We bunker for the 2nd half and pay for it. That was ugly. Scoring Summary: KC -- Igor Simutenkov 1 (Jimmy Conrad 1, Preki 1) 25 KC -- Jimmy Conrad 1 (Preki 1) 38 CHI -- Orlando Perez 1 (unassisted) 53 CHI -- Andy Williams 1 (Orlando Perez 1) 65 CHI -- Damani Ralph 1 (Andy Williams 1) 70 Chicago Fire -- Zach Thornton, Jim Curtin, Carlos Bocanegra, C.J. Brown, Orlando Perez, Evan Whitfield, Chris Armas, Logan Pause, DaMarcus Beasley, Rodrigo Faria (Damani Ralph 65), Andy Williams (Kelly Gray 87). Substitutes Not Used: Nate Jaqua, Justin Mapp, Henry Ring. TOTAL SHOTS: 12 (Orlando Perez 3, Andy Williams 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (4 tied with 1); FOULS: 21 (DaMarcus Beasley 4, Damani Ralph 4); OFFSIDES: 3 (3 tied with 1); CORNER KICKS: 2 (DaMarcus Beasley 2); SAVES: 3 (Zach Thornton 3) Kansas City Wizards -- Tony Meola, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga Jr., Chris Klein, Preki, Carey Talley, Diego Gutierrez (Dario Fabbro 71), Josh Wolff (Bo Oshoniyi 82), Eric Quill (Kerry Zavagnin 67), Igor Simutenkov (Chris Brown 62). Substitutes Not Used: Stephen Armstrong, Davy Arnaud, Chris Brunt, Taylor Graham, Jack Jewsbury. TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (3 tied with 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Igor Simutenkov 2); FOULS: 12 (Diego Gutierrez 3, Carey Talley 3); OFFSIDES: 3 (Josh Wolff 2); CORNER KICKS: 2 (Preki 2); SAVES: 1 (Tony Meola 1)
Well that was weird. Sweet goal by Perez. Just the other day I was thinking about when Meola was playing forward in that All-Star game, hmmm. Igor Rules, hope Wolff's injury isn't as bad as it could be. I think maybe Z should have been put in sooner, just a thought. Well this was a mess. I'm out.
Had to miss this one in person tonight and on TV. (moving) After reading the Fire boards sounds like fvcking Bunker Bob did his tactical brilliance again. Thanks Bob for screwing up what should've been a home win against what should be an inferior dismantled team. I will cancel my season tickets next year if this bunker and over-time tieing team shows up again this year. We should be 0-1-2 now. We've been gifted goals and I do believe the defensive situation can now be fully declared a sieve situation. I will wait till I watch the tape before venting any further at this time... Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot...
If you'd seen the game, you'd wish that we did bunker. Igor was taken off since he picked up a couple knocks earlier in the game and was replaced by Brown. They were going to bring on Zavagnin for Quill (playing in the middle strangely enough) before the 2nd goal. He came on anyway since Quill wasn't totally with it and KZ played fairly well. Fabbro then came on for Gutierrez. No Brunt for a forward substitutions or anything like it. The real culprit is Klein missing one on one with Thornton early in the 2nd with a 2-0 lead, but a poor touch and poor shot kept Chicago in it. Thats when they made the comeback. Klein didn't do much all game now that I think of it. Perez's goal was a nice run through the defense with a GREAT shot from distance. Andy Williams just slipped past Garcia and scored from about 20 yards out. Ralph's goal was similar. All three (with the possible exception of Perez) occurred with only the 3 defenders behind the ball. Wolff was back defending on a couple of occasions, but he was only tracking back because Preki just took Wolff's spot up top.
Andy We didn't bunker. We really didn't. The frst one was unstoppable. Probably one of the goals of the season. The second and third after beating our defensive midfield player thier players were wide open to shoot. Our back three were too deep on both of those and didn't step into block the shot. Tony should have got the third IMO, he was slow to react. The replay did show his view partially blocked by Garcia, but still he slow to get down. Tony did make a point blank save earlier and we were outplayed and out hustled in the second half. Klein was invisible and his miss summed up his poor showing. Igor looked dangerous but then got injured. Highlight of a disappointing evening was Beasley falling over taking a corner in front of the cauldron as we yelled "Dive, dive, dive". Not much consolation there though.
I was pretty confused as to what that was about. I dont think we had any forwards left on the bench to put in, and Meola was a forward in HS, maybe thats why. Or maybe Tony just REALLY wanted to win. Either way- kind of interesting. Beech- You didn't see the game so why your being so pessimistic, I dont know. I don't really think Bob bunkered, considering he pulled Diego (more of a defensive player) for Fabbro, a forward. And who cares what we SHOULD be right now- because were not 0-1-2. I think you should be happy for that.
We had used up our three outfield subs. Wolff was injured, the only way to keep 11 players on was to bring in Bo and put Tony up front. I was a little worried he might blow his knee or something.
In theory it works like this - since we only have our GK sub left, we switch Tony & Josh on the field. Now that Josh is the keeper, he can be subbed out for Bo. In practice, the refs just let us do it w/o the all the details & the overall effect is the same. It's kind of cheesy, but it happens.
