Ellis should never start another game over EPB unless EPB is suspended, injured, or on national team duty
Wow, Blessing is kind of a little punk, between the clear time wasting and then the constant taunting stepovers to draw the yellow.
To Urruti's credit, he was really, really upset about hurting Ike. Reports are he was hanging around SKC's locker room after the game, asking for updates to see how he's doing. Urruti never saw him coming and certainly didn't mean to kick him.
Unbelievably proud of the boys, incredible fight, special game, top performance, someone was definitely watching over us tonight #NEAL ❤️⚽️— Dom Dwyer (@Ddwyer14) July 12, 2017 UNBELIEVABLE effort, performance, result. Almost in tears watching on TV. Tonight, I'm proud as hell to be a part of this team. #SKCNation— Matt Besler (@MattBesler) July 12, 2017 Thanks for watching over us tonight, Neal. Also prayers to @ikeopara. Onwards and upwards.— Matt Besler (@MattBesler) July 12, 2017
He seems to have gotten the message about the diving. If he can cut out the manufactured injury he can just focus on playing.
This game will go down in the Club's lore as one of our greatest games, especially with the added touch of it being the NP tribute game. Well done all around. Also, whatever it takes to sign EPB, pay the money.
yup. give him the extra money they were going to give to dom. epb looked fantastic tonight. had some moments where i fully expected him to dive in (like he would've two season ago when he debuted), but he instead held his ground and composure and didn't give up his positioning. that's what i want from my cb's. also, i'll retract my "eat shit, urruti" comment from earlier. it appears that he was genuinely upset about injuring opara. at the time, it looked to me like he was being a prick and refusing to leave the field to complain about getting a second yellow.
Absolutely Epic. That was one of the best experiences I have had at CMP since the 2013 MLS Cup win over RSL. Hats off to an SKC team that played FCD toe to toe even when playing a man down, then putting them away when the chances came. The entire team played great, but special acknowledgements go out to: 1. Ilie - This guy is money every time he steps on the field. Smooth, composed, and smart. 2. Ike - Terrific game until the kick in the head. Prayers for a complete and speedy recovery. 3. EPB - played like a veteran. Passes were pinpoint, defending was solid, stayed cool and calm under lots of pressure. Future starting defender if SKC can keep him. 4. Latif - The energizer bunny. Never let up for a minute, even late in the game scoring the needed goals. 5. Benny - Just the guy SKC needed to make some things happen resulting in goals.
Hand epb a contract offer this morning expiring at end of day . Elevate his financial world and give yourself a friendly deal at same time. Worth a shot. Get it done. With injuries, nothing is certain. Had a coworker buddy complaining yesterday about 'having' to go to the game. He's just not into the domestic game. He knows I'm a recovered euro snob and he likes to goad me for it. Looking forward to seeing him later today. What a game. Boss tha! I'm starting to really like Latif, even his pedantic shortcomings. I'm liking him in the Luis Suarez' I'm-glad-he's-on-my-team sort of way. Whether we had 10 or 11 players on the field last night, FCD always had to account for his speed. Youth and speed prevailed.
So much of this... If a person wasn't a fan and was made to sit through this game, I can't imagine them not a fan after it.
+Espinoza. He and Ilie were two wrecking balls on defense, while also pushing up intelligently and dangerously on offense at the right times, without exposing our backline. I've never seen Roger so composed on the attack as he was last night, down a man. That game was in the Top 3 SKC "win against adversity" outcomes at our home field, or as I like to put it: "that game by itself was worth half or more of the price of my season ticket". Definitely the best home win at our new stadium that wasn't a shootout. (My List of Top 5 Dramatic Home victories at Children's Mercy/Sporting Park, from #1 to #5) #1, 2013 MLS Cup win over RSL after 10 goal shootout #2, 2012 US Open Cup win over SEA after shootout, first Trophy in rebrand/Sporting KC era. #3, 2017 US Open Cup quarterfinal win over DAL in Neal Patterson tribute game, after being a man down for 90 mins, watchng Ike Opara stretchered off the field in extra time with game 0-0, and then punching through for decisive 3-0 win. #4, 2015 MLS Regular season (August) - down 1-3 in the 80th min, score 3 goals to beat VAN 4-3 #5, 2015 MLS Regular season (April) - 2 goals in stoppage time for the comeback win over PHI 3-2.
I would add the NE second leg playoff game where we won in ET (the Sinovic wonder goal game). Not only for excitement but for importance.
