Despite the scoreline, I was impressed with the quality of play from the Crew. There were a lot of one-touch and give-and-goes and the Crew seemed to have an attractive, attacking mentality on the field, something that has not been seen in years. I really liked Kamara. Defense will come together in time.
There were instances of good play by the Crew but most of the time we struggled to move the ball forward with control. We had a lot of long, high kicks upfield hoping they fell to our guy. Once KC was up 3-1, they played a bit more defensively and that made us look better than we did when the game was scoreless.
I saw it differently. I saw our passing games still was not very good. Our backs (Chad Marshall and Tim Ward) had to sent too many long balls and hope for the best. I want to see the build up thru the midfields more. The problem is that Moss does not seem to be a good passer from the back, but we should give him more chances to show his stuff.
I've seen this idea in numerous posts now and I think that people shouldn't forget that this was his first MLS match. I'm sure it will take a little bit of time for him to adjust to the speed of play and learn to think a little quicker and not just boot the ball upfield every time. Overall, I think we saw about what we should have expected: A group of good players playing with very little cohesion. Seb was pretty disappointing, but maybe he'll be better if/when his fitness improves. Either way, Sigi wasn't betting the entire season on him and I think Vasquez is capable in that spot. If Seb doesn't show signs of meaningful improvement fairly quickly then I don't think we'll see him in the starting lineup. I don't think Sigi is going to wait around for him for too long. What I really wasn't expecting was the poor play of the backline. I know those guys had never played together in a real game, but I was really suprised to see so many unmarked KC fowards in the box so often. I might have expected some botched offside traps or some akward ball movement but I didn't expect such poor marking. At least our depth at the back will make these guys realize that they can't play like that and remain a starter for very long. Overall, I don't think we got a whole lot less than we should have expected.
I agree with everyone who says our backline looked a little more shaky than we all had hoped. We all knew that the attacking situation was going to be rough, Sigi has said it himself in not so many words in how we are building from the backline. One thing that is a definite improvement over last year is that each game we are going to get better. We have something to look forward to rather than the knowledge of only getting worse from here. Each week is going to be a test of how far we can come along and face each challenge. And quite frankly I'm pumped for it. We may lose a few more, but we're going to start winning.
I too thought Moss was horrid. And the backline disappointing (Rusty Pierce particularly). We'll give them a game or two I guess. But I still think Szetela or Vasquez are better options at DM and Rusty would never start if Frankie is healthy (obviously).
Pierce shouldn't be in the lineup again. Ward played better than Rusty. Heck, Leitch might take Pierce's roster spot. Moss didn't do as much as I'd like from a D-mid but he was a rookie in his first match. I'll cut him a lot more slack than Pierce or Kotschau. I wouldn't mind seeing Danny get some time at D-mid though as I think it's his eventual position.