Sporting KC vs Columbus (Sat Apr 23, 7:30PM CT) [R]

Columbus loses their USOC game with a 2-1 loss to Detroit City FC. Either they are in just as bad shape as SKC for players and/or confidence, or , they didn't mind getting out early so they can focus on getting their MLS season back on track. Columbus is in the 9th spot in the East table. Sporting is now in 12th place out of 14 teams in the West and 25th out of 28 teams in the entire MLS power rankings. If SKC finds a band aid for their defensive problems they could possibly squeak out a W or at least a draw. We'll see if PV can get his back line "physically and mentally" strong with 5 days of practice. I'm not putting any bets on this one.

 

I'd suggest, that with Pulido and Kinda still out, and no one in the mauri sized hole in the roster, we don't really have an ideal 11 to put out there.
Add to that our aging brigade, and we have 5 or 6 holes in that 11. Frankly, it's more if you question where o where has our Salloi gone.
We are nearing the edge of 2022 officially being a washout and the only thing that looks in our way is time, as there do not appear to be roster solutions.
That said, if I were king of the forest (and we were going to stick to a 4-3-3):
The back four would be: Sweat, Voldemort, Isi, Pierre (or Duke).
The midfield would be: Logan, Walter, Tzonis
Up top: Salloi, Vujnovic, JFR.
Sweat and Logan, IMO, have both looked lively, and I'd like to see them both on the field. Logan has played quite a bit of left sided mid and some 6. Walter is better as an 8, but we don't have another 6 option. I think Salloi needs to be benched to get his head straight, but I don't know how to make that work. Maybe Hernandez in mid and Tzonis up top?
By removing Fontas and not playing Uri (who I think either is or soon will be injured), we are not the possession heavy side we've been in recent years, but could be closer to the 90 minutes of hell SKC side of yore.

 

Good point. It's RB that's he's played (season before we signed him he split time RB and LB) in addition to LB and left sided mid.. Okay,. I'd like to see him give RB a try, again, so hernandez in the mid role, and if we want to shock Salloi then it's with, uhm, Duke?

 

Go 5-5-0. Channel Atletico Madrid. Starting no forward and starting Shelton is the same thing, so why not double down on defense. A boring draw is better than a multi goal loss.

 

Which means we have two people on the roster who have played the 6 at a professional level. One is Uri, and he's obviously on the roster to fill the "always gonna be injured" slot. The other is fontas.
As you have noted, Fontas creates some issues and you've talked me out of thinking we can hide him better at 6 than 3.
Which means, fontas is a luxury item on a team that is spluttering and failing to get out of second, can't make it up hills.
Who is in your as good as we get this year 11?.

 

Chad is reporting that Russell is now on the questionable list for Saturday. Wow, could the offensive struggles for SKC get any worse? PV is going to have to shuffle more players to make something of an attack show up tomorrow.

 

i was fully expecting at least two free kick goals from that guy given how many dumb fouls around the box espinoza makes so this is definitely a huge plus.

No Russell would significantly lower the chances of us not playing with 10 men for once given Shelton will then probably be on the field. I hope Vermes would put him on the right wing in that case, as I feel like he's had some decent games in that position for us.

 

We have definitively reached the ‘anybody but him’ point with Shelton.

 

One shot in 45+ minutes, Yawn.

 

Doubt they'll miss me but if Shelton keeps starting I'm not watching games, going to games, or spending any money on SKC related anything. Give tzone or vujnovic or anyone on SKC2 those minutes. What has Shelton done to earn the minutes?

Our offense is worse than a dumpster fire right now. How could Vujnovic at the 9 and tzone at the 10 spot be any worse? Give them some time to gel with the team and see if anything happens.

 

Its good that they earned a point and kept Columbus goalless. But 3 shots? Pathetic! I paid a lot of attention to the front line tonight and was appalled at how rarely they troubled the Columbus back line. Khiry was often 10 to 15 yards away from them even when they had the ball and were advancing. I saw a lovely chance to spring Daniel go wanting. Once again I watched a high press from an opposing team lead to lots of turnovers while SKC looked bunkered quite often, There was an inconsistent intensity from the whole squad, flashes of beauty with long stretches of meh. It feels like the teams sense of itself is off and I question whether Vermes has the skills to fix it.

