Agree with your whole post, but this is what I think we are all left with. I don’t know what skc will do with the cash, but I’m doubtful about it. When thinking about this game , I think it’s best to compare it to what the game could have been if played at CMP on a decent full sized field with a considerably more partisan crowd up close and personal. THAT should have been the show. Not this. SKC/Messi sets a record attendance, but I doubt we take anything more from it.
OK, I think they should play on a holiday a game at Arrowhead, Memorial Day or 4th July every year and make a big event out of it How about St Louis every year, like LAFC vs Galaxy at the Rose Bowl? I think it would work for everyone.
This game reminded me of Beckham's first game in Arrowhead. There were more Galaxy Beckham 23 jerseys than Wizardwear! Well advertised, but a bad impression of KC support!
I'll defend him a bit here, he had to step to Ruiz who got the ball there, now maybe he didn't need to step AS aggressively as he did that far out from goal with Messi next to him, but someone has to step into the gap he creates there to pressure the ball. And let's not forget he's in that position b/c of a really poor attempted clearance by Leibold. Short term monetary gain. Long term gain will be dependent on how many, of the people that were there either b/c of Messi or b/c it was an "event" come to CMP in the future to see SKC.
Was it really that pro Miami? From my view it wasnt. I recall Miami took field to boos, which warmed my heart a little.
This from Doyle’s article this morning: “The same is obviously true of Sporting KC, who more or less gifted the visitors the win with some questionable decisions playing out of the back. I know the plan was to wait until summer to make a move for a DP No. 10, but man, that feels a long way off and this team pretty clearly needs help on both sides of the ball right now.” True, but it goes deeper than that because everyone saw the problems SKC has playing a complete game and keeping a lead.
SKC already have a No. 10? Daniel Salloi. He is also Captain and makes over $1M. A quarter of the way into the season and he has already contributed 1 assist. Scale that up and its 4 assists and 0 goals. What more does Doyle want from a No.10? Also he has grown out his hair and looks a lot like Daniel LaRusso. It started off bad, but the Karate Kid won in the end.
Watching from Berlin, it looked very pro-SKC. There were a lot of Messi shirts, but they showed a lot of SKC shirts, as well. Two points: Walter getting hurt was tough. but OUT: Leonardo Campana (hamstring) OUT: Facundo Farías (knee) OUT: Ian Fray (knee) OUT: Sergii Kryvtsov (hamstring) OUT: Federico Redondo (knee) OUT: Robbie Robinson (knee) OUT: Robert Taylor (hamstring) How many starters in that mix, at least 3 maybe 4? and then bench depth? And 2 Take a look at possession, we edged it, and then look at passes completed: SKC 318. Miami 557. That means our play was slow, unmoving, etc.
Answering the No. 10 question seriously, I agree with Doyle that it is an issue. Maybe not the biggest, but an issue. Initially I thought Pulido at the 10 was a great idea because he's basically a false 9, drops deep, etc etc. But watching the Pulido 10, 4-2-3-1 experiment, I no longer think Pulido at the 10 is workable. He's not playing guys in, making the killer penetrating pass, making penetrating dribbles, or really anything else a No.10 does. All Pulido at the 10 does is get Agada on the field. That's a good thing as he scores the inside the box CF goals, but I really thought the Agada/Pulido thing would look better than it does.
Maybe getting Russell back on the field will help it, especially with Walter potentially out, drop Thommy back into the midfield, put Russell out wide, create a bit more dynamic build? I don't know I'm grasping at straws.
Real question - not being flippant or reacting to a single outing - Is Pulido workable anywhere at this point? He looks slow - both in real terms of running speed and how he plays the ball. Is he still coming back from injury or something? There is just nothing for an opposing team to fear from him on the field at this point.
It's not the losing that gets me. It's that we're losing because we can't maintain play for more than 70 minutes. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
JFR will help. Question is who does he come in for? The correct answer should be Salloi, but he'll never get subbed off. What will most likely happen is JFR for Agada, Pulido back to the 9, Thommy back to the 10, and 4-2-3-1 back to 4-3-3.
