First game at CMP in months, with an in-person (17% full) crowd - which hopefully will sound better on TV than pumped in crowd noise. I'll be at the stadium, which I expect could be a very different experience than any other in my 25 seasons - given all of the new Safety Protocols in place. SKC is at the top of the Western Conference, with a chance to take back the Supporter's Shield lead with a win vs. a currently winless team. I can't escape a bad feeling about this.... I'm of course rooting for SKC to exit tonight with all 3 points, and to look good on the field while doing so!
I'd love to see Busio in the No.6 role again to see if he can duplicate the performance in Minnesota.
For those of us who have been attending games since 1996, that is an amazing fact. Back in the Arrowhead days you had difficulty giving tickets away, let alone scalping them for over $100.
Also attending tonight. Will remind me of some those lonely games at Arrowhead when between 5,000 - 2,000 would show up.
I'm curious tonight how 3,000 fans, perfectly spread equally around an 18,000 capacity stadium, will feel compared to old Arrowhead with 5,000 fans quasi-bunched up in the lower tier in a 78,000 capacity stadium. I think the former tonight will feel much livelier than the latter - at least I hope so! We shall find out soon.
And me here not having a real way to watch this on TV. Gonna be a disheartening season at this rate if I can never watch SKC games...
Independent of there being a Sporting game on tonight, the wife and I decided to crack open and consume a couple bottles of wine tonight. SKC was defending at the speed my brain was moving. Midfield is a sieve. Fullbacks are complete liabilities. CBs and keeper were unable to react to the hilarious number of good chances gifted to the opposition. That's my take. I like the concept of Busio at a 6, but we really need a significant investment there before we'll start getting shutdown results.
I got frustrated and took the dog for a walk. Came back turned it on just in time to see Zusi running 10 yards behind an attacker who gets a simple tap in for the 5th goal. Did Zusi or Lindsey make a defensive play the entire game? I understand that we want to press high and play attacking football. But isn't the idea for some people to rotate back and cover for the fullbacks when they are on the attack? It seems like we are constantly left with everyone but the centerbacks in the attacking third. I don't know anything about soccer so I'm probably full of it. But one thing I do know. We are slow and play shitty defense.
In-stadium experience/trivia (likely not seen on TV) No VIP section fans. The first rows on all sections were off limits due to 6 ft proximity to the field. Then the last row of VIP on the edges was used by media, while the middle sections were used to space the bench players from both teams 6 feet apart (and they had to wear masks) No flag on field for the National Anthem. The anthem singer had to be spaced far from the players. No lines of people anywhere, the most crowded was one concession stand at halftime with 4 people in line in front of me. Took all of 5 mins to get through. No ball kids - there was one older staff member to place a ball on a pedestal near the corner kick area. It was sometimes so quiet you could hear the players shout instructions to each other. Cheering through a mask reduces noise level substantially. Even more than I expected coming in. Especially if using the official SKC mask (sold at concession stands for $20, STH 15% discount also applies to make it $17.) Stadium "mask enforcers" take less than 3 minutes on average to get to crowd members who had taken off their masks and were not eating food/drink. There were some younger fans nearby who kept testing the boundaries of enforcement. The 100+ HD security cameras hidden in the stadium were definitely being put to use there. I rate the general experience as quieter and less energetic than the slowest of Arrowhead days. Although part of that is quite likely due to how poor SKC was performing on the field. And speaking of that last part. I've sat through almost every home game in 25 seasons, including some really bad blowout losses in uncomfortable weather. This is the first game I have ever left before the final whistle. Sad.... On the bright side, somehow we will still be alone in first place after our other conference opponents play game 7, and will also remain one point off the SS lead.
My opinion was we were intentionally playing aggressively to score and take a lead. The tradeoff is this maximized our exposure to our greatest weakness of the last 2+ seasons - a slow SKC mid and defense pushed up high on offense, who are then destroyed when facing speed and switch field passing on a counterattack (usually initiated by a sloppy SKC turnover). Monterrey in 2019 CCL really exposed us here. When at one point Houston had 5 shots, 5 shots on goal, and 3 goals scored, that tells you everything you need to know about what happened to our defense. Meanwhile both our goals came off defender clearances that went off the crossbar, and we were fortunate to be in position for the rebound goal. But for me the catalyst of it all was the 2018 decision to dump the most athletic, speedy, and vertical threat player on our defense - 2019 MLS Defender of the Year (for Minnesota) Ike Opara, over a salary dispute. And we have now spent multiple times the delta in Opara's salary ask, on slower, failed CB replacements (plural).
This is how PV approaches every game and my biggest grievance with him. It was not just Monterry. You could say the same about Portland and how they beat SKC in the conference semi final a few years ago. And you can say the same about almost every loss this team has suffered in the past few years. The troubling thing about this team over the past two years is the number of games where they conceeded 4 or 5 (or more) goals. That should never happen in MLS, as there isn't much difference in roster quality between the top and bottom, but it has happened somewhat regularly to SKC in the past two years. Why? The main reason is the quality of the defensive players, but a very close second is "the way we play". The defensive line is always high and the outside backs are always pushed into the attacking third. That leaves the defense with two CBs near the midfiled line and a DM. As we all know, Illie is slow and easily beaten in transition. Busio has looked good in the small sample size, but you can tell he hasn't played the position much because he can't read the game yet and is often in a bad position to stop counters. That leaves two CBs to cover the counter attack. This is not rocket science. Either get better defenders or change the way you play. We all know that PV will never change tactics so, until we get outside backs that actually defend and a DM who is athletic and has played the position in more that three games, we can expect to see the same crap we've seen with SKC for years. It's like watching Groundhog Day.
In light of last night's decisions, I'm starting to feel a little sad that SKC played a little too early to join the protesting. This is greatly magnified by the fact that all our lives would be better if that game hadn't happened at all...
Happy to see Busio develop here. He has decent speed and had some nice tackles (and a really poor one that led to the yellow). And while I like that he feels free to push the ball forward in the attack, your comments about stranded CBs is even more true. You can't have the DM and both of the outside backs all up the field at the same time. Somebody needs to be home on defense - that rotation and balance needs to get figured out. Lindsey and Zusi seem to simply be slow, so once they are forward, they are immediately a defensive liability. What happened to Martins?
From today: Vermes: Martins had a injury and had not trained enough and that is why he was not in the lineup #SportingKC— Thad (@TheBackpost) August 27, 2020