Once again the idea tonight is not to allow Carlos Ruiz to sniff the net. I read in the Yahoo MLS Pre-match report the only club Ruiz hasn't scored on is the Metro. Cobi is done, Ruiz can't score on us. Diallo & Clint should have their way against the little Galaxians. No goals by Ruiz means a win for the Metro and another 3 Pts in our pockets.
I would expect the Galaxitives are looking for a little payback for the 5-0 pasting we laid on them in June. Much as I'd like to predict a win here, we don't historically play well in LA (we are 0-2-1 in our last 3, our last win was 2-0 in June of 2000, iirc). A win puts us in first if New England can somehow win at Columbus. Objectively, I would expect us to lose 2-1, but hopefully we can lay another pasting on them as further payback for the Cienfuegos killer last year.
Ruiz only played one game against us. It's a little premature to say he can't score on us. Over the last 2 months nearly any player in the league can score against (at will, it seems sometimes). The good news about this game is Chrono is out (injury) and Akwari is starting. The bad news is that OZ is starting that retarded 4-3-3 we played last week. Gotta hand it to OZ, if something fails he just repeats his mistakes over and over again until it keeps failing. Predicted starting lineup according to Metrostars.com: .........................Howard.......................... ..Ziadie........Petke.........Jolley.......Akwari.... ..................Paule........Moore.................. ........................Williams........................ ...Diallo...............Mathis..............Faria..... Again, starting both Paule and Moore in the midfield is a mistake. One or the other. And OZ should play a normal 4-4-2 with Davis in midfield and Faria as a super-sub.
Re: Re: Metro @ LA Pre-Game Thread Oh, the front end of this lineup sucks. I'm glad to see Akwari in and Chronopoulous out, but expect to see Diallo trying to carry the ball up the touchline again, just like last week.
I just finish listen to the game, and Carlos Ruiz was the hero of the game. I think the Metrostars needs a coaching change and my vote goes to Tab Ramos. I believe he could still save the season. I lost all the faith on Zambrano.
.........................Howard.......................... ..Ziadie........Petke.........Jolley.......Akwari.... ..................Paule........Moore.................. ........................Williams........................ ...Diallo...............Mathis..............Faria..... See the space behind the outside forwards. That is a big problem. Then we have outside backs playing as center backs. That is another problem.