I was driving back from Q2 last night, and like there always is on Austin roads, a driver in front of me, with no one in front of him, just slowed down. No warning. No reason. No pressure. Just slowed down and inevitably, I got to close to the bumper, then let off a string of cuss words at the car.
You dumb mother fucker, cunt-ass piece of fucking shit.
I needed to get these words off my chest last night. After Kipp let that one slip, I sat down. Defeated. It wasn't just me. I sit behind the North End goal for games (shout out to @lgdn_atx) and everyone around me sat down and went quiet. Everyone. I don't think many people mustered much verbiage after that, and after Kipp's second slip up.
Back in my car, my girlfirlend was furious with me because I was main-lining road rage. She (or God through her voice) dropped a mantra that I'd like to live by, especially for this season. Especially with soccer, and especially with Kipp.
It Doesn't Matter. It's Happening.
The fanbase melted down last night, just like Kipp did, and I understand. But at the same time, we can't freak out after one result. Especially with how fluky the loss was. The reality is, we blew last night's game with some weird cosmic shit raining down on us (Stroud scoring on us in his first game back on THAT GOAL?). But soccer is and always has been a sport of Karma, and we're in a deficit now. By the end of this season, you'll se that we end up on the other side of a cosmic disaster, and we'll be laughing and cheering. These things tend to make up for themselves over the year.
So, for those fans melting down, and those who want Kipp dead, please refer back to my new mantra for the 2023 season. It Doesn't Matter. It's Happening.
I wanted to spend this morning watching the replay of last night's game. Specifically to show that Kipp is not the trainwreck he appeared to be. I still think this to be true. He was brought on EARLY in the game, in a game he probably wasn't expected to play at all. The first goal was kinda on him, but had the other goals not happened, no one would be blinking an eye on that. If he doesn't make the awful back-pass to Stroud, does he even try to over defend on the 3rd goal? Probably not.
Emotionally, he was a wreck. I struggled to watch him trying to regain composure. This game might have broken this promising young player. I hope it did not, because we need Kipp. Back line defenders develop significantly slower than that of the midfield and frontline. Mostly because defense is about comprehension, positioning and confidence. A game like that could ruin a defensive player for the rest of his career.
We loaned out Romaña to Paraguay, which tells me that confidence in Kipp was high going into this season. One game does not define a player. We've seen Cascante, Ring, Stuver even Gabrielson give up goals on the back line with massive errors. Hell, Stuver almost did it multiple times this game. Kipp's just looked the worst. And with Cascante potentially out, well, Kipp is gonna play, whether you like it or not. It Doesn't Matter. It's Happening.
A few positives to to take away from the game:
Well Well Well. Maybe I was on to something. The young midfield played, and I don't think they were perfect, but who was in this game. I think they are going to gel really well the rest of the season. I was really impressed with Dani, and yet, Wolff rated higher. I don't really trust player ratings. You can feel and tell when a player is composed and helping the team, and Wolff wasn't it. He wasn't bad either. While we're talking about the midfield, Ring didn't look good at all. He looked old, and slow and his pass to Kipp that caused the disaster was such a masterclass in creative-less passing that he should have just passed it to Stroud himself.
Is Kolmanic an all-star? I assumed Gallagher had that spot locked up, but Kolmanic looked fantastic. Progressively impressive.
Hate on Rigoni all you want. He put in a good shift. He was taking on players one on one, something we haven't had at that position since DOMESTIC ABUSER WHO SHALT NOT ME NAMED. I think we'll all feel a lot better with him in a few weeks.