That, and the shocking surface are the reasons why we lost this game. Every time I watch Seattle play at home I wonder why they don't win every game 4-0. No team can come in there and play on that surface. Skilled passers routinely just kick the ball out of bounds. It makes the sport a farce. Only in the USA can you play Cup Finals and MLS Cup on the worst playing surface imaginable. A complete joke. Shame on Seattle and all the other joke teams that use the fake shit. Now Frank. Even playing on grass I have doubts we would have won this game. Inquiring minds want to know: 1. Why start Mikulic over Anibaba? Sure Anibaba could not head the ball if his life depended on it. But Mikulic gets turned too easily and has the turning speed of a supertanker. 2. Paladini should have been pulled at the half. Period. 3. 6 Minutes for Grazzini? Really? Why did he even suit up? 4. Chaves looks lost and ineffective. An active Barouch would have been a better option. 5. Pappa should not be taking corners. He sucks at taking them and has for years. Open your eyes for god sakes! 6. Every time we defend a set-piece it feels like the ball will go in. Why is that? 7. Sean Johnson punches the ball too much. He needs to catch it more to release pressure on the defense. He will never become a top keeper until he catches it more. 8. Why are you instructing Johnson to constantly boot it up to our forwards who are constantly getting beat in the air? Self-defeating.
He makes some great saves but last week he punched a simple loose ball.I guess he gets nervous and maturity sure plays a big part . Tonight's game Pappa,Nyarko and Oduro were all tightly marked.I was wondering who would be that player to exploit that open space .No one sadly ..none
Without Grazzini pulling the strings it was always going to be tough. We had a REALLY hard time on the turf.
Not really, Seattle is a better team. They showed it last night. Well Costa Rica and I believe Panama have artificial turf, so I guess is a good thing we did not make the CCL or we may have to play on those type of surfaces again. No, I think that Seattle would have kicked our ass in any neutral site and maybe even Toyota Park. Maybe it would not have looked as bad. I like Mikulik, but you are right, Anibaba should be our starting CB when available. Replaced by Chaves? I know we all wanted to see Grazzini, and I was upset when that change did not happen, but who knows how badly injured Grazzini is, what if he started the second half and got hurt 15 minutes into that half? I will have to respect the medical team’s opinion on this one. But yes Palladini should have come out, maybe Chaves or Husidic. Sure I would have hopped for 20+ Minutes at least. Yes, I am sure Chaves is gone this offseason, since Pearari left Chaves has not been the same. He had a good one low and hard to Gibbs, but good defending by Seattle, I know he had a few bad ones, so did Pardo. Well when you give up 15-20 set pieces per game, some of them will eventually go in. Yes, learning to catch the ball (and playing the ball with their feet) is what differentiates a world class GK, from the rest. Exactly, seems to be our tactic for most of the game, I was like WTF! I guess that the hope is that the defenders miss the ball or fall to the ground trying to get it, then Oduro and Nyarko can run at the goal. Not a good tactic IMO.
Agree with most of this. I think it was silly to expect Chavez and Grazzini to make something happen in 10 minutes. I would add that Nyarko also should've come out. His late tackles and poor passing did not add anything to the attack. And the lack of any midfield presence showed in our lack of scoring opportunities. Too bad, because we kept it interesting for much of the match.
Not taking out Paladini was plain dumb. He was absolute crap, constantly giving the ball away. The seige on the Fire goal that led to the 1st was started by Paladini's ineptitude, as were numerous other chances. Klopas was either severely outcoached or playing all his cards on extra time.
Paladini deserves to be "Paused" on these threads. Honestly, I saw him in the line-up and thought to myself: "We'll lose." He's a great offensive midfielder... for the opposition.
I forgot to mention in my rant that Seattle is a better team. They can really attack like no other in MLS. Congrats to Seattle for building a strong team. But I stand by what I said. The turf is a bigger issue than anybody can imagine. Does Seattle beat us on grass in a neutral venue? Probably, but I am not entirely convinced.
His ball distribution has been horrible all season, but I will say last night was an improvement over recent games where he's kicked goal kicks straight out of bounds and we lose 80% of his balls/punts. I understand we won't win the first ball (typically a header) but we don't have the instincts/aggressiveness to win the 2nd ball, so anytime we play it back to him it's just giving away possession.
It was a good game, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to go or watch it on TV. Your team really held up very well, and they were all of the fight that we really expected them to be. Had you won, the only thing that you would be griping about today was the turf. As far as the turf goes, I just want to point out that Seattle's Home MLS record up to today is 8-3-4. Seattle's Away MLS record up to today is 8-3-5, and is the best in MLS. We're not big fans of the turf, either. Grass would have gotten us the Supporters Shield.
I am just curious and am sure this has been discussed before but why no grass there? The NFL Seaturkeys and Sounders certainly have enough cash to install and maintain grass. So where is it?
Their excuse is it gets chewed up too easily in the wet climate. Same story for Portland and Vancouver.
Obviously, that excuse does not seem to "hold water". Seattle probably gets as much rain as Chicago.......and does it even snow there?
