http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/mls0603metkc.html Are you ready for some football? KC: Could be* minus Klein for the game, as well as the potential to lose Garcia at any time in the next month or two. Still the league leader in scoring as well as goals allowed. I havent kept up on my "Whats up with Meola" thread of late, but last weekends goals can be mostly blamed on Meola. Lets hope he can turn things around. Once we stop giving up goals, we stand to be one of the top 3 teams in the leage. Preki, er God, just keeps on going. I'm seriously thinking about a yoga class. Wolff is slowly coming back. I'd bet he'll start and play 60ish minutes again. I was all pumped when I first heard the news of the trade way back in the winter. Now I'm starting to wonder if an investment in youth would have been better. I'm really starting to like Gomez's play. Two years ago I could have strangled Gansler each time he ran Cisco out at A-mid, but not more withdrawn hes great at taking passes from Zavagnin and finding Preki. Speaking of that, I really like our ability to win the ball back when we lose it (Zavagnin), get it to our creative mids (Gomez and Preki) and hit the front runners going to goal (Klein, Quill, Brown, Igor, Wolff, Armstrong). When they do it well, its beautiful to watch. We think Preki is carrying the load now? With Klein's speed and presense on the right gone, and no real left mid that put fear in the hearts of the opponent the middle of the field is going to tighten up. Who ever plays the wings, Brown has been a past filler for Klein, will have to play well early to pull attention back to the wings. Metros: Could be without Mathis, Pope and Howard. To say the least, that sucks for them. I've seen bits and pieces of their games this season. Ricardo Clark has impressed, but I'm not on his "USMNT Bandwagon" just yet. Magee has scored a couple goals. Kenny Arena may get his first start. Cool, maybe Wolff can pick on a rookie instead of Llamosa shutting him down. Their backup keeper has very little experience. Thats all I know on him. ABMOD is in the hizouse! *All things being equal, if Arena will just cut the crap and keep the Nats guys in camp, KC has a definite advantage. If all the players are in KC and playing, it could be one hell of a knock down, drag out, bragging rights game. Assuming Klein is gone: Meola Conrad-Talley-Garcia Zavagnin-Gomez Armstrong-Preki-Quill Wolff-Brown *If Igor is healthy, Armstrong will be dropped and Brown will slide back to right mid.
All we have to do is adequately replace Klein and we can open up a bit of a lead over San Jose who is injury-ridden and w/o Donovan for a while. This is our chance.
Rob Stone reported last week during the SJ-Chi game that Yallop had already recieved word from Da Bruce that Donovan would be released from camp to play this weekend. That said, Baby Jesus can't hold that sorry excuse of a hopsital ward, I mean soccer team together. I think we can earn 3 points and hold the top of the table.
National team call ups Dunno about Mathis and Howard yet, but Pope is out for 6-8 weeks anyway because of his injury last weekend.
we should be better w/o klein that other teams w/o their national team players. when is guti going to play again?
Well, Arena is going to let some players come back to their clubs and skip the Nats game on Sunday. I would bet teams that have 3 gone such as the Metros to get atleast one of their players back. I would bet that Mathis comes back and Howard starts in goal. Then again since Howard won't have much time left with his club he may let him play with them for this one, it very well may be his last game. Either way one of their stars will be their. Bad news, Metros are on a 7 game unbeaten streak and 2-0-1 on the road. Good news they have not blown a team out yet, and their schedule has included DC, LA, COL(2). The only difficult team they have played is CLB and they are 1-1-1 against them. Advantage KC. Good news for us Pope is out for 6-8 weeks. Offense is our best quality right now. So that is a bonus for us. If Howard is playing then it is bad news as he is on top form right now. If Klein is gone and Howard is in, advantage goes to them in that match up. Our defense has been poor. Good news is Gibbs is replacing Pope for the Confederations Cup. Bad news is Cletus may play, gving the boost to their offence. If Cletus plays I give them the advantage in that match up.
I wonder how Diego is doing. If Deigo is well enough to play a d-mid role then why not try Gomez at right mid in place of Klein?
