He didn't make the 18 this weekend, so maybe not? But frankly any team with a left winger at all concerns me.
I watched Houston this weekend, and after reading repeatedly about how unstoppable a front line of Chicarito, Pavon and Katai would be in MLS, i was impressed by how well Houston shut them down. They move the ball well. I wasn't impressed by their movement off the ball, it was more zonal standing around, but, you know, Galaxy defense. Add Elis to that mix, though, and they're a lot to handle, esp if Quintero is playing. I don't know if he starts, or is better as a sub at 60 when chasing a game, but Ramos' team looked solid without two of their 3 shiny pieces.
The one moment this weekend that gave us serious worry for the season ahead was how completely Zusi was skinned on that goal. The guy beat him with pace, strength and craft, in one short-ish run. I know Liindsey doesn't inspire excitment on here, but at the very least he can match the pace on that play, and only get beaten in two ways.
The thing about the fear that Lindsay is "no better" that I don't get ... we KNOW Zusi isn't ever going to get better. Lindsay has the tools, just needs game time at this level. I am ready to give it to him and figure out if we need to make a midseason move or something to figure that spot out. Can't figure out if we have something internal if we run Zusi out there every game. Play the kid!
Yeah, my fear about Lindsey is that he is actively much worse than Zusi. I think we'll see how his development has gone before too long, but his history at MLS level is very bad. I'm definitely rooting for the kid, and I hope he is good enough to supplant Zusi soon. Doesn't mean I'm not incredibly nervous about his abilities at this professional level though.
The West is full of good, fast, LW forwards besides Elis. Zusi/ PV will need to figure out how to deal with them. My guess is that Zusi will be the outside back that hangs back this year, while we attack from the LB position. Shelton will also be asked to help much more than Russell.
I'm not so sure we're looking at much of a gap between Lindsey and Zusi these days. There never was much air between them defensively. Zusi works hard, but he's always hanging on by a thread on the defensive end. Lindsey has shown an ability to harrass an attacker that's almost on par with peak Zusi. That said, this weekend Zusi got destroyed by David f'ing Milinkovic, who may be the next big thing in MLS left wings but is he? Zusi's value as a RB, and I am on record saying it has been considerable as i rated him as the best RB in MLS for several previous seasons (not last), anyway his value has been in how he unbalances opposition because he is so dangerous getting out and running tirelessly into the attack. His crosses are quite good and his attacking instincts and legs gave SKC an edge in MLS. If we now have to restrict his forward forays and turn him into an old school right back, with a mime box 10 yards into the attacking half, what is the value in that? Peak Zusi would have been a waste in that role. Current Zusi as defensive first, last and only, in the MLS right back constellation, ranks pretty low, and maybe bottom. But beyond that, if we have to compensate for his newfound deficencies by hobbling our attack (actually removing our black arrow from our quill), what is the point of that? Johnny's cut ins from the right are the most dangerous thing we have going in our attack. I love Kinda and Pulido is life, but they're better if defenders have to fear the danger that lurks to their right. So now our options are a slower (somehow he got slower) Zusi, who works hard but has never been a natural defender, unable to get into the attack without endangering our defense. He was a force multiplier. Now he's a force devider. Lindsey may not be the answer, but he is the answer we have on the bench right now. If he turns 20 and it is clear that he lacks what it take in MLS, then that's sad because he seems like a good guy, but it's time to move on, this year, and use his roster spot on someone who can, at least, defend like a right back should. An idea, because I do love Zusi, maybe he can spell Ilie? DM doesn't have to have the speed and lungs of what we demand from our right back.
I think we saw the Zusi held back/Shelton help out approach against Vancouver. Martins pushed forwards a lot, often getting to the opposite byline on his runs. He's just as good going forward as Zusi is, but he has the speed and engine required to make those runs without giving up too much on the defensive end.
yep, we saw the least switching among our wingers that I can recall in the last 5 years, specifically so Shelton can help Zusi.