Making matters worse, his movement isn’t even smart. He takes spaces our attackers already have occupied. He “creates” the wrong kind of 2v1. I mean, I’m rooting for the guy, but dang, has all the hallmarks of getting paid and not being a serious pro anymore at same time. It’s like he’s quit on himself.
I was booing. But the crowd was loud when Lionel scored. Maybe they need another team retreat to reconnect, reenergize 'cause 318 versus 557 passes is pathetic when I have seen this team do better. What would be fun is to see Tzonis Agada Vargas up top. That would be a mix up, so crazy it just might work!
And so it begins... The sad reality, no matter how right Vermes might be not to play Tzonis, at all, right now, he can't have much less impact on a match than Salloi these days. Salloi needs a break. He needs to be sat and to left off the bench and go have a think about what he really wants out of this career. I mean, I get that being wildly inconsistent is his thing, but he doesn't seem to be playing his way through this. JFR is not likely to save us this year. He didn't look like his old self before the injury. He didn't look like a spark upon his return.At least the workrate is there, but I'm wondering if there isn't an underlying problem, he looks not unlike Agada last spring. Pulido has a few brilliant touches in most matches, the problem with that is that it's a few. What I find weird about him this season is that Vermes in this formation, said: go do what you do nauturally, and that will help us a lot. And he stopped doing what he does naturally. Though he does put in the miles. I'm not sure he's not also kind of injured. He is better than this, we've seen it. Is it possible Salloi, Pulido and JFR are all carrying stress fractures or something similar? Also: Man, Vargas? Why not?
BTW, looking at the gate, 72 thousand and change, subtract the say 20,000 as sth, and then look at the average original seat price, which is something north of $200, right? $150 were the cheap seats, the best in the house were sold for a lot more, etc, but subtracting the stadium rental fee, which is probably a lot and normal expenses, SKC should have walked away from this with at least an extra what, $7m, and maybe up to $10m? 20 years ago, that was a great season's gate revenue. Where should it be spent?
Doing that math, I realize that by great I mean impossibly great, double what a great season would have represented.
Should and will are 2 different things though. Where will it get spent is likely going to be on stuff that doesn't translate to on the field, what's not pocketed anyway.
Pulido and injury - who knows, but all you have to do is look at the photo of him with the Messi jersey. He's got a long piece of KT tape on his left leg. Its where you would apply for a shin splint. As for the roster and likely rotations, you forgot the goalless wonder is returning! JFR and Shelton are available for selection. That means we are back to an attack that looks like Salloi Pulido JFR Thommy Memo/Walter Attacking subs: Agada sub for Pulido. Shelton for a wing forward. Vargas maybe gets in every once and awhile. Afrifa won't see the field much. Tzionis will never see the field again in KC. Thoughts that anything else is going to happen are optimistic/delusional.
Yeah I'm really concerned Pulido will be a millstone around this club for some time. I've been in his corner a long time, as fans over-hated him for silly reasons... but he's just not it these days. His post-injury speed is really miserable. I'd start Agada over him every day I could, but I think the doomers are right in that Vermes will probably lean towards Pulido ahead of him. Just sucks. Pulido has been such a great player, and is exactly the kind of center forward Vermes and this team needs. An unfortunate spate of injuries (for a player who never really had significant injury issues before coming here, fancy that) and father time just having his say, and we don't have the Alan we need or deserve. Salloi needs a rest, yep. Same thing happened last year. He played all game every game, started terrible, and then once he started getting some rest he began contributing again at a solid rate. Also Agada made a big difference for those numbers too. There's no fix. Too much money invested in players who can't deliver enough. I think we'll be okay, and looking at the season at the end we'll be "yeah, reasonably average if a bit poor" and move on to the offseason in October.
Huh, from the MLS site, their take, and Vermes take, on the loss: Sporting KC learned a lesson that plenty of others have in MLS. As Peter Vermes explained after their 3-2 loss, wherein Erik Thommy scored two world-class goals: "I would say that there's one very specific thing that happened in this game, that it's different than all the other teams you play against in the league. We lost the ball three times and they just have the quality that, when you do, they can punish you."
Yeah, i get that. that's why I asked should. Where could we get the most bang for a lot of bucks? New scout or 3? Academy?