Who: Seattle Sounders @ Vancouver Whitecaps Where: BC Place, Vancouver, BC When: 2:00 PM, Saturday, May 19 Watch: KONG 6/16 Listen: KIRO 97.3 First match of the Cascadia Cup and another 6 pt game for the Sounders against a conference rival. The Whitecaps are significantly better than last season when they were, basically, the whipping boys of the league. They've shored up their defense and added some potent threats to their offense. Their defense was essentially unbeatable at the start of the season when they set a league record for the number of scoreless minutes to start a season, but then immediately went on a bend over and take it up the ass stretch where they gave up 6 goals in 2 games. They went back to their defensive prowess for the next 2 games and then last week gave up 4 to NE... So, let's call their defense schizophrenic. On the offensive side of the field, they started the season with many expecting them to be an offensive powerhouse with three players, Le Toux, Hassli, and Camilo, all having 10 or more goals in the previous season, the first time this has happened in MLS history. However, much like the preseason favorites LA Galaxy, the Whitecaps have failed to live up to expectations on the frequency of goals. They are, on average scoring one goal a game with 2 shutouts and two 2 goal games and the remainder 1 goal games. The "good" news for the Sounders is that the Whitecaps are currently in the midst of the Canadian Championship and are 7 games into a 9 game stretch where they play two games a week. For the Sounders, they are had a much needed break after a 5 game stretch where they had 2 games a week, but historically that has been bad for the Sounders. For whatever reason, the Sounders seem to do extremely well when they have two games a week, but then lose the first game after that stretch. With how important this game is to the fans, 800+ will be in the stands, hopefully the team doesn't come out flat. On other good news front, the team might have all three DPs on the field at the start of the game for the first time since the season opener. With Evans, Ianni, and Gspurning out for this game, this means the Sounders will be fielding their 11th starting line-up in as many games... Scary thought, especially when you consider there record.
The good news is that this week's predicted line-up should be significantly easier to come up with compared to previous weeks. Sigi is putting out the best 11 that he can and certain injuries pretty much wipe out any guess work as to what that best 11 could be. So, without further ado, here is Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted Line-up: ------------Johnson-------Montero---------- Fernandez------Rose/Alonso------Rosales Burch----------Hurtado/Parke----Johansson --------------------Meredith-------------------- Estrada seems to have used up whatever magic juice he was on at the start of the season and with Fernandez, Rosales, and Johnson all healthy, I don't see a spot for him in the starting line-up this week. The only real opening is in CM, but that would require Sigi to play either Rosales or Fernandez in the middle to fit Estrada in on the wings and I'm not sure if Sigi would do that.
The only question I have is whether or not Flaco is ready to go 90 because I don't think Rosales is and I know in the past Sigi hasn't wanted to put two starters on the field when he knows he is going to have to sub both of them. Other than that this looks right on Evans, Iaani and Gspurning should all be back next week barring any injuries this week we could actually see our best 11 on the field.
According to Rosales's Seattle Times live chat he is ready to go 90, but was being pulled early in the last few games as a precaution. I'm guessing the precaution has something to do with the ankle injury, but also because he started most/every game in that stretch and Sigi wanted him ready for the next game. I like the optimism in Sigi using all three subs though. I kid. I kid.
Thank god the Whitecaps suck at finishing. They should have this game dead and buried, but their crappy finishing is keeping us in... And... OMG... How did we not score on the ck??? Montero had two "easy" finishes and Cannon came up huge!!
We should have been dead and buried by halftime. Credit to VW, that's a good team, but lots of poor performances out there. Montero saved us in the end and only Alonso looked sharp throughout.
I have to say I love that the Whitecaps fans say BOOM whenever Cannon kicks a goal kick. It was a frustrating performance, if that Mattocks fellow could finish we would have been down 3-0 in the first half. We played on our heels the whole first half and looked disjointed, almost sluggish. I'm pretty pleased we came away with a draw after that performance. I'm not happy with the performance, but happy with the result.
