All of Rubio's history of theatrics didn't help him there. Guy goes down in a tragic heap every match. Particularly tough when you're a guy averaging about three minutes a match. The penalty shout aside even, thought he looked very good tonight again. Skc just not good enough. Can't go into every match looking for the rub of the green.
nothing surprised me in this match. everything was expected. hell, even jake was 2 for 2 again tonight with his halftime and full-time interviews: "and peter..."
Watched, as always, on MLS live, so got the Colorado commentary. A couple interesting bits, I thought. the first is that Balboa loves PV, at least says he watches SKC a lot and says he's a fan of the way they play because they play as he would expect a PV team to play. He also said: "Nemeth. I've been Googling for his name, and a player like that is what this team lacks. they need a second approach in attack." This is hardly news, but I found it interesting that the announcer for Colorado brought it up. And then, either just before or after that, he noted: "Dwyer can't score without service, and the service isn't there this season." Ditto. Just saying it's rather obvious stuff, and not limited to whiny fans. And could we please stop with the stupid giveaways. If we're going to lose, fine, it happens, but make them cook up a goal, not just pull through the through and let us hand it to them.
I get the feeling that CO is a prototype as to how to beat SKC. If we play our style versus theirs, we may win 1 in 10. Not being hyperbolic here.
Rolling out Hallisey and JP as "wingers" is an insult to the fan base. The problem with this squad is the same problem SKC has had for years now. Plain and simple, the attacking talent isn't good enough. SKC continue to lead the league in shots, yet are near the bottom in shots on goal. This has been the issue for years and it never gets addressed. It's hard to play 4-3-3 when you get absolutely nothing from one of the two wing positions. My main issue continues to be the lack of production from the LW position. This is a reoccurring theme year after year. Nemeth and Bravo are the only above average left wings we have had since PV took over as coach/tech director. PV and the FO's approach to the LW position has been to bring in Bobby Convey's (MLS players near the end of their career like Bobby Convey, Brad Davis, and Mapp) or college players (Saad, Hallisey, and CJ). Robb, no more talk or twitter BS. Time to spend some money and sign "Pacey".
You are starting Jacob Peterson as a "forward". Offensively you are already playing one down. Dwyer can not put the ball on frame. (neither can anyone else but he is your one attacker) One great season built on Penalty kicks and crazy games against Montreal. All smoke and mirrors. Leads the league in off sides and flopping on every 50/50 header. I think it was last game that he took a free kick and instead of putting it 20 rows up like usual he hit the wall in the knees. So much talent. But boy he and Peterson run around a lot so Vermes thinks they are the shit. Vermes needs to do something different. This hasn't really worked for the last two years. Different plan, different players, or both. I guess there were around 600 KC fans in the crowed. They deserve a better product on the field.
Dwyer is better than you say. He is an above average MLS striker. How many better center forwards has KC in 20 seasons ever had? One? You have to be realistic about things. Through the entire center of the park, Sporting looks decent to me. It's the width, which also happens to be something Vermes just loves, where the team is and has consistently been weak. The 4-3-3 relies on really solid wing play and attacking fullbacks, and while the guys in the latter camp do their best, there's just not much that's wonderful to be had on the roster.
I totally agree that the problem comes from the wide players, specifically the wing forwards. A review of MLS stats for their assists/goals should be totally embarrassing to the FO and PV. Zusi has 3 assists, but no other wide forward has more than one. As for goals, Brad's got 2, Zeus 1, JP 1, and nothing else. We're more than half way through the season. It's the same story year after year and frankly, I'm tired of it. We'll have to disagree about Dom being a better than average CF. If you are going with better than average as a category, that means you also have average and below average categories. With 20 teams, that's 6 to 7 forwards per group. I think he fits right in the average category. I rate Keane, Villa, Drogba, Yura, Kamara, Altidore/Giovinco, BWP, Adi, Wondo, and a few others as better than Dwyer. IMO Dwyer is in the CJ, Urruti, Jordan Morris, Espindola group, right in the middle of MLS forward talent. Dwyer fits how PV wants to play better than almost all of those names, but dude can't use his right foot. Fitting a system and being a talented player are two different things.
Ha, by better than average, I meant better than the exact average. I suppose if you're grouping like that, that's a fair point. At the same time, though, I find myself often wondering how many more goals he'd have for a different team. Wonder if the goals he scores are sometimes in spite of the system around him rather than supported by it.
6th in SOG, not near the bottom... But KC has taken 31 more shots than 2nd place NY, NY has 6 more SOG and 7 more goals. It is worse for 3rd place Dallas, 37 more shots by KC, 13 fewer shots on goal, 10 fewer goals. FWIW he really hasn't done much on twitter this season, all he's said in terms of personnel moves is that they're trying, and if he's going to say anything that's probably the best, doesn't promise anything, get people's hopes up, because you know either way he's going to be asked.
Dwyer is only a problem because we don't have a Plan B in attack right now, and he's very much in need of service to score. I would agree on the rankings, but we're never going to spend the kind of money those guys get. In our price bracket, he's brilliant. But he isn't the sort who can go it alone. He should better last year's goal total this year, but I felt more at ease when a wide guy was also scoring, which opened up space in the middle of BF. A quality winger, and in the modern not the traditional sense for me, makes our attack better throughout
Per MLS Stats, SKC is 9th in SOG, but not all teams have played the same number of games. Avg the SOG per game played and we're 13th out of 20 in SOG per game. Most importantly, we're second to last in SOG percentage (barely above Chicago). There is a big difference in shooting percentage between the top and the bottom with VFC at around 45% and us at just below 30%. So, to my point, this teams problem continues to be the same as it is every year. Dreadfully poor attacking play. He must have finally developed a conscious. Dom is a one footed attacking player. I mean, what more is there to say than he is a center forward who can't use his weak foot? I disagree that we won't spend the money to attract a good CF. The FO cranked 3/4 mil into our box to box. We can argue if that was a good position to invest that kind of money, but we can't argue that they did spend.
Montreal, Philadelphia and New York all jumped ahead of us last night in SOG after my post. We were 6th when I made it.
I would love LOVE to see what Dwyer could do in a 4-2-2. I just can't imagine how many more opportunities he would get if Rubio were out there at the same time, running around the middle, drawing defenders. Davis might actually get an assist if we played some different tactics.
And that's what you get for under $1m. Dom knows how to score, which is an incredibly rare skill. If he could do it with both feet, his value would exceed what we can pay. If he could do it with both feet and create his own when there's no service, well he'd be in the Emirates right now... Dom's game reminds me, a lot, of Boddy Wood (but maybe because the team I go see here is Union Berlin, so I see them more than most). Wood, however, is a bit faster, a bit better with his off foot (not as good with his head). Before last season, their values as expressed in salaries were extremely close. But after Wood's breakout year here, 17 goals, his value flew up into the sevens figures. His salary is now about 3x what we pay Dom, and his transfer value is about $4m. And that's from a breakout year in a second division that's got a decent level of play (I think SKC would do very well in the 2Bund, though the travel would be a killer). Goal scorers cost a lot more than box to box mids. Overall, RE is a much better player, and I think he's incredibly valuable. But at $750k, we aren't getting close to Keane, Gio, GDS, Altidore, Villa, Drogba, etc. We just found Kei to be too expensive to bring in. Yura and Adi, maybe, but any of the scorers on the previous list, but we've seen Yura isn't necessarily an upgrade and Adi might be more complete, but he's not that much more efficient.