Both sides seem to be rounding into the pre-season predicted form. Sadly, that means we're crap and they're among the best in MLS. Not sure it's fair that they got to avenge their cup loss to their no hopers (can't even spell tigers correctly) while we had a one off with the mighty CS club, so bit of win padding on their side
A Saturday afternoon match. 1:30 PM. Near perfect weather forecast. National broadcast. Will anyone be in the stands? How sad is this going to look on Fox when you can clearly read the SPORTING logo in the East stands. They need more mix match chairs to at least give the allure of people. Or just put a tarp over it, like FC Dallas. What will the Fox soccer people talk about when we (inevitably) go down 3-0? I suggest a deep dive into who actually is the worst MLS team ever. 2013 DC United, 2021 Cincinnati, 2005 Chivas USA, or SKC 2026? 3 or 4 wins is the standard here. Quarter of the way through and SKC 2026 have 1 win. My son's playing in his first alumni game tomorrow. I'm going to watch that instead. I suggest doing yard work, or your taxes retroactively, or hosting your mother in law. All likely more fun.
I think I will just watch the recap of their loss to Seattle later when I don’t have anything better to do. I hate this because I used to really look forward to watching SKC play. It’s like watching a good friend slowly die of neglect.
I will definitely watch. It's one of the few games I can see live, without having to set the alarm to watch at 3am. To consider: In 2019, we slapped Toluca around, beat them twice, 5-0 on aggregate, won over their fans, etc. Toluca was at a low point, rudderless, etc. Toluca is now the monster of North America. We can bounce back. Will it begin against Seattle? Probably not, but there's always hope.
Davis is a no win there without help, he has to challenge Ferreira on that as he was marking/tracking him at the time.
Jovelic is amazing. A great point and he got it for us out of nothing. Love that the assist of the game was a pass that did not lead to a goal, and therefore was not an assist. nice pass though. We fought for 90 minutes. Well, 88. But still, that was a full game. I agree, Capita was the best we've seen him. Amazing how gassed he was at the end. Cleveland had a solid game and one great. LBJ, WTF is his purpose? Also, midway through the second half, he had one really impressive sprint and i was so shocked that I rewound to watch again, and make sure it was him.I'm wondering, does Wicky have him locked into a role that takes any sort of adventure out of his game? he's not good in that role, if so. I dunno what Davis was supposed to do on the goal. It looks horrible, because (as I'm sure it's designed) the run from his wing takes him to the middle of the field across the top of the box. Isn't someone supposed to read that and slide over? Barlow, Bartlett, LBJ, Meyer? Instead, everyone clumps up near the ball. But a point is a good thing.
I definitely want more afternoon games, especially if the weather is as nice as it was today. My wife agrees that sparks of a team identity were visible. Great that heads did not go down 2 minutes into the game. Cleveland was solid, that goal is not all on him, but if he had been better balanced he might have had a kick save. And when Manu and Capita and Dejan get on the same page, look out. A tad bit disheartened to hear Wicki say that there will be more playing out of the back though he does acknowledge that the opponent has a say and game state may dictate other options. They were not good at it and not fast enough. SKC get boxed in and are not good at ticky tacky to get out of tight spaces and thus lose possession in dangerous spaces. More subs to counter fresh opponent legs and get guys experience. A good result with lots to build on and plenty to improve on.
That was considerably less embarrassing than it could have been. Playing 11 behind the ball is the way forward for this group.
I don't think we have enough talent to do anything more than play 11 behind the ball. But I am not at all sure the way forward when we do go is slowly building. We've got one huge asset. We need to figure out how to give him more chances, and that isn't really against a defense that's had time to fall back and set up.
On LBJ, yes I think it is how Wicky has him play, for example, long balls picking out runners is something tape of him with Malmo showed he could do, quite well actually, but he’s not doing it with SKC.
Vikings are born to pillage. LBJ is kind of a waste of a spot playing overly cautious. His first game, nothing had been drilled in yet, and he was fun to watch. Now, as a faceless cog, he's boring. The announcers, the color guy actually, made two really good comments about our play. One was on LBJ and passing the ball no more than 5 yards. As he noted, yeah, skc is not a good team, but there are things that you can do to unlock chances, and five yard balls in midfield are not doing that. He suggested LBJ needs to be looking long, a lot more often. The second was regarding Shapi, who puts his hands up to say sorry when he messes up. The announcers take was "why not stop making the mistakes so that you don't have to keep saying sorry/"
I had to watch the game yesterday , I couldn't help myself. What I noticed: 1. Shapi has got to go. He is a complete gaff machine. 2. Capita had some really good moments, but is not 90 minutes fit. 3. LBJ - was he always mediocre or did Wicky make him that way? 4. Looks like the 4-3-3 is a better fit for this team. 5. Reid's reaction time is too slow getting rid of the ball (maybe that goes for all of the back line) 6. I liked Harris off the bench better than being a starter, but when he doesn't start, you get Shapi... 7. Joveljic, pretty much saved the game from being another loss 8. Cleveland looks like a legit keeper. Too soon to tell but if that continues, he could keep Pulskamp on the bench ( I hope) 9. The defense is not talented enough to play out of the back under real pressure and lost the ball too many times. 10. The stands looked half full ( watching on Apple TV) and even the Cauldron attendance was skimpy.
All solid thoughts. One question: Is Wicky an ideologue, and is he trying to force a square peg of a roster into a tiny round hole, and does that have something to do with points 1,3, 9? Did we pick a really bad manager? his success in Switzerland was short lived (hey, take that) but he was in charge of a club with a roster that is every season either the richest or second richest in the league. Right now, we're 29th in roster value out of 30. There are managers who can work with that. I mean, at this moment, the 30th of 30 clubs in MLS is San Jose. Nancy made it name doing that. And, really, MLS is a pretty even odds league. Inter M's roster value is 4 times that of San Jose, which on many levels is a choice. It's 3x that of SKC. In Switzerland, he was in charge of a side with a roster worth 6x the bottom club. So he proved that given the best players, he can make his system work, for a while. I know, it's not even half a season, but Nancy is available.
I’d be shocked if Nancy came back to MLS before having another go somewhere in Europe. He’s a none starter in that conversation.
In fairness, Nancy's first gig abroad went as unbelievably badly as any I've ever seen. And it wasn't like he was the coach of Chelsea neither.
His name comes up with lorient, one of five mentioned, but if that doesn't happen, he's clearly tarnished over here, so why not? Same with Ramsey, who is kind of the type of manager we need now.