Jay was a sprinter in high-school and college. That was one reason he never concentrated on soccer. He is a phenomenal athlete.
Pontius made Davies look good in this match. Too bad about the injury, but Pontius should have been the one to get the red card, rather than the Chivas defender.
Well, Chad was DOY in 2008 and 2009. Had a flirtation with Mainz (then in 2Bundesliga) and the Crew upped his contract to keep him. Had a persistent knee injury last year that he played through (off season surgery). Hurt his form a bit, and also ruled him out of Camp Cupcake. And had the concussion issues that kept him out of a couple camps. He's been very good this year. The D has had 3 new starters this year (Miranda, James, Garnder) who had virtually no preseason time together. Despite us leaking 10 goals in the last 2 games (5 of them were on Hesmer, 1 PK, 1 own goal). And for reasons I cannot fathom, our coach was playing zonal marking on FK's, with Chad marking an area, for most of the season. We finally manned up again this week. Still, this was a week for offense: Davies, Bunbury, Zusi, Sapong. Hope Pontius is OK, it doesn't look good. Feilhaber has been very good of late.
Rogers good form continues: http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2011-09-10-columbus-crew-vs-toronto-fc/highlights?videoID=18916
That is an understatement. Pontius could have had his own hat trick but elected to pass to davies so he could have empty nets every time.
It was a nice goal, too. He followed it up by getting a pk saved. Oh well. But I am wondering the same thing, too.
Wondo is a really solid player who puts himself in good positions and strikes the ball really well. He also makes his teamates better. I'd like to see him get more time w/ the nats. That said... his PK take was HORRIBLE. What's with the extra movement before the kick? Then he never even looks at the GK, and then hits it waste high far too close to the middle of the goal. Pretty much a complete disaster.
I'd be surprised if he gets a look at any of the front line positions. Definitely not a target (friendly against Chile). Lack of threatening pace make him unlikely for the wings (Dempsey's the exception). In the hybrid versions of the 4-3-3 Klinsi's running out so far, Wondo's most likely spot would seem to be in the second line as CAM. Does he have the ball-control and passing skills for that position? How's his long-range shot (20-35 yds)? It's a hole that definitely needs to be filled.
Wondo wasn't a good fit in BB's system. For a team that attacked mostly on the counter, he was a step too slow. We'll have to see if the more possession-oriented style JK is trying to develop can be a better fit.
Yup. It's premature to write him off. All the guy does is score goals. He'll be given another chance with the national team at some point (camp cupcake?)..................and we'll just have to see how he performs.
It wasn't the best, was it? In fairness, that was the first PK the Quakes have been awarded all season . . . I think he thought if he hammered it it'd go in. Hopefully lesson learned. He had a couple of shots that forced good saves (one with his left foot from top of the box) and assisted on Corrales' goal.
Yeah... Wondo had a great match, and is one of the most composed finishers in the league. His assist was nice as well. I kind of see him as a slightly younger Brian Ching (and I mean that in a very complimentary way). I just think he over-thought the PK.
His efficiency doesn't suggest a great finisher. This season he has put a high percentage of his shots on goal, but a low percentage have actually found the back of the net. I should note that last season he was much more efficient.
I saw that as well. He leads MLS in shots on goal - which is good in that he's getting them on frame - but the other side of that coin is the suggestion of ineffeciency.
I didn't say he was a great finisher... just that he's incredibly composed. You see SO many guys just ripping the ball, and Wondo places it instead. I think his high percentage of shots on-frame going along with the low scoring percentage is a little indicative of that. I feel like Wondo's weakness is his lack of physical skills. He is very good mentally... very composed, but doesn't quite have the quickness, hand-eye coordination, and athleticism that could put him over-the-top.
It's really hard to tell wihout more info on the shot difficulty. However I think many stats guys would suggest that greater % of shots on goal is an indicator of better finishing quality. Also, highest SOG in the league indicates that he creates a lot of chances and is depended on by his teammates. The lower goals/shots is probably just variance e.g. messi in WC2010
Interesting conversation... Just for fun, here are the top 25 scorers in MLS this season (from the MLS stats page) I added a couple columns for percentage of sots that were on goal and shots/90 minutes. Code: [FONT=Courier New][B]Player Club POS GP GS MINS G A SHTS SOG G/90 SC% SOG% S/90[/B][/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Landon Donovan LA M 20 19 1720 12 3 36 21 0.63 33.3 58.3 1.9[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Thierry Henry NY F 21 21 1878 12 4 53 24 0.58 22.6 45.3 2.5[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Charlie Davies DC F 20 14 1266 11 1 30 17 0.78 36.7 56.7 2.1[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Brek Shea DAL D 27 27 2350 10 3 67 21 0.38 14.9 31.3 2.6[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Chr Wondolowski SJ F-M 23 23 2042 10 3 79 36 0.44 12.7 45.6 3.5[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Eric Hassli VAN F 20 18 1558 10 1 61 25 0.58 16.4 41.0 3.5[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Andres Mendoza CLB F 22 18 1430 9 2 49 24 0.57 18.4 49.0 3.1[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Dominic Oduro CHI F 27 22 2073 9 2 59 27 0.39 15.3 45.8 2.6[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Dway De Rosario DC M 25 23 2142 9 10 81 30 0.38 11.1 37.0 3.4[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Alvaro Saborio RSL F 16 16 1380 8 2 51 18 0.52 15.7 35.3 3.3[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Camilo VAN F 25 22 1909 8 3 65 27 0.38 12.3 41.5 3.1[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Kei Kamara KC F 24 18 1680 8 3 66 21 0.43 12.1 31.8 3.5[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Maicon Santos DAL F 24 20 1687 8 2 78 23 0.43 10.3 29.5 4.2[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Omar Bravo KC F 21 20 1661 8 2 45 21 0.43 17.8 46.7 2.4[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Shalrie Joseph NE M 26 26 2320 8 1 42 22 0.31 19.0 52.4 1.6[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Chris Pontius DC M-F 25 25 2114 7 5 53 20 0.30 13.2 37.7 2.3[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Fabia Espindola RSL F 21 19 1582 7 2 50 25 0.40 14.0 50.0 2.8[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Fredy Montero SEA F 25 22 1888 7 7 82 30 0.33 8.5 36.6 3.9[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Jack Jewsbury POR M 25 25 2250 7 8 40 19 0.28 17.5 47.5 1.6[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Justin Braun CHV F 25 19 1789 7 4 62 26 0.35 11.3 41.9 3.1[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Nick LaBrocca CHV M 28 28 2518 7 5 64 20 0.25 10.9 31.3 2.3[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Teal Bunbury KC F 24 15 1344 7 3 43 16 0.47 16.3 37.2 2.9[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Alvar Fernandez SEA M 24 18 1477 6 0 34 16 0.37 17.6 47.1 2.1[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Caleb Folan COL F 22 15 1366 6 2 37 14 0.40 16.2 37.8 2.4[/FONT] [FONT=Courier New]Carlos Ruiz PHI F 14 13 1144 6 0 35 14 0.47 17.1 40.0 2.8[/FONT] It's interesting to compare Wondo with other MLS strikers.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/24-under-24/news/article/2011/09/12/24-under-24-shea-finishes-no-1-fan-vote Was this posted yet??? You'll notice a lot of familiar names, which is a great thing.
I'm not a huge Wondo fan, so I don't have much to say to answer his critics other than this... As long as I've been a US fan, going back to Italy in 1990, US fans have tended to hugely undervalue goal scorers - I don't know why.
far too much aimless booting the ball out under pressure by Gonzalez vs Morelia IMO. Galaxy have had virtually no possession in the second half.