Give line-up predictions (or fantasies), best match-ups since as of today the #3 seed cannot officially be determined, general concerns, or positive vibes. Ready, set, go...
--------------------------barnhart------------------------------ robinson------sauerbrunn---------phillips---------kallman ---------------buczkowski------------richmond---------------- -----silva----------------holiday------------------tymrak----- ------------------------------rodriguez-------------------------- best chance to defend properly. they will usually score. but they have to defend superbly to win in the playoffs. so vlatko should revert to the 4-5-1. he has time to drill them.
The 4-5-1 is exactly what I would do too. If the above was the starting line up, I'd ask Amy to run hard for 45 mins and pressure, then bring Hagen in at say at 58 mins.
For the 1st time since our 5-0 route of Sky Blue I saw potential in the 4-4-2 in the 1st half of the recent Seattle tie. Both Hagen and Arod drifted back to the midfield as needed to apply defensive support or keep possession. Sadly it couldn't be maintained in the 2nd half. I think we see 4-4-2 with Buz and Richmond. I think the coaching staff should consider how much Holiday plays in the Swiss friendly when making formation decisions. I still wonder if we see Arod play AM this season. Also, who do we most want to face in the play offs? We will likely find out tomorrow, but with Spirit, Chicago, and Portland I'd choose Chicago but it's not super likely they get higher than 4th.
Interesting that the general public seems to believe that Portland will easily win this game. And don't get me wrong, Portland is a very tough match up but I think there are a lot of things in our favor
Coach Riley said, in a way that's a compliment to FCKC, that KC is a good matchup for the Thorns. He said KC plays football and that's better for the Thorns, who he feels has more trouble against teams that play more direct. I think it's an intriguing matchup but one where Portland has a good chance of putting together their game.
I don't have a correct place to post this, but Kim Little just got the Golden Boot. My votes are: Jenna Richmond - Rookie of the Year Best Eleven - Seattle Best Defender - Brunn MVP - Kawasumi
I'll go with Julie Johnston of Chicago as Rookie of the year Brunn (KC) as best defender Le Blanc (Chi) or Solo (Sea) best goalie MVP: Little
They gave JJ Rookie of the year, who I have as, in the mix. But, if I could go back in time and redraft, I would take Jenna Richmond before Julie Johnston.
I think the whole reason KC traded up last season was in hopes of getting Johnston or Ohai. Obviously JJ wouldn't have happened but Ohai could have without the addition of Houston. JJ is a beast and KC would have probably played dmid if she made it to KC which many believe is her best position. JJ was my fav player in the draft. I remember being unhappy with the Richmond pick at the time being worried we wouldn't get Silva or Laddish. But it all worked out for the best. And I gladly admit to being wrong about Richmond. I do agree with you that Richmond should have been in the top 3. She may not have the star quality of JJ, Dunn, and Ohai but she definitely made as much of a consistent impact for her team. She was performing at a higher level early in the season when Dunn and Ohai were struggling with injuries. I predict Richmond will have a pro career similar to Buz....unsung hero. JJ was the rightful winner though.
I respectfully disagree - It's easier to hold down a back line than it is to be a heads up linking player. Compared to all of the bad passing in this league, Jenna is miles above most other players. She plays with her head up, anticipates passes, cuts off passing lanes, protects the ball, finds the open pass forward. I'm way way high on Jenna.
Sadly "linking players" don't seem to get a lot of love in the post-season awards department. I'm a big Richmond fan too.