The amount of annual total precipitation is similar: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07-28/news/ct-wea-0728-asktom-20110728_1_annual-precipitation-rains-cities But the difference is the number of cloudy days and days with measurable precipitation: http://www.komonews.com/weather/faq/4348261.html A natural surface in a cool, damp, cloudy climate would not likely hold up well in a multi-use facility such as CenturyLink. It will be even worse next year as the Huskies will be temporary occupants during the renovation of Husky Stadium.
If you can grow grass in all those gloomy European cities you can grow grass in Seattle. And the Seaturkeys only play 8 or 10 times per year at home anyway. And the Huskies is a one off thing.
Artificial turf isn't perfect, but Seattle's is worse than most. It's a generation or two behind what's out there now AND at least a year past its shelf life. That combination makes for a really, terrible and difficult playing field. It's the same lineup we used against RSL. I don't think there was a better lineup we could have put out there and during the game I kept thinking any player I thought should sub out would only be replaced by someone of lessor quality. Combine those things with the need to make two defensive, injury subs and there isn't a whole lot left in the tank.
I think you underestimate the wear-and-tear the average NFL game causes to a playing surface. A grass field in Seattle would probably hold up March-August. But come September? When the Sounders played Houston in the playoffs 2 years ago, the field at Robertson looked terrible. Grass fields in multi-use stadiums are not immune to their own problems. Look at Soldier Field. http://www.chicagofootballtalk.com/your-boy-roy/blog/despite-urlachers-comments-soldier-field-turf-issue-catch-22 The Steelers had that game at Heinz Field a few years ago that turned into a mudbowl. The Patriots replaced the natural surface at Gillette with Field Turf. Not to mention the fiasco with Wembley. Bunge is absolutely correct that the surface in Seattle has degraded to the point where it's terrible. It will likely be replaced at the end of the Seahawks season. http://blog.thenewstribune.com/soccer/2011/06/17/new-qwest-pitch-likely-in-12-grass-less-so/
Anibaba being benched was his worst mistake but it's hard to argue with it, since Seattle didn't score while he was on the field. I don't think we got outcoached. We got outplayed.
I'm not sure what Klopas could have done better with regards to the starting lineup, aside from maybe Anibaba in place of Mikulic. Paladini starting in the midfield over Chaves was logical, partly because lately Chaves has been invisible whenever he's in the game, and partly due to the turf, which was not conducive to a technical player who isn't used to the surface. Paladini does a lot of running and hard work, and can hit some decent long range shots, so I wasn't at all surprised by his inclusion. Seattle is obviously a team that plays a very technical passing game, but they have a ton of experience with that particular playing surface. Our offensive rhythm last night reminded me of the US national team's performance on that horrible artifical turf down in Costa Rica in that '09 qualifier. Seattle played a very good game last night, but the field gave an already great team a distinct advantage. Play the game at a neutral location on a good playing surface, and I think Seattle would have a slight advantage based on how both teams had been playing lately. Play it at Toyota Park, and I think we have a slight advantage. And both teams were missing an attacking midfielder (Grazzini and Rosales). Unfortunately, Seattle has more depth in the midfield, so we lose a lot more through Grazzini than they do with Rosales being out. Grazzini was obviously not ready to play big minutes, or he would have been in there earlier. I was angry last night that Frank didn't put him in earlier, but having had time to think about it, if Grazzini was healthy enough to play anything more than 10-15 minutes, there's no way Chaves would not have been the first sub off the bench once we went down. Frank was obviously hoping to hold off on using him until overtime. All that said, Seattle was the better team last night and deserved to win. They take this tournament as seriously as we ever have, and I'm glad they do. I'd like to do this whole thing again next year at Toyota Park.
He could have done lots of things differently. I never really jumped on the Chaves as midfielder bandwagon, but I'd prefer to see Baggio as a replacement -- although an admittedly poor replacement. I'd REALLY like to see Bone but last night was not the place given the lack of time he has received . . . which can be traced back to both cdlc and Frank. He could have paired Barouch and Oduro up top and dropped Patrick into a purely midfield role (which he seems to drop himself into anyway.) Regardless of the options at the start, the game was screaming for adjustments long before he subbed Daniel out. I, unfortunately watched the first goal again. That was one of the worst jobs of marking THE KEY PLAYER OF THE OPPOSITION I have ever seen. That is Paladini's fault, not Frank, but the fact that he was out there was on Frank. As someone else already said, the lack of depth in midfield CAN be laid at Frank's doorstep.
Give me a break.. All you blaming the ********ing turf and Anibaba not being on the field.. he was on the field during that last goal and he got danced around like a two dollar hooker...Mikulic DID NOT get scored on... he gets subbed out and we get scored on twice... Seriously WTF is up with some of you? Jesus Christ..they played on the same good damm turf... that we did... and we have a ********ing turf field to practice on right next to our home field.. This is a poor excuse.. We lost this game because much like all season.. our offense and attacking midfield was poor in moving the ball up field and lost it too often.. YOu guys are out of your mind if you think its fair to blame our defense last night.. given how poorly our midfield and forwards held the ball.. the second the defense cleared it Seattle had it right back jamming it down our throats.. There is only soo much you can do when your midfield isnt doing its work..
To be fair, punting the ball out of bounds or to a Seattle player does not help the midfield keep control of the game. Just saying. Then again, the midfield back passing the ball to the GK will result on him punting the ball to a seattle player, so a catch 22.