around my soccer habit. Needless to say when this years schedule came out I was less than thrilled. The MLS play on Saturday nights dammit. I don't mind missing the occasional Wed game but this year has been pretty frustrating schedule wise.
Well shoot, if Defoe dresses that would mean every fact contained in my thread post (which doesn't exist anymore BC it was duplicative) was wrong. Not my best work. Its fitting, my family motto: "Often wrong, never a doubt."