Damn, I missed a good one. Just following along on the score tracker was exhilarating. Watching highlights now...
9' - Wow. Rubio, you gotta bury that. 14' - Wow wow wow. How in the world aren't we up 2-0? 15' - I'd call that a text book red card. Doesn't matter that it's almost near the half way line to me. Crazy how much the previous chance plays into it, too. If we score in the 14th, Seth doesn't take a red in the 15th, and it's a completely different game. That's a great counterattack by Dallas. 48' - Disallowed goal. Man, I gotta tell ya, I hate rules protecting goalkeepers sometimes. 91' - Huuuuge save by Tim. That's one I've seen slip under keepers 1,000 times before. 105' - Dayum. Harsh yellow/red on Urruti, no way he could have seen Ike coming. Have we heard anything on Ike? That looked scary. 108+' - Great finish by Blessing, but holy shit did Benny beast mode that assist. 113+' - Cheeky finish. Love it. I think the delayed reaction was because he thought he was offside. After he scored, he turns around and sees the other Dallas defender standing there keeping him on and realizes it counts. The other Dallas defender does the same thing - appeals for offside, then turns around and sees him teammate keeping him on, then slams the ground in frustration. 110' - Wow, a ref calling the same play the same way in a single game. It's a unicorn. 118' - Just icing on the cake at this point, but nice finish from Salloi. Fun stuff.
I went to Ghost / Iron Maiden. It was fun. Missed the Minnesota home game too, though, so I have yet to witness a USOC game in person this year. I'm sure once I show up we'll lose.
agreed to all of the above imo Ike covers him during the whole attack so I do think that Urruti has to know that Ike will be going towards the ball. Imo should be always called dangerous play, and if you hit your opponent like that the ref will be hard pressed to give another yellow. Kudos to Urruti though for wanting to stay on field so that he can apologize to Ike. am i the only one (besides the dallas players) who saw a clear handball by feilhaber when he was stealing the ball? imo not completely the same situation. There is no question that Barrios would've been off to the races against Melia, much less clear that Feilhaber would've been through, I think there's a decent chance that the Dallas CB could've put a stop to his run. Then again, there was a very rough foul on Rubio in the first half where I would've like to see another replay. The one time they replayed it in the stadium it did seem like a challenge where the Dallas player could've easily seen a red card (instead of the yellow he got). And even though Blessing was probably faking it, how the Dallas GK can pull a down on the ground Blessing up by both arms and give him a shakedown and not get a yellow card is also interesting other than that ... WHAT A GAME!!!!!! the only critique I have is that the feilhaber sub came like half an hour too late. On the one hand, because Rubio was finished after the 60th minute and on the other, because medranda got beat like 27 times on his left hand side and that imo was to a considerable degree because Blessing was way too far up in his defensive positioning.
I'm not okay with any of the reds. If it's gonna take you half a dozen touches minimum to get in goal scoring range, that doesn't qualify as obvious. Anyways. Wasn't it just a month ago that Blessing couldn't make it an hour on the field? And now can go for twice that and be totally full of beans the whole time too. That's wild. Anyone notice that he only gets sly or goofy when he's having a great game? When he's not succeeding, he works hard and pretty smart. When things go his way, it goes to his head crazy fast. That's youth for you. Looking at the sub patterns... did we end in a 442 diamond?
Grade 3 concussion (worst kind) for Ike Opara. https://www.si.com/planet-futbol/20...-kansas-city-concussion-us-open-cup-fc-dallas For all of the adversity he has overcome the last 3 years re: injuries, here is another one to test his character. My thoughts and prayers for him to recover well. You have to be made of stuff stronger than steel to suffer this many setbacks and still keep wanting to come back. Ike has no need to prove anything to me in that regard - his comebacks before have already left me in awe of his resolve, even if he hung up the cleats on his career tomorrow. As a greedy fan, I hope Ike makes it back. But I hope for his long term health first and foremost, regardless of what that means on the field of play - where Ike has already given me more than a fair share of joy and triumphs watching him. I was terrified Ike might have been paralyzed when I saw the stretcher and neck brace - so at least it's not that. GO, GO, IKE!
Ugh, grade 3 concussion is bad. Expect Ike to be out for an extended period of time. Hate to have that happen to a great guy like Ike. Ellis and EPB now have to hold down the back line until Besler gets back so I expect to see Didic back on the bench.