Will that random pass count as Shelton's first assist? Remi and Roger work horses in midfield today. No matter how this ends, much respect for their performance.
Well OK,,,,there was some crazy stuff in that game we didn’t expect and some that were all to familiar. 1. SKC gave up the first goal and came back to win with a 4-1-4-1 formation. 2. They won an away game. 3. Roger. He reminded me of the lyrics of an old country song “I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was”. That was the effort, shot, and goal of the year. 4. Ben Sweat made me sweat. He had a few good moments, but other than that, he was awful. 5. Shelton had two wide open headers in front of goal. He sent one wide and whiffed on the other. Most competent strikers would have scored on both. 6. Shelton had kind of an assist. From a wide position he made a cut back pass in the box, but behind Salloi, and a savvy sprinting Walter put it in the net. 7. Uri didn’t cause the team any problems and really did a fairly good job. 8. Pierre is now a better outside back than Zusi. 9. Again, Walter shows just how good he is played in his natural position. 10. Other than the Montreal goal, the back line did OK.
I thought we were fairly poor in the air giving up numerous open headers to MTL. SKC's favorite whipping boy made a timely headed clearance near the end of the match so he did at least two good things yesterday.
Nothing has changed with that part of their game. SKC got lucky that MTL didn’t score on their 12 corners.
Pierre really did look good, didn't he. I was thinking that during the game and glad to see I wasn't alone. The defense seemed to be giving up a lot of headers. Shelton really should be subbed out for one of the newcomers as soon as they are available. With full appreciation that few mid-season imports do well, the situation has reached the point that it would be difficult to do worse. If they can put a ball on frame they are better offensively. And if they are not as solid as Shelton defensively...well, it's the center forward so ease up on the defensive focus.
It was nice to see the guys get a win. They really needed to have a positive game experience for change. But, it a steep uphill climb for SKC in the next three weeks. The travel to Minnesota with 3 days rest to play on Wednesday, then travel to RSL on the 17th with 3 days rest, then come home to face Gareth Bale, Carlos Vela, Georgio Chiellini and the rest of LAFC on Saturday the 23rd. If that's not bad enough, 4 days after LAFC, they have to travel to Sacramento for the USOC game. Then with 2 days rest, they play ATX. This 6 game stretch looks like a horror show basically playing 2 games a week for the rest of the month. Its going to be brutal.
Yep...I was looking at the game schedule a while back and its gonna be a gauntlet. It is one of the reasons I don't really expect any meaningful rally towards the end of the season. We are going to be TIRED and there won't be any training time to get the new guys acclimated to the system for a while.