Well, whaddaya think, screw the regular season and throw everything we have at still not drawing any lower-division sides in the USOC?
If we want to rest our older guys, we sit Johnny, Shelton, Uri, Melia and Roger, wouldn't that kind of be the side folks here want to see? Start Vujonic, Tzonis, Pulskamp, hernandez and someone at the 6? We'd all like to see if that's a side that can make a case for starting much more often, isn't it? I have no idea what to do about the 6, honestly. OTOH, if PV really wants to focus on the USOC, won't he start the regulars?
PV's comments yesterday point to some rotation as they haven't had a full training session since the game this weekend.
I want to give Peter the benefit of the doubt and say that part of the reason that the subs during the weekend didn't get more time is because they planned to start them today. Not sure if they planned that or not but I sure hope we see some of the newer guys starting.
I love the Open Cup. I respect the idea that they should limit travel so lower-league teams are unduly charged to participate. I hate playing the same teams over and over again.
THIS. Counting tonight, in the last 16 USOC games, KC has played Dallas or Houston in HALF of them. Add in Minnesota and it's 11 of 16 games against just 3 teams. Only 1 of the last 16 have been against a team not in MLS (and that was Minnesota the year before they joined MLS).
I don't know what Peter said at HT, but it certainly worked. Different team in the 2nd half. Job well done. Have to give them credit.
So the secret to success this season is have the opposition go a man down. extra time honestly was never a question with the man advantage.
Honest opinion, stated with 100% sincerity. The most valuable person in the SKC organization responsible for tonight's win was.... Patrick Mahomes. I was at the game tonight, and the stadium was maybe 20% full at its peak, and that's being generous. SKC was putrid in the first half, only getting a couple badly placed shots after the 40th minute, after going down 2-0 early. The second half was much different, and you could see life after we scored in the 60th to make it 2-1, and Vermes started making the subs that showed he was playing to win. Around the 65th minute, the stadium camera panned to the executive suite adjacent to the owners area. Outside in the seats was owner Patrick Mahomes in an SKC jersey, Brittany, and Travis Kelce. I've been at SKC games when you could "feel" the stadium energy turn and you knew a win was coming. The 2017 Dallas Open Cup after Opara got injured. The 2015 Vancouver game where Dwyer scored in the 81st to make it 2-3, and we scored two more to win 4-3. I see one of these every 1-3 years, and they are worth half the price of an entire season ticket, and is why I keep coming back after 27 seasons. Mahomes revved the crowd up on the screen and the energy of the stadium hit a similar level. I've never seen 3,000 people create that much energy. Patrick Mahomes wants to win. Period. Doesn't matter at what, or if this is just a round of 32 US Open Cup game in an almost empty venue. The Champion only wants to win, and he "wills" everyone around him, on field and off, to emotionally BELIEVE! When SKC scored the 98th minute equalizer that the stadium could feel was coming, Mahomes was as pumped up as I ever saw him after a Chiefs TD. Patrick did not look like a passive owner just throwing money at something local for appearances. He was "in" to his team, maybe even more so than the actual players were in the 1st half. Regardless of talent or tactics, passion is always a key ingredient in soccer. SKC proved this in tonight's "Tale of two halves". The team still doesn't look awesome. A better placed Dallas miss on an empty net while up 2-1 in the 2nd half could have turned this into a loss. Shelton's brace in Extra Time was more lucky than good, while also a man up (but at least he took some shots) But a win is a win, and hopefully the positive emotions will be a catalyst that can carryover for the rest of the season. Mahomes - The Champion, helped show the way tonight.
A huge upside to this is that Vujnovic, Tzonis and Shelton all got a first goal. Given how rare goals are, that's good on it's own. But given how important the fragile confidence of goal-scorers can be, it's a great thing to see. Sure, shelton's first was a hella lucky own goal, but I do think it gave him the confidence to get the second. Vujnovic' goal was really well taken, and he needed to get off his zero. Tzonis was a good, solid goal, and as we know he can make a difference, I think it will make us better. Another upside, PV is showing more flexibility this season than he has in the past. Sure, he's still Vermes, but that was a 3-5-2 we put out there, and for the second time this season. For 10 years, we played pretty much the exact same way, and it usually worked so it was hard to complain too much even when it seemed some adjustments were needed. This year, he is trying out quite a bit of different stuff. Also, exactly who is Mr. Glass? and was Pierre any good?
Glass is an SKCII player signed on a short term loan for last night. Pierre was fine, not great, not bad. Looked like a 19 year old without a lot of experience.
Watching the second half stoppage time wind down I was thinking that losing 2-1 was a fair result. Could have argued that 3-1 would have been more representative of the game. But then the red card and a stellar header and Dallas was burned up.
This game was what a lot of us have been asking for. Give time to the young guys and let them work through some mistakes. The negative: The first half understandably looked like a bunch of guys who haven't had much playing time all out there together at the same time playing in a formation and some positions that they normally don't play in. The defense was probably lucky not to give up 4-5 goals. The positive: Peter gave a lot of different guys some playing time. Luckily the guys started pulling it together in the second half. The goals were nice. Vujnovic's was the nicest for me. Has Shelton ever scored a goal like that? Speaking of Shelton...I hope this game gives him the confidence or whatever to get his mojo back because I don't see Peter moving away from him regularly after he scored a goal off of his hustle. That is the kind of thing Peter thinks about during his "alone time". I wish he'd gotten on the end of one of the 3-4 beautiful crosses that people put in for him. Another positive is that we'll have another open cup game that Peter can use to play some different combinations of players.
Does anyone get young Zusi vibes off of Duke? He is starting to remind me of Zusi in that he seems to be a kind of guy that you can plug him in at several different positions and he isn't the most flashy or athletic guy but he reads the game well enough to positively impact it.
Duke is definitely the real deal. In some ways, whenever I watch him I find myself thinking he's a better piece of the team than Busio was. I'm excited to see him continuing to improve. I'm not sure I see Zusi in there as I think they're very different players, but I also feel like Peter is very high on programming players to jam into whatever situation he needs. So kids coming up through his system are very likely to be unusually versatile. That said, and it's not even close... Walter is our best midfielder right now, and by a long shot. He was a very, very good signing. Not his fault our 10 is out for the year and our 6 situation is a nightmare. He's out there carrying shaky midfields on his back.
I get Zusi vibes in how excited i get while watching them learn the RB position. Duke might not be super athletic, but he's a total speed merchant compared to Zusi. Even young Zusi wasn't fast. He had an engine that never slowed down, never ran out of gas but speed was never his thing. duke has speed and adds a really cool element from RB. I hope that position is his future, because I can see him in four years being in the USMNT discussion if he keeps improving. I know Zusi's nats time was as a wing, but IMO he was never more than a good winger. He was a great RB.
just saw the vermes presser after the game and his comments on tzionis are just..wow.. am i the only one pissed off by this? basically accusing him of putting in almost no effort when he doesn't have the ball. not only do i think this is wrong (mls.com unfortunately does not seem to track running stats) but even if it were, making such a brutal critique publicly (even if the critique was given in a rather nonchalant way) almost invites another Mauri situation