I'm a little worried about Meredith. Two shots on goal, both of them went in. For the first goal, the ball is going straight at him and he decided to avoid it. Hurtado seems to have the far post covered. Yeah, yeah, Parke should've tried to block Rochat, but Parke is marking Mattocks and preventing a cross. Maybe a miscommunication between them? He could've told Parke that he got Mattocks covered so Parke could've tried to cover Rochat. For the second goal ... yeah, yeah, he didn't expect it to miss a header and go in the goal and Burch should've cleared that one. But still, the outcome will also be the same if somebody was able to head it in. I doubt he could've stopped a header. Why didn't he tried to punch the ball to prevent either a header or for the goal to go in? Was he in a bad position?
Meredith is fine. First goal all on Parke. Meredith had to commit like would on PK because the guy was so close to goal when he shot. Second goal was weird no doubt about it. One of those WTF goals that happen. The way the ball was played in doubt he could have got there to punch it away and he was in a good position to defend a header. For a young keeper I think he has been playing well & playing with confidence. I loved that he was starting to bark at the backline as our back line was HORRIBLE yesterday as was Caskey. Parke & Hurtado are both good CB's but their communication just flat out sucks.
No, that was just a picture perfect example of exactly how to hit a free kick from that spot on the field. Hard, in-swinging at the far-post, bounce right at the 6 so the keeper can't punch. I remember GBS hit almost that identical goal in the 2009 playoffs:
That game was definitely a tale of two halves. We were getting owned in the first half by Vancouver due to their speedy forwards and the only thing that kept us in the game was Mattox's inability to hit the broadside of a barn. The second half started off where the first half left off, but yet again, crappy finishing saved our bacon, but then we turned it around and some super saves by Cannon was what kept us from getting even more goals. If all you saw was the first half, then the Sounders deserved to lose that game, but if all you saw was the second half, then Vancouver deserved to lose, so I think a draw was a more than fair result. I was not pleased with Caskey's performance in this game. He wasn't just a non-factor in the game, but he seemed like where our possession went to die and definitely wasn't up to the speed of the game. The team was much improved when Rose came in at halftime and Caskey hit the bench.
On that first goal IIRC (haven't watched since Saturday) Rochat moved the ball from his left to his right foot for the shot, in doing so Meredith went right probably expecting something near post, Rochat however went far post. Freddy's curl was a thing of beauty. Thank god Mattocks and Salgado seem to have no clue how to finish. I think I prefer Rose to Caskey. Given another game or two the core group should be better together. Alvaro looked rusty, Estrada looked a bit lost.
So does it mean that Burch should've cleared it? If you know me, I'm a Burch-hater, but I'm not sure that I should put all the blame on Burch. Is it really that unstoppable?
I really don't expect extremely athletic guys like Castillo or Mattox to have good finishing, because if they do, they shouldn't be playing at MLS, or if they do, they should at least be a DP. But we have to prepare ourselves on this. Note that we were smoked by Hercules Gomez this way, but the difference is that Gomez can finish. If we can't handle Castillo or Mattox, then we wont make it far in CCL.
Agreed. In the first half, I was having flashbacks to Torreon. Nightmare. Vancouver offense was looking very threatening- great passes, great movement on and off the ball, up until the lack of a finish. If I were another team, watching video of who was able to score against us and how, I would watch this game and Santos II.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Parke had two guys to cover, the guy making the run and the guy to which he could cross. I see the problem being Johansson getting beaten 40 yards up field with no one to cover. Is that where Parke is at fault in your eyes? Rosales was booking it to cover but couldn't catch up. I'm beginning to wonder about Johansson after that and then his mistake in the first goal against Columbus. He might be good offensively, but can he defend?
Johansson deserves part of the blame as well I agree but Parke needed to commit and did not. You do not let a guy dribble uncontested into the 6 yard box and shoot. JKH was there to help Parke but because those two can't seem to communicate worth a crap Parke froze. In the Crew game Johansson did a crap job of marking. I read someone mention that Estrada let his guy run free and Johansson had to cover him. IDK have not watched my DVR yet.