No Burciaga, No Simu Who gets #'s 2, 8, 9 and who's in the high 20's? The short speech after player intros: CJ will offer sponsor kudos and "Thank you for coming" and BG will detail the goals of '04...Cup, Open Cup, USA interests, etc. It would be nice if the FO office could come up with something interesting like a marketing plan for adults OR creation of something to spur a rivalry; like a Cup or whatever. Even a quote from a player promising a Shutout of whoever for the season would be nice. Anything beyond what we throw around on this board. On field: MEOLA: I'd like to see something of a quick reaction early in the year. I can't see him at full speed at an event like this, but it would be nice to see. You never know how the drafting of a young stud will effect a guy's dynamic. Plus if HESMER turns out to be the real deal, maybe that picks up Tony's play. Who knows? Backup GK: This is the first I can remember of an actual interesting battle for a roster spot at GK. You would think Hesmer is safe, so it's BO v GOODE. Or KC keeps 4 keepers, presumably as part of a future trade of some sort. Is anyone from last year's developmental squad good enough to stay? The sands in the hourglass' of GRAHAM, JJ, BRUNT are seemingly counting down. The draftees: Go Roos and all that, but is BARBER of this level? TAYLOR was the third overall pick. That's the territory of immediate starter, if not impact starter. In absence of how and why he came to be here, if he doesn't look like an obvious starter at some point, the pick is highly questionable. The other side is if he shows amy promise at all, a trade for whatever KC proves to lack might be in the offing. Taylor and HARRIS will fight for starting time, I hope. A healthy WOLFF combining with Taylor is also a mouth-watering thing to observe over a slice of Popa John's. Connected to Taylor is THOMAS. Speed and skill makes up his requirement to be here. Does he have it? If so, enough to knock out Burciaga when he's here? At some point we'll see him against Wolff, HARRIS, or Taylor PREKI's speed and touch after a few months to stretch, meditate, and heal. Normally, he makes a stock move or two in the open as to not embarass anyone. Then his A game is put away for things more important than dog and pony shows. ARMSTRONG v WALSH on the left wing. Most likely one will start the other will sub. Personally, I'm very interested to see JAY ALBERTS, the Yale scorer, in action to see how he compares to Klein on the right and the above guys on the left. Albee has the resume that says he can pass and score. Where can he play? It's a big jump from Ivy to learning from the MVP. That said, the goal is the same size and the angles, although more acute (thinner due to speed), are still in the same spots at every level of any game, especially this one. There have been a few 5'8" guys that have found success putting others on the board. ALso of interest is how GANSLER will use the new guys. Nothing says they will play in their college positions. BG will emphasize offensive drills at the First Look as that is sexy. Beyond the public show, will KC alternate between collecting at the back and busting down wings as they have attempted to the last 2 years OR develop something new? One thing I noticed in putting this together is that in every "underperforming" (I'm using that vaguely) position for KC there is at least one body with not just possibility, but probability. Not an accident as all teams patch holes. KC still has questions, but what stood out to me, is that the only holes to speak of right now for KC is depth in August and maybe Tony's level. Those are not exactly things that whould keep any of us up nights. Pretty solid way to start a season.
Actually, he was the fourth overall pick. Also, the re-acquisition of Igor means he's probably headed for a lot of bench time until Wolff is gone for Nats duty.
I mentioned this in another thread, but it is confirmed that Taly is not on the team anymore. He is in Ohio now because he is too old to be a developmental player. Spoke to him this week and confirmed it.
So who went? I would say something insightful about how the team played, but honestly I didn't do much evaluating of the team- more of the cuteness of the new players. I can't be blamed though...
Call me crazy, but didn't it seem like they were pretty cute on average? Jay Alberts was the most impressive rookie tonight, IMHO (and cute). He looked really good on the right flank. Taylor scored a gift goal, but he looked all right on the whole. Hessmer, too. (By a process to convoluted to describe, McGinty and I decided to call Hessmer "The Baron") Detter did himself no favors. None of the other guys, or random practice players, made much of an impression on me one way or another. One thing that did stand out was that Jewsbury and Gomez played well in the middle. It looked to me like Jackson should be the backup to Kerry Z. at the d-mid spot. Davy looked pretty good, Wolde looked bored, and the Old Man did exactly what he needs to do.
