Let's review my thoughts from the game preview against Colorado:
Colorado lost their most important player to an ACL tear last week. Their most promising player is off with the U-20 team with Owen. This team is really bad, and they're even worse this week. There's no excuses. Anything but 3 points here is grounds for:
Well, it's time to scream. That was not good. In anyway. Sometimes the stats don't tell an accurate story of how the match was played, but in this case, it definitely did. Colorado should have beaten us, and it's a miracle we got a point out of that match.
Here's the thing, this defense did great. Stuver was a star in this game (even though he's part of the reason for our struggles in this one) and our no CB back line held up incredibly well. As I mentioned in my last thread, upsets happen because a team panics, and we did. Colorado pressed our unproven back line, and we refused to boot the ball deep, instead trying to pass our way out of their press. We had no composure at all, particularly going forward and in possession.
What failed last night, is the same thing that has failed us all year. We have no forwards worth a damn. Rignoni (who was playing well) played like utter garbage. Out of sync, unaware and without effort. Zardes is the definition of empty calories. Like eating a bag of white bread for lunch. No satisfaction and you're constipated. How did that dude play 86 minutes, and how was Will Bruin the answer? Will Bruin is an absolute zero.
Finlay had the best play of the day by one of our forwards, and his best play of the year:
This horrible attempt, but at least he dribbled successfully and past a player. Even the ball looks sad after that strike(pass?).
Fagundez was uselss again.
Here's a disgusting stat. Exactly ONE forward has a goal (Urriti in the second game) and exactly ONE forward has an assist (Fagundez in the first game) this year. LET ME REPEAT THIS! The entire forward squad, over the span of 5 MLS games (they haven't done anything in CONCACAF either) have exactly ONE assist and ONE goal. Colorado's Forwards (the worst attacking team in the league right now) Accumulated the same amount of assists and goals on ONE PLAY with two of their SUBS in the game on Saturday.
This is the sign of a bad team offesnively. Our problems are not, and have not been our defense. They've played admirably, considering our inuries. Our Midfield is more than holding it's own, especially if you consider Driussi a Midfielder. You cannot be a successful fútbol team if you have literally ZERO production from your Forwards, and that's what we're getting right now. It's embaraising, and it's going to cost us the playoffs at this point.
This team looks bad. Like, really bad. We have two weeks to prepare for our next game, but it's against a juggernaut in their home stadium. We can right the ship then, but I worry it will only sink further into the abyss.
Other Thoughts
Kolmanic was really, really good on Saturday. He was great defensively, and was progressive along with some incredible crosses. I hashed together a few plays I liked below. It's good to see a player step up when they're needed.
First, great defensive work to save a potential opportunity. He did this multiple times last night.
Next, a wonderful cross off a set peice.
Third, just generally, great play making here. Setting up Zardes who completely flunks the opportunity, then to fix the mistake eventually leading to Gallagher for the cross. A+++
Speaking of Stepping up when needed, both Stuver and Ring showed up big in this one.
Ring has a habit of being in the right place all of the time (even on the goal he gave up). You can't get a cross past this guy. Even when he's tripping. See where he's positioned, where there is no way to get the cross in successfully, UNLESS HE TRIPS, but this dood cannot be stopped, tapping the ball out of the way. Ring did give up the goal later, but you can't expect a defense like this to go goal-less in this game. Something was going to break with your team can't hang onto the ball. Ring get's an A+ too.
Stuver. His passing out of the back will always need work, but he got us this point last night. Good on him. A+ from him as well. You know the play, so let's watch it again: