This isn't looking good. The Wizards are getting way too many opportunities. The Metros look terrible. Imagine how bad this team will be during the Confed Cup.
No confidence in the front. They're getting chances but they don't know what to do with them. A lot of poor first touches.
Damn!! Clark with the fist to the nuts. How many games you think he'll be suspended for that? If Wolniek is gone for 2 for a little bloody nose, who knows whats gonna happen now. Secondly, that guy had no right coming in with a powerful kick to the shin of clark. Whats gonna happen with this team without clark mathis howard + pope?!
Yep, Metros lose, The Rocket can't get his 300th win on his third try, and the Devils are losing 4-1.
Our midfield looked really bad. Regan and Ziadie were like Swiss Cheese. Mathis was insvisible most of the game. My Ratings: Howard - 9.0 Jolley - 9.0 Arena - 6.0 Ziadie - 5.5 Regan - 5.0 Guevara - 8.0 Williams - 7.5 Clark - 6.5 Galvan - 6.0 Lisi - 6.0 Magee - 7.5 Mathis - 7.0
No, it definitely won't. But with Woly (still not on my good side, but he has PT) out for another game, injuries to occupy a MASH unit, our star striker gone for national team duty and our beloved keeper mostly likely gone - period - this loss is a really bad omen. Our rookie backline is going to have to grow up really fast over the next few games.
Well, Magee did get one goal, let's not kill him entirely. He trapped a ball off his chest on a nice cross from Williams (who'da thunk?) and one timed a shot low and into the corner, a chance well taken. And he had one nice defensive play where he came back into mid-field to steal the ball. On the whole though, both he and Mathis had too many one touch turnovers. I kid about Mathis making a lot of 50-50 passes that are really 20-80 balls because they are low percentage passes, but if he connects on one of them it's a goal. Tonight, the entire team was doing it and none of them were connecting. Our defense was slack, but KC is a good offensive team so you can expect them to get chances. What you would have liked to have seen from the Metro was better passing, and something about Glavan, Mathis, Clark and Guevara wasn't clicking tonight. They couldn't string passes together, and usually the first person over the mid-field line with the ball turned it over on his next touch. If we would have connected on more of our passes, we could have tied this game in the second half when the Wizards, let's face it, took their foot off the gas. Instead, our offensive mid-field was a turnover machine. Howard with a couple of ridiculous saves (those 2 in the last minutes, damn that was amazing) and Jolley cleared a goal off the line as Garcia went into the post. I expected some nervous play from Arena and Regan, and we certainly got it. I did expect Ziadie to play a little better though. I liked Shep's comment from Bradley on Ziadie ("Sometimes with Craig, the lights go out"). It was a blackout kind of evening from Craig. There were so many turnovers it's hard to list them all, but that was our main problem tonight. Our very suspect D gave up 2 goals on the road, probably should have been 4, but out inability to do ANYTHING offensively put the D under more pressure than it needed to be. Well, welcome to the middle of the season. We're playing better teams now (KC, Chicago, San Jose, LA) and we'll be missing Howard, Pope, Mathis and Moreno. It is going to get interesting. Clark with a stupid swing at Garcia, trying to play timing bag on the man's nutsack. Let's hope he isn't gone too long for that one. Magee and Guevara are going to have to pull some serious weight if we want any points from our next 3-4 games.
I don't know if it's too early to say it, but... The Metros were kept out of the playoffs last year on 35 points. We are just a shade under halfway there. Maybe that's one bright spot with more than 2/3 of a season to play.
BTW, Metros lose because an all around bad game, not hosed by the refs as predicted by The Ghost of BillR4. This is a long season. Things have been going well for us for a while -- even when Metros didn't play too well, they still avoided the loss. Now, a rough patch is coming up, and Bob Bradley really needs to show his coaching prowess for Metros to get through it.
terrible defending. the first goal they gave up was absolutely horrid. Hate to say it, but it is gonna be a long two months w/o Eddie
But remember there are two extra games this year. Figure on ~40 points being the cut-off. We've done well so far. I think we are heading into the dog days for a bit, more road games (5 of first 7 at home), players missing or injured, and Howard gone. If we finish the middle 10 games at .500 or so, it will set us up well for a stretch run when we will have our guys back, hopefully healthy, and a new keeper. It's an obvious observation, but I think the telling point will be the last 10 games to see how we play in the run up to the playoffs. If our players come back and we finish as strongly as we started, we've got a shot at some post-season hardware. If the mediocre run of play I see just over the horizon between the Confed and Gold Cups contiues and settles into the same end of season malaise we saw last year, even if we make the playoffs, we're screwed.