1. matt taylor scored the first goal against Jimmy's team. 2. there were several guest players. with no numbers, one of them scored the second goal - for the same team. he was the leftback. they called him "leo" and Marcel. 3. Arnaud and Jewsbury looked more like veterans than rookies. 4. i am drunk. 5. preki schooled conrad to setup the second goal. 6. this was their sixth overall practice. 7. jimmy answered my question about defensive organization with a statement about "recognizing danger"... whatever that means. isnt that what scouting is for. 8. they are playing 3 games in florida, 5-6 in protugal, and then games in oklahoma, springfield, iowa, and sedalia. i am planning on going to the sedalia game. 9. not too many people there, but it was good. the new guys all had skill. 10. es gibt keine Wahrheit, nur Meinungen die ganz verueckt sind.
Just one practice, but good for the soul #1-Tony- looked fairly sharp, wasn't challenged much #2-short black fireplug defensemen that actually didn't look bad. He didn't get intoduced. Practice guy? #10 Gomez - Average. With all the starters gone, shouldn't he make an impression? #8-Diego Walsh - I didn't notice much concerning him, sorry. #9, #28 - Unintroed practice players #4 Shavar Thomas - still in Mexico, Jamaica eliminated #7 Guti - In Colombia for a wedding #11 - Strung togther about 6 moves to lose #2 repeatedly. The guy had enough recovery to stay with Preki, which is why he had to bust out so many moves. Impressive both ways. Moves ended in a blocked shot, BTW. Will not happen on a big field. Is it possible for Preki to look faster? Gotta check out this Yoga thing. #12 JIM-MAY - Took the big hit of the night, getting dumped face-first #13 Wolde did little but curse and yell for the ball (if he was open or not). Teammates ignored him often. He's on his way out and knows it, IMO #14 Jewsbury - Better than last year, still made mistakes #16 SA - hurt, was walking around, DNP #18 Brunt - Get this, he looked pretty good. Didn't lose a battle all night that I saw. Looked thicker, stronger. Beaten once, but recovered and took the ball on second effort. I noticed this about :10 in and started to look for mistakes. Didn't find any. #19 - Taylor - Scored on a giveaway distribution by Hesmer, right to him. One dribble to change angle and boom near post from 22. Missed another he could have potted. Not over-awed. Looked raw and dangerous. Easiest to spot, he's the only floppy blonde beach-head on KC. All this snow has to be killing him. He looked smaller than listed #21 - Alberts (Yale guy) - As mentioned, he impressed me too. Most possession passes connected, if not he ran down his mistake. Any attacking pass was made agressively and with knowledge before he did it. Quill with some D skill and better decisions?!? One pass he sliced through 25 yards diagonally crossfield through 3 guys into the box. He missed his runner by a defender's stretched toe. The pass was a quick turn and go long type. Dangerous. Outside of Preki's string of moves, it was the highlight for me. He might be a pest. #22 Davy - better in connection, still didn't have much D, got turned over pretty easy #23 Zoti - didn't notice, wasn't really looking #24 Bo - Conspicuous by his absence. Nothing was mentioned, unless I missed it. 3 keepers at the practice, the third wasn't introed. Tall 6'4"ish skinny guy. #26 Taylor Graham - So-so #27 Justin Detter, #28 unintroed, #29 Ryan Barber - didn't notice much good or bad. #30 Hesmer - Howler that Taylor sent back at him. He looked like a young GK, athlete, nervous, wide-eyed, mistakes, high effort. He'll either relax or stroke out mid season, whatever. Tony starts. From last year's practice guys, the only obvious improvement to me was Brunt. Hard to tell much with 6-7 starters away. Solid practice for missing so many.
I'd say as a whole, the entire team was cute...even the old man in a strange way! Anyways, I'm quite sure I was several of you there last night (one of them being you, Sam) though I couldn't put anybody elses name to their face. Two years of BS and the cauldron and finally I can do that...ha.
He is trying to hook on with Syracuse or any other team in the A League unless something turns up in MLS but he didn't think that would happen.