After seeing two games I could not be happier. I think this team if going to play a hell of a lot better than last years. Williams, Clark, Guevara, Pope and Digi are clearly great additions!!!!!! Moreno on the other hand I'm not sure. Let me explain. I think he is a great player, but he is clearly not a center forward. He moves too much. Tends to go to the wings too much, and doesn't shoot that often. Again, his skills are obviously amazing, but he is too similar of a player as Mathis and Guevara (more the first than the second though). This team needs a point man up front. With the amount of skill on midfield and forward we would do much better with a Kreis, Twellman, Ruiz, and yes Faria, then we can do with Moreno. Especially on today's game, I saw a lot of players making amazing plays to get up front but had no one in the box as a reference. I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to say. Magee could be that player, but saying he is green is an understatement... he tries but he keeps making mistakes, he seems nervous, etc. I'm not saying I'm not happy with the team we have but I see Mathis, Guevara and Moreno as three players that are too similar... just wish we had a pure striker instead of one of them. As for Digi, he looked good. Very vertical... we'll see great things from him this season I'm sure. Same with Clark... 20 years old? No way!!! ROY frontrunner in my book. Finally I've like to talk about our defense. Jolley and Pope are solid, so is Digi as our left back (although I'd rather see him play midfield for 90 minutes)... but I'm not too happy with our right backs. Ziadie is not starter material... but he is certainly better than Leich who sucked today. Didn't see a single good thing from him. And his mistake lead to a goal. I hope I'm wrong. Is it too late to bring Soñora back?
I enjoyed the match. Both teams had good spells of possesion and DiGiamarino was great. I also thought Guevara looked good, even if he had only one days practice with you guys. Howard looked good, and saved the match against Fish there near the end, although he was bailed out by the post when Califf put that headed on in OT. Mathis. Wow. Dude, get your head out of your butt. How many times did he just pass it straight to the Galaxy? I realize he is still a little fresh from his surgery, but still, he looked like excrement today. As a Galaxy fan, obviously I would have preferred the victory, but the Metros played a good match and a draw was well deserved. Given a little time to gel, you guys should have a nice season with that defense.
Good points, the main disagreement I have is about Ziadie. I thought he played well in both games. I have to say I was surprised by Wolyniec. He is big and slow, but had great possession and drew a yellow card
I still don't see Ziadie as the answer though, but he is certainly better than Leitch. As for your observation about Wolyniec, I agree, and it totally proves my point. Here is a player who is not super skilled etc. yet is a true stricker. He looked decent up front, in the box or right out of it at all times waiting for passes from Moreno, Guevara, Clark and Williams. Imagine if we had a top notch stricker instead of Moreno, and dare I say it Mathis, taking passes from this teams. Imagine if we had Ruiz or Twellman there.
Digi made a great run with controled ball into the Galaxy left side of the box, where Hendrixson totally tolk him down. It wasn't even a close call, it was totally a penalty.
I think the boys did a good job overall. A couple of observations: 1. What kind of silly starting lineup was that??? 2 minutes into the match I knew it wouldn't work. 4 central midfielders??? How is anyone supposed to get space? Packing everyone into the middle makes defending alot less exhausting since it cuts out a need to guard the wings. LA only needed to put bodies in front of the box to make passing impossible. It also makes us VERY vulnerable to attacks on the wings, which LA and Crew exploited with success. 2. Ridiculous "ups" on Clark. I'd say we should use his speed on the wing, but that would leave us with nobody winning a ball in the air in midfield. Which brings me to my next point.... 3. We are not bad in the air, we are AWFUL. This is going to hurt us this year. 4. I have seen enough in these first 2 games to be optimistic. LA and Columbus are the class of the league and we played with both of them. We shouldn't have problems scoring against most of the other teams. 5. WELCOME AMADO GUEVARA!!!!! If one match is enough to gauge, then your the guy we've been looking for.
i agree with 90% of the statements...i don't think we are awful in the air... you can't base that on a game against the galaxy, which is prob. the biggest team in mls....they have a bunch of players over 6'. as for wolynckkqk .... i think he had a bad game....yes he held the ball, but that was about it...he couldn't pass it for anything....in the game vs. the rhinos, regan looked good, i'd like to see him get some playing time.... as for our offense, give it time....mathis missed a few passes, yes, but his hustle was better than any of us expected..... in time, him, amado, and jaime will be amazing..... and for that, i have optimism for the first time in a few years.... clark is great, magee is too inexperienced and gets pushed around a lot, but he's improved since the last game....so i don't mind him being in the lineup.... our defense is solid...pope is a HUGE improvement over petke....who would have easily cost us one or two goals if he was still with us.... and howard is, once again, an amazing keeper....
Just a few thoughts on the match....... Clark is an amazing player, such composure, blance and vision. I am starting to salivate thinking of him playing central mid in future years with Martino and O'Brien and Beasley wide left. I hope the kid sticks around for a few years before going off to Ajax or a side like that. What a wonderful player. Williams once again prooves the detractors on these boards wrong, his solid play and sheer grit is welcome to our side in light of the Octavio years. Clearly a much better player then Paule or Moore. Leitch wasn't as bad as some said, he was overall very solid. He needs to get minutes now so that the loss of Pope during the summer is more tolerable. Moreno played a very nice, deft match. No one expects him to be a target forward or a center forward, but his constant movement up top created many problems for the LA backline. Mathis as usual was slow and lazy, definitely not the player we feel in love with, he hasn't been for two years though. Time is slowly running out for his Euro dreams. Digimarino is gaining confidence every week and was more then solid. Jolley played his usual feisty match and is developing well under Bradley. I look forward to the day when Wolyniec comes in late into a match to help us hold a lead. With Bartholomeu seemingly close to signing and the addition of our two Boca players, the team become's deep and talented and very gifted on the ball. Come our next home match in May, we should be very solid in all aspects.