Left or ATL on Thursday night and forgot to make the thread? I leave and the whole thing falls apart lol. Started off on the road where we left off last year: unacceptable. Really nothing more to say. Scotty G was dreadful in the back. Was good to see Walter start and Sparky return to the field. Darnell had a good game playing as a defender. Dimitrov as uninvolved as in the home opener. We were holding on to a point by a thread and the wheels finally came off late. Once it hit 70' or so with no meaningful attacked to speak of we could feel the collapse coming. Could see it coming a mile away with my experience at road matches. Record now stands at 1-2-7 for matches I've travelled to go see. Ridiculous. And the happenings in Silverbacks Park further reinforce my view that the Strikers are the only team in the NASL that has anything close to a clue when it comes to accommodating away support.
The road record alone makes a good reason not to go.... OK, tell us more. What happened (I did notice in the pics you & others posted that the Ft Lauderdale group was mixed in with the locals). Keeping in mind that the good folks in Atlanta like to keep a memento or souvenir or 2 from the visitor groups that do attend games there, we may say there are at least 2 good reasons not to go. Maybe? Perhaps?.....
I have to hold my hands up and take responsibility for this one. We were doing fine until I had to logout out of Ustream and go out for the evening. Sorry guys, I thought that we would be ok for the point. I salute all of those that went up and represented. You guys really do us proud!
I tried to give the team a pass after the first game and not be overly critical. When I listened to Ultras Alive the week of the opener and heard Coach Shore say (the frustration in his voice obvious) that they were the second lowest payroll in the league this year, I knew we were in more trouble then I wanted to believe up til then. Here are the big problems I've seen so far: Giving up three goals in two games isn't horrible...unless you consider that it was against probably the two worst attacking teams in the league (that's assuming we aren't below them both, which a case could be made for and I'll get to in a minute). Something has gone very wrong for Scott Gordon. He played so much better last year, so it's frustrating to see the struggles he's had so far this year. As soon as Guerrero is healthy you'd expect to see him in for Gordon, and based on what we've seen so far, rightly so. Thomas has only been ok at best for me. He is sooooo slow out there, you just know sooner ot later that's going to cost us some goals against some quicker forwards. While I love King's speed and effort, you still see his inexperience playing in the back. On its own it wouldn't be such a big deal, but coupled with the other problems the back line has had, it surely doesn't help. Midfield play has been pretty weak in my opinion as well. I've seen very little from Salazar that impresses me. Foley's goal was one hell of a shot. That said, as wingers, both he and Johnson have had a very difficult time creating enough space on the wings and giving good service. Johnson especially. Outside of being very fast, I've seen nothing from him. He is dispossessed easily, isn't able to beat anyone one on one, and spends far too much time flailing his arms and yelling at teammates for some reason. Up top, well, after scoring all kinds of goals against college kids, Dimitrov has completely disappeared against fellow pros. Everyone can stop all of the talk of him leading the Strikers in goals in the first half season, and then the Cosmos in the second. Granted our MF hasn't given him a whole lot in the way of good service, but what opportunities he's had haven't impressed. Herron hasn't gotten much time, but when he was in, and had a huge chance to put the Strikers ahead right in front of goal with a loose ball on Saturday, he bombed. If finished properly, that would almost assuredly have gotten us out of there with a point. I hate being so negative. But I'm not going to lie. Two games we HAD to win against last year's two worst teams yielded a combined total of 1 point. I'm going to tell you guys something now that surely some will scoff at, but what I have been talking about ever since they made this frakkin dumbass schedule format - If the Strikers do not leave Cary with 3 points this Saturday, and based on what we've seen so far it seems extremely unlikely we can do this, kiss the first half season good bye. We will be done. One quarter of the way into it we'll be at the bottom of the standings with no chance of passing everyone else to get to the one and only "playoff" spot.