 

When you start telling your players they don't need talent to play a position at the same time you keep doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same shit result you might start losing the locker room.

I would love to hear the unfiltered thoughts of the players on topics like Khiry Shelton.

 

OTOH, we weren't bad defensively. They went the equivlaent of a half, between 15 and 60, without getting off a single shot, and while outside of that drought they did outshoot us 9-3, we put 3 on goal, while they managed 1. A good part of that was that Ford and Voldemort were really aggressive in shutting down shooters.
The xG slightly favored them, also kind of indicated this should have ended as a 0-0 game.
I hated to see Isi go down, because to me he's been our best player this season, but Voldemort, while having some young player wobbles, looked pretty decent, and Ford, defensively, was a massive step up from Fontas.
So what did losing our metronome mean to our attack?
Not as much as i'd thought it would. Of the stats on which Fontas has always appeared to be a force for good., we were good SKC (or, and this can not be ruled out, they were just really bad),. we dominated possession: 63-37, we completed 85 percent of our passes.
We didn't revolve aorund one guy running the show. Our numbers didn't drop. IMO, while there was much to be disappointed in here, it does mean Fontas can take a seat, and we will defend better for it and won't lose anything going forward. Knowing that, to me, is a big positive.
I do wish we had a healthy Kinda
I think we saw in the first half that a fully healthy version of Uri would make a positive difference for us, which given his frailty says, IMO, we need to buy a starting caliber 6 right now.
Also, I don't get why we were not at least players in the Zardes move. He ended up moving for $300,000 GAM plus what I've seen described as hard to meet incentives. We could have used him.
Also, I believe it has to be said, this was the best game Shelton has had this season. He wasn't good, but at least he was running fast when he should have been, and his passing wasn't just a game of hot potato. I'm not at ease with counting on him, but he wasn't the player I got angriest at in this one (Salloi! Roger!).

 

Highlight of the game was the thunderstorm. Broadcast preparing viewers for shift to USOC as the focus. This pretty much summarizes the season.

highlight of my season is Peter Vermes absolutely eating it on the sideline #SportingKC pic.twitter.com/sNDoTLgV6d

— Aun 🍍 (@aunrecognizable) April 24, 2022

 

Peter wildly gesticulating and then falling on his ass is a good microcosm of the season thus far.

 

I didn't get to watch any of the game prior to the rain delay because I was involved in something way more entertaining... anyway, I have to admit Ford and Voloder looked legit together. They were faster and moved more aggressively the short time I watched. The passing was also pretty good. I would really like to see a repeat of that duo in the next game.

 

No disagreement on this point.

But take anything good from this game with a grain of salt. Columbus has started terribly and is in the way to a season long tire fire. Tye coach might not make it to June. I expect cbus fans were overjoyed with a point.

 

Drying paint to watch?
If we're going to pull any positives out of this season it will have to be things such as this. Finding a new CB pairing, a youngish one with years ahead of them, would be a good thing.
if we were at the edge of being able to scootch into a playoff side, i'd be thinking we have to get Isi back on the field. But that time is not this time.

 

Yeah, they were bad. but we are bad. Right now I think it's fair to compare our prospects to the worst clubs in MLS. We dont compare to the better clubs, at all, right now.
Also, given the relationship between Porter and C-Bus, wouldn't his firing be the equivalent of Vermes getting the sack? The way we are looking right now, both the guy who put together this roster and the coach would be feeling nervous were they with any other club. But we aren't going to fire Vermes, or Vermes.
Question: If Pulido and Kinda were fully healthy, would they be papering over a couple glaring problems because we'd be 5th to 7th?

 

Your question about Pulido/Kinda is a good one. I have a feeling that if they were healthy the attack might be just good enough to keep us in a playoff spot where we'd flame out early again.