Houston @ SKC 7/7/, 7pm p/i/p [R]

Revenge twice in one week.....I like it.

 

I was surprised when I noticed that, as well. What worries me, though, is that New York has also played one fewer home game than SKC and now has Henry back. The three head-to-head matches with them--only one of which is at LSP--will be crucial.

Collin made it through three straight games without getting a yellow? Impressive! Although I have to wonder if this was part of the reason why Di Vaio had so much success in the first half last night.

Good timing! Nothing will ever completely erase the unspeakably empty feeling that I experienced on November 6, 2011, but a solid win Saturday would definitely help.

 

New York worries me more than Houston at this point since we still have to go there twice.

Houston also played a midweek game and haven't looked great, so I'm really hoping we come away with another win. I expected 4 points out of these two games, so 6 would be wonderful.

You know what the worst part about this year has been? Having expectations of greatness.....

 

It may not be the right place for this,,, but I just read on terra.com that FIFA has approved the electronic goal scoring technology

 

Taking the missus and doing the Shield Club thingy Saturday. Maybe get some A/C and see the game.

Although we got a result against MTL, I'm not optimistic about getting the same against HOU.

 

Ref info is available on MLSSoccer.com - Penso, who we last saw in that horrific FCD loss and also saw in the 4-2 win over Toronto, both last year.

From Football-Lineups.com it looks like he had a period there where he was giving out PKs and RCs left and right, but hasn't given any in the last few games.

More info:

REFEREE: Chris Penso.
MLS Career: 22 games; FC/gm: 21.9; Y/gm: 3.0; R: 5; pens: 10

27-Aug-11 MLS Conference - M.24 Kansas C 2:3 FC Dallas 28 6 1 20018
23-Jul-11 MLS Conference - M.19 Kansas C 4:2 Toronto 23 4 16382

 

I really think that if we score first we win. They score first we lose. Someone will score. I don't see a tie in this one.

 

Sapong is getting zero services. This team is going to struggle to get into scoring positions unless the mids get the ball off their feet quickly.

 

did the ball have helium in it tonight, or were our shots flying into the stands because of the heat?

 

Bunbury's shot killed me.

 

No kidding, was he trying to prove that he belonged on the bench?

Other than that, not much to say. Crappy finishing again like usual, but most aspects of the game was good. Someone needs to tell Zusi he doesn't need to blast the ball for every shot. Even Peterson had some nice shots on goal.

 

I'm going to be charitable and say that he realized he would have no angle, so he just spun and crossed it blindly in hopes that someone would be there. Yeah, that's the ticket.

On the whole, I thought that was a solid performance from our guys. Except that we can't shoot with any accuracy. At all. Which is kind of important.

 

One of two things need to happen for SKC : 1. Move the goal up to about row 23 just under the jumbotron (Nagamura's shot still would have gone over)' just to give them a chance to hit the net, or 2. Get a technical director in here that can teach these guys how to strike a shot on goal.....cheezzzz...

 

that shot went clean into the nebraska furniture mart parking lot.

 

Bunbury made a great snap move on Taylor and missed his shot. How come come there is no criticism of sapong's shot? You sound like a hater.

 

Our finishing is going to cost us any chance of winning hardware. Even the best players in the world can have bad attempts but it is just insane to me that guys that are professional players can have such poor accuracy. We either shot way off or right at the keeper. Did we force Tally Hall to make any difficult saves tonight? How often do we make keepers make amazing saves? Nielsen is forced at at least a couple of times a game to do something great but we cannot manage to make opposing keepers work at all. Opposing keepers are basically getting a free paycheck for the week when we are on schedule. We need a finisher. We need someone that can finish all the chances we are creating. If our ownership wants to win hardware, they need to get that person here. Overpay if you need too, just get us a clinical finisher or even two of them. On top of that maybe we need another coach that can teach these guys to get the ball on frame.

Maybe both Saad and Peterson need to start because it seems like they can place the ball on frame. Zusi definitely needs to decrease his power when he swings back. He seems like the guy that overshoots on the pin on the golf course. Nagamura had time to take a touch or two before his blast.

It is so frustrating to watch our guys outplay teams and not be able to take advantage of the possession and chances that they create.

 

You must want to hang onto your big soccer name pretty bad bobunbury. He was awful this game and last. That shot was horrendous. Look I want Bunbury to do well. I want him to be a great player but he really isn't cutting it for us. It may be time for him play second fiddle to Saad like two games ago.

 

You are correct, that was an awful shot, but he created his own chance. Sapong, on the other hand missed a point blank shot. But who gets criticized, Bunbury. Where is your objectivity?

 

I should be used to it by now, but the short-sighted nature of these boards really kills me.

Re: The Bunbury Shot
Teal very much knows that it's going to take something special to score from that angle, and that he knew he was all alone. So he tried something special and it failed. Sometimes bad misses aren't because they just screwed up that badly.

Re: The Overcooked and Over-the-bar misses
Tally Hall isn't the type of keeper you just score on with tame efforts. Do you remember last year @ Houston? Zusi, Nagamura, et. al. had to put some pace on it to have a chance to score. We put plenty of tame efforts into the arms of Hall, we didn't need more.

You know who I'm upset with? Kei - because he took away the through-ball to Peterson when he should've known to let that through. Peterson was onside and in-on-goal if he lets that go. There were other situations where I thought he made the wrong decision.

And honestly, as far as Teal v Sapong - Teal has been putting in a lot more effort out there than Sapong has been in recent games (and not talking about this game where Teal would obviously be coming in fresh)... I honestly would prefer Teal at this point, I just don't see CJ doing enough to get him in a position to score. Teal at least is doing that and screwing it up.

 

Highly disagree.

 

Wait...

Of all the crap shots tonight you choose that one? Was it bad? Yes. Were there worse shots tonight? Absolutely, Nagamura at least once, Zusi at least twice from outside the box. At least Bunbury can claim he was attempting a cross/shot. What is their excuse?

How dare you choose Bunbury over Sapong. Sapong can do no wrong according to the majority of this board.


This game is better just forgotten.

 

Effort - no question CJ still has the edge. I like Teal off the bench though, he is an asset there. As for his "shot" I thought it was a cross to space in the (blind) hope that someone would make a run. The team looked controlled but tired in their movements. Even Roger seemed a touch slower than usual. The high shots are simply not acceptable. Vermes' KC teams have historically been at the bottom of the league in shots vs. sog. Check the numbers, last year was the only exception to that rule. I would rather see 10 shots into the keepers hands than one into the stands. The goal is on the field, not in some imaginary space in the air that you can power the ball to. Step over the ball to shoot it, this is grade school level basics. At this point Zusi should just not be allowed to shoot for one game (and Kei too, though his have been less ugly to me.) And while I'm bagging on Zeus, I think we miss having someone else take the occasional corner. Bobby being back would help there too I think.

I'll take the point, but it feels like we left two on the table here.

 

Sean Johnson sure made it look like work last week.