Hey look at that, we play again tomorrow. New England lost in Montreal on Wednesday. Big question is whether Zusi's back or not. And if not, who takes the A-mid role since Joseph is also suspended.
I have been wondering all season if that might be a secondary position for Convey, and this could be the time to find out. Of course, should both Myers and Sinovic be unavailable, we might see him at left back. Or does Markovic make his debut in that scenario? Or is Aiyegbusi set to make an appearance?
With Zusi missing the past two games to injury I see no reason why he should play in the ASG. A strain needs rest, not more work.
Can't wait to see our starting XI. It could be interesting. I really hope Zusi plays this weekend....it was obvious that our offense struggles without him against a good defense (yes, that was a smack at Columbus ) . New England is struggling, but that is always a dangerous proposition. Very winnable game if our offense can get it's sh!t together. Can we finally get a goal (or three) at home, guys? We haven't had a chance to shoot the confetti cannons in a while (like June 16 ). We are starting a 6 of 8 games homestand. Time to put some distance between us and the middle of the pack before we hit the final stretch.
If Convey can go 60-70 Ill feel good about this game. Not must win territory yet (well, no more than we.should win every home match), but I definitely want a pile of goals to wash the taste of Wednesday out of my mouth.
I was surprised to hear something like 14 or 15 of our 26 League goals for this season have come on the road. Asterisk the 3 we scored against the 10 man Revs on St. Pats, and the home GF statistic looks worse. Why have we scored so few at home, versus the road? Matt Reis caressing the ball every 2nd half goal kick wont help saturday.
I thought our offense struggled against Columbus too. Obviously we counter attacked well, but we only had 2 shots on goal. Lucky for us, they both went in.
Well, I would say that the obvious answer is that opposing teams come in to play defensive and aren't really looking for 3 points when they come here. Last season when we opened the stadium everyone thought we were weak due to our artificially depressed standing due to the road trip of death and so they thought it was a winnable game. Since then we have gone from "wow, look at them, who knew?" to "Hey, SKC is the real deal"*. * at least in the sense that we are a high quality team and will punish teams who take us lightly Ironically, it was Montreal, who really took their game to us from the start, who fared the best at LSP, but I figure that teams still consider such an approach too risky, as I dare say that the Montreal game was also a factor of us having a really bad game on top of that. The less obvious answer is to also consider that we have not taken the defensive approach (at least to the extent that might be expected) when we go on the road. The exception being the Houston game, probably, but that could've just been a factor of the lineup. (The Columbus game doesn't count b/c after we score the early goal it simply makes sense to sit back and counter... early goal changed the game considerably). The point here being that opposing teams are 'expected' to be a bit more adventurous at home, so if we play mostly the same game plan both home and away, we'd expect more goals away. But you are right, New England are the kings of slowing the game down. I can only hope that we get an early goal so that they have absolutely no reason to try to do this.
At home, we're like a spastic, hyperactive child, hovering over a turtle shell [goal]. On the road, I think we've shown a little more maturity.
At some point we need to figure out how to unlock these defensive teams. Most successful teams at home encounter this -- it is not unique to us. A little more creativity and a little more clinical with finishing would help.
Yea - and honestly I'm not terribly unhappy with our creativity... we created loads of chances vs. Chicago and less, but still a substantial number, against Houston. Still, I really liked the opening goal vs. Columbus, as that was something we haven't been trying to do much this year. If we get that type of movement down too then it'll open up opportunities through the flanks as well.
Jason Anno, Red Card King, the ref for this one. 20 Red Cards in 32 games Here are our games with him (from http://www.football-lineups.com/) 09-Jul-11 MLS Conference - M.17 Kansas C 1:1 Chivas USA 22 Fouls 2 YC 26-Mar-11 MLS Conference - M.2 Chicago 3:2 Kansas C 33 Fouls 3 YC1 RC1 PK 14-Aug-10 MLS Conference - M.20 San Jose 1:0 Kansas C 20 Fouls 3 YC 1 RC 05-Sep-09 MLS Conference - M.25 N England 2:4 Kansas C 16 Fouls 2 YC1 RC 23-May-09 MLS Conference - M.10 Kansas C 1:1 Chivas USA 18 Fouls 5 YC2 RC 10-Jul-08 MLS Conference - M.16 Kansas C 2:1 New York 14 Fouls 2 YC
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/20/revolving-door-continues-spin-sportings-starting-xi On the good news side, Zusi and Sinovic should be able to play, plus Olum has been upgraded. However, Chance will miss his first game.
That piece also says that Peterson (!) might take Espinoza's spot in the midfield. With Olum back in the 18, Cesar's continued absence from the starting lineup would seem to confirm that there is something going on behind the scenes.
I do wonder if the point someone had made a while back about not having a CB on the bench kept Cesar there in case Besler/Collin got hurt. Cesar does tire out in some games and it would be bad if we had to move him from DM to CB mid-game due to injury while he was gassed. Perhaps Cesar hasn't been doing well at practice, etc. We'll see how it goes - I'm sure that there's a reason behind it.
I made that point, actually; but what if Olum is in the 18 tomorrow, and Cesar is still on the bench? I suppose one plausible explanation is that Olum is still not ready to go 89 minutes if Besler or Collin gets hurt right away, but he can go 15 or 20 minutes if need be.
Honestly, I have been thinking that for a while. He always seems so distant from the team. For example (I know this was a while back) when Jimmy called a "team meeting" during a break in the action in the FC Dallas game Cesar waved them off and was never part of it. I don't know... when Cesar plays well I like him, but he has always seemed so distant from his teammates like he didn't mesh well...on the other hand I could be looking into this wayyyyyy too much.
Olum in the 18 or 11? If both Olum and Cesar are on the bench then I think it's simply PV saying he likes Nags at this point over Cesar. Whoever picks up Espinoza's spot is inconsequential to Cesar b/c he's never going to fill that spot anyway. If Olum slots into Cesar/Nags spot then it is a sign that Cesar is out of favor. Which, as much as I think he has improved our team when he has been out there, I am not the one who is watching these guys in practice every day. A player which wasn't mentioned for Roger's spot in the article is Warzycha - I at least hope that they've tried that out in practice enough to know it does or doesn't work, as it seems like it could work to me. Only other person I find conspicuously missing from the rotation is Little-K
Why? He's been a bit player at best with the team. Soony and Joseph have both passed him for minutes played career wise at this point. Unless one of our internationals has picked up a green card (and that's possible) he's the international that's out I my opinion when Rosell is signed.
Really starting to like Peterson a lot. If for no other reason than the fact that he just called Vermes, "Pete".
Ah, but if Olum is on the bench as the backup CB, then the most logical adjustment to the starting lineup from where I sit is for Nagamura to take over Espinoza's box-to-box role and Cesar to start at DM--unless something is up with Cesar, as we all suspect by now. He has been injured lately, and in any case is no higher than third on the depth chart at any of the positions that he could realistically play. There should be no need to cut an international player when Rosell is signed. SKC has seven slots this year, and I am pretty sure that only six of them are currently occupied--Nielsen, Collin, Markovic, Aiyegbusi, Cesar, and Joseph. Dwyer got his green card before the season started. Or am I missing someone?