Game: Sporting Kansas City vs FC Dallas Date: Wednesday, September 2nd Time: 7:30 pm [Local] | 00:30 [Universal] Location: Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America Weather Forecast: Partly Cloudy; H 82, L 67 Competition: Major League Soccer Live TV: KTXA-21 [DFW] | KCPN-4.2 [Amarillo] | KMYL-22.2 [Lubbock] | KTPN-48 [Tyler] | Fox Sports KC Plus [Kansas City] | ESPN+ [USA] | DAZN [Canada] Radio: FCDallas.com/radio [English] | 1270 AM [Spanish] Hoping my thread picture is a good omen for Franco Jara getting on the board.
Picture worked Jara still looks disconnected. Expected though. I see tons of people on SM roasting the guy, but history shows it takes time to adapt to the league, let alone a new team and system. I'm giving the guy the rest of the year to be honest. Jesus looked good again, nice outing. Same for Barrios. I think Santos added to his "start me" campaign. The last two matches he's been a bright spot in the middle. Bad give away in front of the box that almost cost us though. Acosta dropped back down a bit. He looks more comfortable with the attacking freedom, but I still think there's more in the tank. Servenia had a good night as well. I hope he doesn't see the bench again when the new guy needs a spot. I thought Nelson had his best game. Still some things to work through with communication but that takes minutes. Weird injury for Mauer, hope he's ok. He needs to get better at commanding his box aerially. Two straight games now with a major flub in that department. Zobeck stepped in well, but don't think he's pushing for the spot. This is two straight games now where we look like two different teams from half to half. Or maybe the opposition looks like two different teams? This looks like a Luchi problem. Not sure if he's not able to adjust when the opposition does, or he just doesn't see a need to tweak anything and it's too late, but the last two games I felt like I was holding onto my seat the whole second half hoping we don't give up a goal.
I missed the injury to Mauer, and they didn't show a replay. What happened? Both teams had chances they should have put away. Deserved draw, I guess.
People seem eager to label Jara as the next Colman. It's still way too early, especially in this weird season, to label him a bust. He's blown some chances, but that was a nice finish last night. Hopefully that puts him on a good path. I was impressed by his willingness to track back in the second half.
People who are trying to label him as the next Colmán either are dumb, or have brainworms, or are trying to be the first to toss out the hottest Hot Sports Opinion that they can imagine. Jara was scoring regularly a few months back in a league that is, by all accounts, a better one than MLS. He's got a pretty good multiyear track record of scoring at a pretty good clip in that league. These are things that Cristian Colmán could not ever claim. And his goal on Wednesday night showed why he has that track record. It was a sublime, mature finish. The guy is on a big money contract with a new team and he was in his seventh match with that club without a goal. No one, but no one, was more eager to get on the board than him, and I think we saw that with the penalty kick situation on Saturday night. I would give you 90% odds that every other player on this team would've tried to blast the ball into the net, and more than likely have put the ball into row ZZ. But Jara treated it like a veteran striker should, assessed the situation, and calmly chipped Melia. IMHO, the problem with Jara has not been completely with Jara, but with the service that he's gotten. He's not been getting a thousand chances and not finishing them. The number of shots that any FCD has had over the past few matches has been pathetically low, and that's from ANY player. Nobody has been getting the ball with a good look at goal. Now, has Jara been a bit disconnected from his midfield? Sure. But the midfield has been the main problem. Nobody has been putting the ball into dangerous place for the opposition where a teammates has the space to capitalize on it.
My jabs at Jara were to specifically label his first two woeful missed chances as "Colmán-like" (cross-body whiff and an open net header that went wide). TBH, I don't know what they have in Jara. He's stunningly slower than I imagined, Buzz says he's about Cobra's speed, which is anything but "fast". He also put in a tiring shift in KC and I was impressed that even deep into the game his willingness to track back when Dallas turned the ball over in the attacking 1/3 for the 147th time. Dustin is somewhat correct on service issues, and maybe this new #10 will help in that dep't. My fear is what Andy said on the show, is that he is a player that requires other top talent to bring out his best and not a guy that can grab a game on his own. Point being, while he's not Colman, he's also not yet proven to be Vela.