Better team won today period. The Wave had great possesion and Howes cherry picked some goals as usual. Please Jim Larkin quit already!! Too many soft goals...3-4 of the Wave goals were soft. Keep an eye out for a Chile Farias-Steve Morris possible squable. Farias took a penalty with 1 min left in the first half...When the second half started Benjamin Chavolla served the rest of Chile's penalty which was cut short by a Wave power play score. Farias never returned to the bench and he did not seem injured as he played a regular shift in the first half. Morris seemed pretty upset at Chile at the time of the penalty. Also Bollella did not play in the second half after playing the first half as well. Bollella was on the bench for the secomd half unlike Farias. Bollella took a knock to his knee Friday night against Detroit so that was probably the problem there. Mark Ughy went through full pre-game warmups for the second straight game and was a scratch at game time. Ughy looks good and I expect to see him next weekend. Overall good showing for the Wave and a terrible game for Jimmy. Great crowd today as well.
Full marks to the Wave today they were more hungry and more instinctive today and I say congrats as the Wave needed thw game to split the season series and the lifetime series and they came and got it. As goo as Richey has been playing,I just could not believe Larkin was in there. In all my years of indoor soccer,nothing piss-s me off more to give up a goal less then a minute after you score your own and we did it 2 times today. Larkin seems ro have 2 great games every year and the rest he looks very unsettled. I predicted a split this weekned and was unsure what way it would go,I turned out to be correct. Storm is now 7-5 without Ughy ( not bad ) and still only a half game out of first with a game at hand.
Seriously, what the hell are you talking about? Howes scored his first goal after he beat his defender on the dribble from the yellow line and hammered in a shot. Then he scored a 3-point goal with a beautiful strike after a pass off of a restart. Your statement is just completely untrue. Howes showed again today why he is the best player in the league.
Howes is a great scorer no doubt but he spends the whole time in the offensive side of midfield even when the opposing team is on the attack. The Wave defends with four when Howes is on the floor. He is one hell of a cherry picker but don't get me wrong I wish we had one of those like Howes or Beasley. Howes is the best at what he does no argument here.
http://www.windycitysoccer.net/Site/Home/Entries/2008/1/27_Wave_Wipe_Out_Storm,_Gain_Tiebreaker.html Morris said it was his decision not to bring out Carlos “Chile” Farias in the second half and that Stephen Armstrong was not injured despite taking a knock in the second half limiting his action
One, I don't think you truly know what you're talking about. Two, even if that's the case, the goals he scored today were not "cherry-picked" goals.
It is the case I've seen him do it for years and he did it today. What is there to be upset about. In the NHL guys who stand in front of the net waiting for a rebound are called garbagemen. This is not a bad thing. Not many people can finish like Howes. I think you do not know what you are talking about..open your eyes.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, although saying what you're saying sort of diminishes what Howes has been doing this year. What I AM saying is that today's goals could in no way be considered "cherry-picked" goals. Watch the highlights on the Wave website if you need to refresh your memory.
Let's just say this...Howes is the best right now and should have won MVP last season as well. I respect Howes and his play and do not want to diminish his season. Great win today for you guys and see you in the finals.
I look forward to it. Hopefully the Storm bring their best and we can see a great game like we saw the first 3 times this year.
Wow, that's bold. As a fan you'd have to love a coach that would not only bench, but expel one of his star players to make a point.
I would agree that Howes is one of the best players in the MISL right now. I woudl also agree with some other posts about the "Cherry Picking" Howes does hang back when the rest of the team is playing "defense" some of the time. At the same time Tozer does sub him in on the fly alot, in turns gives the impression that Howes Cherry Picks. Also if you have noticed that Tozer tends to leave Howes out there alot more than most players. Again not knocking Howes, he is a great player, but lacks on defense at times.
First time this season in fact. Very impressive. Hats off to the Blast- sounds like they played an excellent game.
Howes cherry-picked the first goal. He had taken a shot on the previous posession that was either saved or missed and Chicago went into transition. Quickly, the ball came back towards the Wave offense and Howes was right there. There may have been a defender in the neighborhood, but Howes was way ahead of most of the Storm defense. I also thought Howes made some dumb decisions on some long-range worm-burners that didn't have a lot of pace, and didn't make a couple of crisp passes, but that three-point goal was definately the back-breaker, and shows why he is one of the best. Although I am impressed with the Wave this season, I am not impressed with a few of their players. Jonathan Santos is very immature on the ball, and Bret Weisner doesn't have a very powerful shot. Deco scored two goals and has had a few other big goals, but doesn't seem to get regular shifts (I could be wrong, it just seems like he'll go half a quarter without playing). I am really liking Tijani Ayegbusi... he reads the indoor game very well.
Especially when it became a 12-9 game,even Tozer said he was concerned at that time because the wave lost their posession.
We will. With Farias gone for the second half,Armstrong limited,and not Ughy,it was a 12-9 game and then the back breaking 3 pointer. In a close game at that point,Farias must have himslf entrenched in the doghouse or else Morris would have let him back in.
If that's true, then why were there times yesterday that Howes was way behind everyone by Vorberg? I've noticed times when he's been defending.
Howes did Cherry-pick on the first goal, but it was a smart move. The STORM tried to do that in certain situations but....well "Chile" either had a 6'er before the game or something cause he was SLOW. As always we had such great chances...and then we just screw ourselves up like Ian getting into Armstrong's way after beating Vorberg and then there was another one on the North end forget whom. And then there were some shots on Larkin where he was on his heels it was just mind boggling. Frankly I think alot of keepers in this league are way to tenative and should be more aggresive and our damn keepers need to get into the attack more.
How arrogant , Tozer said it would not have mattered who the Storm played in goal yesterday. I got news for him , Jeff Richey allowed only 3 goals in his win in Milwaukee this year it would have been a great game with a little goalkeeping for the Storm as Some of them goals Larkin was planted on the line like a potted plant.
Tozer wasn't being arrogant. He wasn't knocking either keeper. In fact, he has the utmost respect for both Jim and Jeff, since both have played in Milwaukee (Jeff with the Wave and Jim with the Wave United). Tozer's point was more directed towards his own team. He wasn't going to change his game plan just because Jeff didn't play that game. That was his point. Milwaukee doesn't worry about who is in the goal for the other team. It's more about what they can produce offensively, as well as defensively, no matter what team or what keeper they face. Both Jeff and Jim are good keepers. Obviously Steve Morris has faith in both. Jim just happened to have an off night. It didn't help that Chile was off on his own planet, Ughy is still hurt, Soderman has been off so long that his fitness looks a bit low, Bollella didn't play the second half, and both Armstrong and Stewart picked up knocks in the second half. That's an awful lot to have to sort out when on the road, AND at Milwaukee. Someone said that Jim gave up some soft goals. But you have to look at what was happening in front of him. He was left out to dry quite a few times. It was just an off night for Chicago. Not a reason for anyone to start panicking. I give Morris a lot of credit for being able to manage all of the variety of personalities on that team. Anyway, back to the original topic. Again, I don't think Tozer was being arrogant. Just stating that the game wasn't about which Chicago keeper was in goal, but more about how his team would come out and play.