Its quite interesting what has been said already. I agree that Julie Johnston in the end deserved the Rookie of the Year honors, even though I myself would of picked Jenna Richmond, Johnston has played nearly every minute of the season and Richmond didn't earn her starting spot until Andonovski switched back to a 2 holding midfielder formation. Richmond really came out of the blue for me, even though I did watch her clubs run in the NCAA tournament, she wasn't the player that I picked that would make such an important impact to our team. I think Johnston was the top defensive midfielder in the draft, but Richmond bar none was a close second to Johnston after her season this year. She brought many qualities that really improved the Blues this season. 1) Able to hold the ball and move it forward even under pressure from another player. Doesn't want to make a quick pass just to relieve pressure, but to keep her head up and look to pass forward. Hugely important when trying to link up with the attacking midfielder. 2) Defensively, she improved as the season wore on, and in the end, because of her steadiness with the ball at her feet, you just didn't see the bad turn overs that Jenn Buczkowski would commit when she quickly forced a pass when she came under pressure. 3) Superior linking midfielder, constantly activating Holiday or Tymrak by getting the ball to them in transition. And that is the important thing she did, Richmond got the ball to her creative playmaking midfielders allowing them to attack with it. In many teams, they will either go direct and by pass their midfield entirely, or their creative players do not get the ball enough. Point with Portland, I think Veronica Boquete needs to handle the ball as often as possible. The offense runs through her, like in Kansas City with Lauren Holiday, if Boquete doesn't get the ball, the offense quite frequently stutters and you see the team playing direct. People also have to remember that Richmond also picked up 4 assists this year, pretty damn good in a holding midfielder to get that many assists, which points out that Richmond does play with her head up, and is willing to create as well because of it. Whatever I can say about Kansas City trading their first round pick, which I disagree very much, they always do draft well. They do their home work, they know who they want to draft and the players they want on their team. And they pick them up. Erika Tymrak was my second best midfielder after Kristie Mewis in the 2013 draft and the Blues ended up picking both players up. And Tymrak ended up having a break out season. Last draft, I had Frances Silva and Mandy Laddish pretty high on my draft list and they both were drafted. Silva showed a lot of promise this year and Laddish still needs more seasoning to get into game shape, but the big surprise was Jenna Richmond. Picked second by the Blues and at that time, I thought we lost our chances at Silva, but Silva dropped to the 3rd round and again we got an under valued pick. Kallman, Richmond and Silva were the big stand outs in the draft for us. I think Kallman should move over to center back next season, and this years draft, we probably will have to focus on drafting a true left back to finally plug that hole in that side of our defense. Kallman has been a revelation to me as well, since Kassey is that physical force that we were missing when we lost Sesselman. Sesselman was the hammer to Sauerbrunn's finesse and they worked beautifully together. We need a physical presence back there and Kallman brings that edge that I would like to see as a center back pairing with Sauerbrunn. Kansas City is one of the few teams that are not afraid to put rookies onto the pitch and start them. We had 3 starting rookies last season and this year we had Kallman, Richmond and sometimes we had Silva starting. This coming up years draft will be very interesting since Houston now holds the top pick and knowing how important a creative midfielder would be for them, Morgan Brian is a no brainer for them to pick, but I honestly am a little worried that they might do a Brian in the first round and again pick up another midfielder and pick up Shea Groom who plays for Texas A&M since they should of scouted her by then. Houston is set up already for forwards with Ohai, Henderson and Burger. And their defense is fairly stacked with Sesselman coming back from injury and then Engen, Klingenberg and Romero, that whole back line looks very strong. Their only weakness has been their midfield, the inability to have creative players playing a Waldrum possession system. Brian and Groom would immediately fix that and that would deny us the chance to pick up Groom who is exactly a Erika Tymrak clone. She is a dribbling machine, has dribbled through an entire team and scored in her matches and is a fantastic playmaker. To have her play for any other team but the Blues would hurt. But that is for later to worry about. Good topics that were brought up though.
If you feel like scouting, check out Dagny Brynjasdottir and Sarah Killion. On one website they are both ranked top 5. On the same website, Cari Roccaro and Sam Mewis are outside the top 10. I would think that Dahlkemper goes top 5 and Roccaro and Mewis go top 10.
Brynjasdottir is very high on my list and I will make a list of my top draft picks for this coming up draft class. Roccaro shouldn't be available until a couple more years though. She is a Junior, so in 2 years time, we'll see her in the draft. 1) Morgan Brian (Midfielder) 2) Abby Dahlkemper (Center back) 3) Shea Groom (Midfielder) 4) Sam Mewis (Midfielder) 5) Dagny Brynjarsdottir (Forward/Midfielder) 6) Hannah Wilkinson (Forward) 7) Sabrina D'Angelo (Goal keeper) 8) Sarah Killion (Midfielder) 9) Danielle Colaprico (Midfielder/Outside back) 10) Sofia Huerta (Forward) This list is my no means going to be close to what everyone else has because there is actually 3 SEC players in the top 10. Shea Groom in my opinion is the second best midfielder in the nation. Hannah Wilkinson is a 5-11 monster forward that has speed, technical skill and vision to create for others. The perfect holding forward for any team. She should be very high on any team needing a forward like her. Sabrina D'Angelo bar none for the last 2 years has been the best goal keeper in the nation and I expect her to be the top goal keeper this year. She can do everything. Has a massive left foot kick, plays the sweeper keeper position for her club in South Carolina, great at reading people so she is fantastic at stopping PK's. Stopped a PK against Norway in the u20's and several for her club in South Carolina. Sabrina actually waits for the player to commit to the kick before she makes her decision to move and when Sabrina makes the save, she dives to either direction blocking the ball out. Great reflexes, something that Katelyn Rowland did not show she had when she couldn't stop the 4 penalty kicks she faced in the North Korean match in the U20's.