I'm late to the party but mostly everything I wanted to say has been posted. Zusi was absolutely awful, and Davy is the heart of this team as usual. My one thing that I haven't seen in this thread yet, did anyone else think the field was bigger? From my vantage point the touchline on my side (Sec. 109) seemed a little bit closer to the pitcher's mound than usual.
Wolff's pass to Lopez was not that bad. It would have been much easier for Lopez to take a touch with his right foot instead of crossing his body to get a touch with his left. I think if they count any secondary assists, Wolff should get one as well. Jeff Larentowicz got credited with an assist on a ball that was deflected by a San Jose defender before it got to Kheli Dube who scored.
Something that has gone unnoticed on these boards so far, but from reading the comments in Ives blog, Davy hit one of those with each foot. Can't see many players get that much power behind a shot in a game with either foot.
So anyone else realize that Serioux had a handball in the box? I only found out due to the match report on Goal.com. Looking at replays it looked worse than what Harrington did... Not to mention that Guevara should've (by the rules, at least) been sent off for trying to hit Davy... and his rolling around to get Jewsbury the card... Not that it really changes that we probably deserved to lose - if Barrett was, frankly, anyone else, we would've been down big before half even... but it does get me a little ticked off. Zusi needs to not be starting, at least not for a while. Maybe he does have the skill to do so - maybe it's just the pressure of a real, competitive match or something, but he's not ready. And really, we shouldn't expect him to be ready, though Onalfo does seem to like starting rookies early. Would've preferred Espinoza over Zusi, or even Thompson - bringing Gomez over to Zusi's position. Can't wait until Hirsig is up to full match fitness, or even until he's up to ~60 minutes. Also, we need to figure out a way to get Guevara picked up by someone foreign club. At least for the first game of the season with TFC, he scored two last year in our first encounter with them, but at least that was in Toronto.
That was pretty impressive. Arnaud seemed like only dude who tried to keep KC in the game. I dunno what happened to your offence, but Lopez seemed to have a terrible game, except for one deadball opportunity. Cronin and Wynne seemed to took him out of his game. Generally KC crosses and passes into Toronto box seemed very disorganized and into nowhere that Serioux and Harmse to hoof out of the box. KC defence also seemed out of synch which was a bit surprising to me because I expected your back 4 to be more solid. After seeing first few chances that Barrett had (which he should have put away at least one of them), I had a thought that it might be long game for you guys. Esp #25, Leathers I think on RB got beasted by DeRo. Couldn't handle DeRo's strength and technical skills. Although Conrad had a good game overall which was kinda expected even he made one goof that Robinson had a long range attempt mid 1st half. I originally thought Hirsig had very little influence in the game, but after seeing the replays, it was a pretty nice touch to set up Arnaud's 2nd game. But seemed KC offence was not going well very much so Hirsig's efforts got pretty lost too. I understand that match fitness is a factor, but overall I didn't really feel threatened by KC offence. The game IMO should have been over by 60min mark if not for Arnaud singlehandlely putting the Wiz back into the game. Hopefully things get better for you guys but the Wizards overall seemed pretty disjointed and not yet coordinating well as a team. It was good to see that the Wiz didn't seem to quit and few late game moments had my ass clenched until the final whistle (and TFC gave up too many late equalizers last season) Good luck to the Wiz (except against TFC of course)
Thank you to both TFC fans that traded with me, both the Red Patch Boys and DOW scarves are going on my wall. Couldnt agree more!
Not the choice start obviously. Too many turnovers in own zone. Plus, it wouldn't be KC soccer without 2-3 handball calls going the wrong way every game and poor shooting. 4 on net of 11 with 2 in is good finishing, but poor technical shooting. One game. KC was shorrt some key guys. No worries yet. They will be better next week undoubtedly. They have to be.
I definitely noticed the handballs in the game, there were multiple that went uncalled. I can't find a replay of the penalty but from where I was it looked like the ball came of the Toronto player's hand first. Anybody see a clip of it?
So we had Blue nets in the goal? guessing MLS changed their rules about that only being for the champions- considering I saw orange ones in Houston over the weekend as well.
Hey fellas, that TFC fan who came into the Cauldron was me, and I have to say despite security being desperate to lead me out "for my safety" I still found the KC fans to be wonderful, very giving and very gracious hosts. Other than one young woman who was a bit in my face while I visited the Cauldron (it's your turf, I understand and certainly no disrespect!) I did not get any kind of hostile vibe from you folk. I spent 3 days in your city and enjoyed every single second of it, as did my friends. Cheers and good luck!
Yea, I remember getting on her bad side, along with a few other Cauldronites, because we tried to explain to her how you were only taking pictures...she was the one that was with the guy that was desperately looking for someone to fight with.
Just wanted to give you guys lots of respect for your hospitality and class. I used to live in KC (back in 1988-89) so it was nice to be back, even for a short while.
Were you the guy she told: "Some of my best friends are Canadians ... but that won't stop me from having these guys beat the sh*t out of you." Cause that was actually one of the funniest threats I've ever heard someone make.
Thanks for coming over. I was one of the old Wizard fans you met. I was disappointed in our hospitality, so I'm glad you weren't too offended!
Yeah, that was me. My pal Ben came over to make sure all was ok (I did have one or two drinks earlier after all!), but I have to say we both found the situation with the girl and her friends kind of hilarious and not very threatening, despite her best efforts I think. Ben has a great photograph of one guy giving us the finger with great determination, and it turned out really well!
Well, I'm glad you guys didn't feel threatened. I'm not sure anyone actually knows who these people were. They're obviously not regulars.
In all honesty, your security was there pretty quick -- I know for myself I was still feeling the love from the KC fans at the tailgate party, and our section was far enough away and loud enough that I had no idea about any KC fans shouting the abuse that I've read about here -- so when security insisted on having me leave "for my safety", I did think it was a bit over-the-top, but done in a very friendly way. At any rate, I'd hate to have had it turn into an incident, and am glad that it didn't!
Good to hear. I think security is pretty on top of things around our section. I deleted my post (that you quoted) because it made me sound no better than those people. That kind of crap just aggravates me to no end. In the future, if I see something like this, I will definitely be one of the supporters to step in or grab security so that nobody gets hurt because of a few amateur d-bags in the section.
I was just about to start talking to you about bacon, John Candy, Bryan Adams and hockey. I get so few chances to chat with real-life Canadians here in KC. Maybe next time...