This is a sad day for me. This will be the first home opener in 19 years that I will not be in attendance. Watching on TV is just not the same.....
Use the SAeat Geek app. The Android version of the SKC app "hasn't been launched yet" according to the email I just received from my ticket rep.
Yep, the team just responded to someone on my timeline on twitter saying the same, that they were waiting for the Google Play Store to approve it.
First half of the first half we were watching my nephew's basketball game on the phone and SKC from the Cauldron. North Dakota State 71 - Denver U. 69. SKC 2 - Hou 0 at the half. So far, so good.
Team is really clicking so far. Pulido and “Good Gadi Almighty” Kinda are fun to watch. Martins was a stud tonight. Johnny had a lot of energy and Ilie was much better. When you can bring Gerso and Busio off the bench that is some scary talent all over the pitch, and Felipe hasn’t played yet. Now, can they sustain this level of play consistently?
I don't know that this level of dominance can be sustained. Audi score seems even more lopsided than actual score, and at 4-0 that isn't easy. per Audi stats: SKC 4251-Houston 586. Our score is really good. Their score is the lowest I can remember having seen. It's more like a reflection of a 4 to -2 scoreline. It's so low that I would dismiss Houston as a total waste of a side if they hadn't been decent against LAG (who may be the huge flop of 2020). Shelton, our top Audi performer, and Pulido both bested Houston by themselves. Kinda and Roger were pretty close to neck and neck with them. But while Pulido is life and his score is easy to see (a goal and officially one assist, though I don't understand why his header on Roger's doesn't make that two), with a aerial, two takes on, etc, won make his 726 very easily digestible. BTW, when we dreamed of the striker we needed, he scored goals like the two he's scored so far. He's just so clinical. Shelton, though, wow. 926. Goal, assist (wait, was that Shelton's header to Roger?), 2 key passes and headed clearances, 43-3 on his passing, 3 aerial battles won, almost no negatives. Amazing night. Kinda, more than kinda love the guy. Overall 564, 33-3 on his passing, 4 takes ons won. 4! to go with 3 lost. He took people on 7 times on the dribble! He is thrilling a total difference maker. Jeebus, get Felip G in there with him and you got yourself a stew going. Roger, 553, 457-6 on his passing. 4 tackles won.2 aerials won. he was a beast. Odd though, the only other player we had above the MLS average Audi score line was Besler, who was also into the excellent range at 445. 66-11 on his passing, but won 4 aerials, added 3 ints. Impressive outing. After that, we were all below average. Now Melia was never getting many points in this match. There wasn't enough for him to do to earn stat points. And without the yellow, Ilie would have been above the line. 84-9 on his passing. His distribution map is interesting, much more dangerous on the left. Her covered most of the field between the boxes, though. It looks more like an Ilie game to me than his poor outings. One worry, look at Johnny's action map. It looks like a victim in Halloween, lots of long red lines. He's playing too many long balls. his audi score of 118 reflects that. though he did win 3 takes ons and aerial battles. Anyway, nice outing.
@mschofield shelton kinda sorta assisted to the first goal (If i had to make a guess it would be that he was trying to pass to johnny rather than pulido) and espinoza's goal was assisted by the dynamo defender. really hard to find many negatives in this game. I was still relatively low on hype after the vancouver game since they were just so bad and we looked completely unwilling to do anything in the second half, but this game against a solid opponent really gives me hope for this season. now on to atlanta, an absolutely elite level mls team and see how we do there. I'm gonna try anyway though and say two negative things: - one minor one, I would have liked to see Salloi get a couple of minutes instead of Hurtado - one major one, the three take ons that kinda lost were all in our half, which, together with the vancouver game, makes it a total of 5 turnovers caused by him on our side of the pitch. As exciting as he is to watch, at this rate he's going to be a Croizet level turnover machine. Definitely more skilled than Croizet which means that his take-ons will work much more frequently, but his desire to always do the positive thing no matter where he is on the pitch might come to haunt us.