I was thinking that as well. Have we seen Gomez out on the right? Can he cross well enough? More importantly, I'd like to see Armstrong out on the right if he has the capabilities.
i assume that wolff's limping off of last game is not of concern anymore? i guess i've been out of the loop the past couple of days. please tell me this is true.
We have seen Gomez on the right a whole bunch during the opening months last season when Klein was still injured. We also saw him for a bit in the left mid equation when Quill was injured.
Since SJ has two games in hand I think we need to win to keep pace. Since I'm too lazy to look up the schedule, does anybody know when the Quakes will have made up those two games?
Week of June 18&21 SJ plays twice, KC once. Week of July2,4,&5 SJ plays twice and KC once. So by the time we come back from Colorado, after 14 games, we'll be level.
dammit, why do ialways have shows the night of home games? oh well. i can see wither a real big win or a real bigh dissapointment here. I dont htink we will lose, but i dont want another friggin tie. go wizards.
It looks like the only major change in the Earthquakes line-up this week will be in defense, and a change up top. Roner will likely move to right back while Waibel moves into the center. Alvarez or Mullan will be up top with Landon. Kansas City is a good squad, and you'll only be missing Klein (is Garcia going to be in France or not?) You guys should be fine and you may be able to open up a four point lead (or thereabouts) by the end of the Quakes' road trip in three weeks.
Line on game this week. KC favored. Visitor Win Draw Wins Home MetroStars 2.7 2.9 2.4 @Kansas City 2.4:1 on the blue guys. I thought it would be a bit better against unbeaten-in-forever and defensive Metros.
Tony Conrad\Talley\Garcia KZ\Diego Gomez\Preki\Armstrong Wolff\Igor I think Diego will have a go with it. Hopefully Igor will be ready otherwise go with Dario. Brown needs to grab some pine for a while and do what he does best and come on as a sub.
"Tony Conrad\Talley\Garcia KZ\Diego Gomez\Preki\Armstrong Wolff\Igor " You think Armstrong is suddenly going to be started in front of Quill? Also, Diego was playing out left when healthy, dont you think he will go back there. And a game without Brown is like a game without... well a draw. I think Gansler will go like this - even though i agree with your lineup - i just dont think its realistic.... tony conrad/talley/garcia KZ/Gomez Brown/Preki (Got)/Diego Wolff/Igor Subs: Armstrong for Igor, Quill for Wolff(then Brown goes up front)
I've gotta agree with jdouble, when was the last time Gansler made sweeping changes to his lineup and just shocked anyone? Armstrong has proven a game changer, so I'd guess he'll still be a bench warmer. Gansler has faith in Brown like he had faith in Gomez. Brown will start, if history tells us anything. Now for the better news.... I want to be the first to say this is a crock of shite!! They release Howard and Mathis to come play against us, but leave Klein in Maryland? Thats fair. Thats why I've been saying for a week now since the rumors of releasing players came out that they should just keep them all. USSF announced this friendly and Confed Cup preparations long ago. All the MLS teams knew about it, it didnt catch them by surprise. KC put themselves in a good situation with a deep roster, prepared to lose a player or two. Now for a game when the players were "supposed" to be gone, the opposing team gets their stars while we lose ours?
To further update this.... In today's KC Star, Bob Luder says: Forward Josh Wolff started and played 67 minutes without as much as a tweak of the hamstring that's been giving him fits. He continues looking stronger in practice every day, and it doesn't look like it'll be long before he's ready to play a full 90 minutes.
I guess I'm torn on mathis and howard getting released for the game, but no klein, if that news report is accurate. at least klein keeps getting good looks with usmnt, and we get to see mathis and howard in person saturday. I still think we can beat them with howard and mathis in the lineup. I think if guti were ready to play, he'd be playing. here's what I expect: meola; conrad, garcia, talley; zavag, gomez, brown, quill, preki; simu, wolff. armstrong off the bench and probably guti again, depending on score. if we're behind, bob better not sub in a midfielder for a forward like he's done. speaking of done, is fabbro? seems like he's getting the mckeon/prideaux treatment.
I would like to see Brown bear in a different role to see if he does that any better. The only thing I worry about with Brown Bear is his passing ability on the right flank, but, I believe it's worth a try. If worse comes to worse, we can always sub him out(provided Bob remembers how to sub out Brown).