Some quotes from the article in the Star Meola: With a lead, I don't know why were in one-on-one situations. We will have to look at tape and see what happened. Gansler: At halftime, we didn't talk about sitting back. We wanted to come out and be aggressive like the first half. Preki: When you are up 2-0, you've got to score a third goal and put the game away. If you don't score, you've got to keep possessing the ball like we did in the first half. In the second half, we kept giving the ball away.
That was crap! We did not bunker, I repeat we did not bunker. IMO Tony should have stopped the last two goals. Especially the 3rd which was by far the easiest one to save too bad he was caught cheating to the right post.
We need McKeon back. Maybe he would have got a red, but he would have killed Perez and Williams before they got off those long shots. In all seriousness, you can't really blame Meola for any of the goals, especially the first. Seemed like our back three played well. It was the D-mid hole in front of them that killed us. Maybe we missed Gomez more than we realize. Perhaps it should be Z-man instead of Talley.
Fire v. K.C. In my opinion, Meola didn't have a chance to stop the first two goals - the K.C. defense just gave the Fire too much space. Meola should've stopped the third goal - he looked out of position. Overall, another inconsistent effort from the Wizards. Usually, they play great one week and then play poorly the very next week. This time. we had a great first half followed by a dismal second half. The Wizards just seemed to lose their intensity after Klein missed that shot early in the Second half.
that was a great game you guys did well on two set pieces and we had 2 great goals and third that caught tony blind i'll chime in and say that you guys didn't bunker as well... it was fairly attractive soccer... with each team stringing passes together and staying spread perez just unloaded on his goal... completely sick... i don't which was better... his or twellman's... they're each incredible but i think a key to the game was pause making an adjustment on preki, us limiting set pieces in our defensive third, and no one on the fire ever pressed the game... we stayed calm and under control despite a two goal deficite easily the best soccer i've seen in the games i've seen so far this year (both teams played well compared to only the crew last week)
I know I haven't posted forever, but this is what I thought--- Klein has been my favorite player on the team since he has been here, This was the worst I have seen him play--missed goal that would have ended the game, bad touches, bad passes Meola could have got the third one, the first goal by Perez was sick Is Quill the best option? Is he better than Armstrong I like Conrad, Did anyone else notice the scuffle between Jose B. and the fire bench after the game???? anyway, a long three hour drive after the game Paul
Klein has perhaps the WORST match of his professional career!!! If he gave the ball directly to the other team once... he gifted it to them 6 times!!! Then wasted shot that he launched to the moon. Geez! Pleeze. That was no slip on Williams' part. Garcia SLIPPED UP big time. Lay that game tieing goal squarly on Nickie's shoulders! Ugly.
And what the hell were we thinking at the very end? Time running out, only one or two chances left - Chicago is called offsides, and we try to take the restart five yards into the offensive half? The ref rightfully blew the play dead, and it still took him 10 seconds to explain that the ball needed to be on the other side of midfield. We wasted 30-45 seconds trying to start the ball - with no defensive pressure - in a visibly illogical position. Just stupid stuff like that. Mindboggling. Talk about an embarrasing collapse. Yuck.
Missed this one in person but watched the goals on the MLS web site. My girls had a tourney down in Springfield this weekend. I haven't heard anyone mention this web site feature yet but I love it. They have videos of every goal scored so far and plan to continue for the entire MLS season. Check it out. This may stink with dial up but it's seamless with DSL. http://www.mlsnet.com/multimedia/pepsi/index.php Way too soft in the middle D. All three came with pace (read "smokin") from distance with poor reaction from Tony. He was positioned well but seemed lost at the point of the shot. This goes back to our seive analogy. Not necessarily all Tony's fault but when he has a bad half, it is a really bad half for the team.
just to add to the pepsi goal of the week voting, there is voting for the goal of the week on fsw's site as well... they have 4 goals up that you can vote on there's a whole section for mls on fsw (click on the mls ball next to the pic of magee)
question I’m really confused on what the hell happened this game honestly….plz don’t take me wrong. What I saw was a first half where kc dominated the midfield and most possession. They scored two well-deserved goals via dismantling the fire defense, which is the strongest part of the team. But the 2nd half, I’m torn on what occurred… the first two goals were quality, the 3rd hate to say but I blame meola (who I really respect too)… To what is credited the lack of a possession game during the majority of the 2nd half? Can we really credit bringing on Ralph on for Faria? Or can we really credit bringing on Brown for Simutenkov, or not substituting Meola and/or Quill? What collapses on the KC side? Or was it a Burst on the Chicago side? I mean I’m a fire fan, but I never predicted this kind of offense from out team… Ralph, Williams, and Perez I never would have imagined being our 3 goal scores… what is your take, did our offense get lucky? [Did they] Show that they are better than expected? Did KC’s defense screw up? … I’m curious on your take, and also on neutral takes…. Thanx, emil
to me, watching it on tape, it seemed like thetea mwas just playing uninspired in the second half. they got too complacent with their lead, and decided that...ok...they may not bunker down, but theyll just play it out and see waht happens. I DUNNO..ITS LATE AND IM NOT REALLY COHERENT AT ALL NOW, seeing as the fact that iwas typing all in caps there completley bypassed my attention, but thats just what i saw.