You can't compare this week to last week. Atlanta is a good team that wanted to play. Houston hasn't won a road game in 26 matches and had no desire to play. Walter looked good as the six and our Bundesliga striker is still not a threat to score. Otherwise, we learned nothing from that extraordinarily boring snoozefest.
While MLS is notoriously balanced and any team, any team, any week, etc, our side looks a bit more worrisome after watching Colorado dismantle Atlanta. I know, transitive property is bunk, and I don't think it's Atlanta beat us 3-1 and Colorado them 3-0 so Colorado us is 6-1. But the way in which they broke Atlanta down, and really left them toothless, controlled the game, should cause concern for us. Atlanta could not do their Atlanta things against Colorado's speed. The flip side, for us, was that against Houston, again, we looked really slow. I appreciate PVs tactical adjustment: Zusi frequently pushing into what is essentially a dual pivot position when we're in the attack, not bombing (or these days, shuffling) down the wing, to clog the middle and avoid the constant jail break attacks we gave up to Atlanta. but that doens't make us dangerous We put a lot of slow on the field in these first two matches. Walter is an upgrade is that sense at the 6. Putting Zusi, Fontas and Roger out there makes us an incredibly deliberate, even plodding, team. Shelton adds a touch of inability to play that ball that also is less than ideal. It may mean that our basement is at least in the mix for a playoff spot, but our ceiling isn't much higher. I also wish transfermarkt would stop listing Cam Duke as a one position player, RB, and getting my hopes up.Can Pierre play? Will we ever find out? Is there a reason Cam and Felipe can't start together? Also, it kind of sucks, but until the new guy is ready, I think Salloi has to stand in at 9. Shelton isn't so much a false 9 as a false soccer player this season.
Okay, so while we scored and won, I would suggest everyone take a peek at our shot map. Walter and Felipe both had really comical misses. I guess Walter's goal just split the difference between them. TBF, Felipe's only hit the corner flag. Walter was wide of that. As the announcer said, "that is the worst shot I've ever seen." The Stats: we dominated the game. Possession 58-42, passing percentage 87-82. shots 15-5. SOG 5-3. Duals won 48-37.Tackles 8-6. Individually, Fontas was again our field general, connecting with 8 teammates, thought Walter and russell each connected with 7. Roger, worryingly, only connected with five. shelton, 4. Concerning, Felipe and Salloi had essentially the exact same average field position. Their icons overlap, on an entire open field. this is less than ideal. Interesting, Zusi's average field position is several steps inside of where we are used to seeing him, meaning the eye test and the announcer babble on his tactical readjustment was pretty much dead on.Espinoza is statistically less active than Felipe or Walter, which seems an obvious observation,but is confirmed.