Only players on the injury report are the known long term injuries. Nashville won't have McCarty as he sits his 2nd game of his suspension.
Man, despite the fact that Buzz put this up, there seems to be a decided lack of buzz about this one. it feels like Nashville is a bit of a buzzsaw team for us, right now. A really top knotch defensive side with a quick attack. It's a "when an irresistable force meets a very resistable object" kind of matchup. OTOH, this is MLS, and games like this throw up an insane number of surprises, compared to other leagues. Sometimes, of course, matches such as this just throw up, period.
The frustrating part is looking at the roster right now there’s really nothing the team can do to address any problems. They can’t get a DP cause all their slots are filled, if they do buy one down to get one, the new DP has to be TAMable to stay compliant for our 3 U22 players. They could put Pulido on season ending IR and open up his roster spot, international spot and like $250k technically if they wanted to. At this point with Mauri they have to be hoping to sell him this summer on a free transfer so they only have to eat half a season’s worth of his salary. This team just isn’t good and it’s not going to get markedly better this season.
This is frustrating. The loss of their DP should not result in the collapse of the team. The entire SKC organization has a part to play in the deterioration of the quality that is put on the field. The scouting must suck because they went out and got new players to fill the holes left in the roster from last season. So far, none have really panned out ( I understand its still early in the season). There were some encouraging spurts of play from Ndembe, but so far Tzionis and Vujnovic have been of little or no impact. Voloder hasn't even gotten on to the field yet. Sweat was awful last week, but had a few good moments tonight. Maybe the ownership just won't or can't put out more money for better players. If Shelton is the best SKC can do for a striker, then they should just resign themselves to the role of cellar dweller and be done with it. Could it be that PV is the problem? We go back and forth loving and hating the guy but right now we are not sure he is the right guy. SKC seems to have lost their way and their mojo. They play mechanically instead of creatively. There doesn't seem to be any flow to their movement. Its just not good.
I would note that we aren't looking at the loss of one DP to this point, but two, and i do believe that last year we weathered the long stretches of Pulido being hurt because Kinda was really good. The gap between him, Hernandez and Duke is kinda massive and everything we don't quite do with the others we do with him. The positives! Johnny looked like JFR and i am not sure he has much this season. He was sharp. Salloi was doing Salloi things. Melia is the best PK stopper in league history. this was an easy one, but as noted on the broadcast, it was easy because he does his homework. He was central because he meant to be central. Also, Fontas with the ball is really something special. I thought he was quite good in the first half, as well, because we were pinned back, meaning he wasn't chasing back, but defending his space. Remi is a really good 8. The puzzling: How could Zusi be so out of sync with Russell and Roger? He wasn't moving into the spaces they thought he would be, he wasn't anticipating their movement correctly, at all. He had some really nice play, overall, but way too many moments when he looked like a rookie. IMO, this is an early sign of exhaustion. the next sign will be stupid injuries. Go to the stats and you can see our problems on the average position map. Our midfield is a mess. The Duke circle overlaps the Roger circle, the Walter circle overlaps the JFR circle. You don't need to see more than that. We couldn't execute a plan. Overall, we controlled possession, but barely and not before they went ahead. Nashville is a really well made team, but they are not a possession team. They were better. they won (1. 2 to.2.8 in xG, which means nothing). At this point, our primary failing, IMO, has been in having an effective 10 and 6., or if Walter is playing 6, 10 and 8. Add weak play from the 9 and it's obvious we're good for 12th place. I really am starting to believe we're on the edge of a problem for Zusi. We're asking too much of him, and we clearly don't trust Pierre. I have not been impressed with young Vojnovic, but jeebus, shelton with the ball at his feet? his off the ball movement is okay good, his pressuring is uneven but sometimes good, meanwhile his shooting, passing, dribbling are all costing us, every time out. I suppose if you took Mhuktar and Zimmerman away for a two-three month stretch, I think they'd struggle. There really isn't an MLS club set up to have replacements for 2 DPs. Add to the horrible timing in the Mauri release (if he was 10 minutes of crap play away from being bounced, why tf was he on the roster anyway?) Anyway, gonna be a long, sad season unless something happens, such as T-zone and Voj catching fire and Pierre proving himself ready and staring.
The only hope for this season are that Tzionis and Vujnovic start clicking and force Shelton and Salloi to the bench. Otherwise, its a season of conceding multiple goals per game while only scoring zero or one. What is going to happen is they will focus on the Open Cup and try to sell that as an important competition if they advance far. Some in the fanbase will buy that hook, line and sinker and will get pissed when I point out that historically awful MLS teams have made it to the final and even won (DC United 2013 maybe worst team to win a trophy in any sport). Doing well in the Open Cup could remove any fanbase pressure on Ownership and PV and all will be well in "the Kingdom". Yes. It's his vision, his roster, his staff, and ultimately his product on the field. As I have said elsewhere, the main problem is trying to build the roster w/ Academy/SKCII products. This clearly is not working. Other clubs have depth, SKC never seems to have more than 15 reliable players. The Academy/SKCII pipeline should be providing rotational players and depth on the squad. Currently, Duke and Hernandez are proof the pathway can work, but the talent drops off tremendously from those two. We've heard time and again that this is going to become the PRIMARY roster building method, it is not good enough. Displacing Zusi, Sweat, Fontas, and Shelton should not be difficult. Yet, nothing from the "player pipeline" has been good enough to force them to the bench. They are light years behind FC Dallas in reliably producing quality professional players.
On your first point, I'd love another US Open Cup. On your last, Dallas has homegrown players making a difference on defense, in midfield and up top. That's hella impressive. I don't expect miracles, but I don't understand why we aren't bringing in solid contributors, esp at 8 and outside backs. Those spots are vital, and you can cover some quality issues if you've got a big enough engine and enough fight. I get that not every new player will have Busio's skills. I don't get why they don't consistently have Jacob Peterson's fight.
I actually had a good time at the game last night, more so than our wins. Probably because Nashville is a good team, there was a fair amount of back and forth action, the team scored in front of the Cauldron for the first time this year (if I remember correctly), and it was exciting at the end (because Shelton came off). But mostly because I have just resigned myself that this team is not going to very good this year so I don’t expect to see a win and I am there to hopefully see some well played soccer. Maybe the new players will have more of an impact as the season progresses but Kinda cannot come back soon enough. Oh, and it is time for the team to start planning for Vermes’ departure.
It's interesting to look at the praise being heaped on Nagamura right now for the adjustments he made with Houston. he began the season playing the SKC way but realized his talent didn't match up with that, so they're playing deeper, looking to counter and that both makes them much better defensively, and kept Darwin Q on the field. Missing Pulido for the season, and Kinda to this point, we don't really have that option. I think he's running a 4-2-3-1 with Q as a true 10 in the 3 and their new Richie Rich player at 9. IMO, we don't have the 1 up top right now, and we don't really have an ideal 2. The three might be interesting with Tzonis, Salloi and JFR. We're not overly set at the 4, frankly, but they're much better off in a countering system than a high press. It seems, and this is probably me, our talent this year is a 4-4-2, probably as an empty bucket to protect our lack of pace in the back. Salloi and Vuj (until Kinda returns) up top. Logan or Tzonis and JFR on the wings. Walter and whoever else is healthy, but maybe this gives us the option of Logan or Sweat, who have played somewhat similar roles and should both be on the field for us, or Uri as the holding mids. Doesn't put as much pressure on Zusi, etc.