Season Analysis at the Halfway Point [R]

Rover · 07-04-2005, 10:00 PM

OK, sixteen games in the books, sixteen to go.

What's your analysis?

I'll throw a couple of things out there to start:

1. With the July 4th results we drop four back of the CRapids and are up seven on cheetos, although we have a game in hand on both. We've not been able to take advantage of how badly those teams have played. However, we still have two games left with cheetos and three with the CRapids, so we'll have a lot of opportunities to put them away.

2. The offense is finally showing sustained life, although we still stop ourselves on too many chances.

3. We can't put a consistent defensive set on the field. Whether it's USMNT callups, injuries, yellow card points, or (now) red cards, we can't catch a break. Hopefully, guys like Paul Broome will give us the experienced depth to hold together when we lose starters.

4. Support has remained strong despite the winless streak and lack of scoring. I doubt we can depend on that to continue without some better results over the long term. We need to win some games to keep them coming back.

dysko · 07-04-2005, 11:23 PM

The team is showing improvement every game. That is a good sign... perhaps we can be this years DC and go on a late season tear. We need to get some consistency in the back to really do that though. Preliminary Rusty is out 2 more weeks... Pope is with the Nats... Dunny unfairly got a red card (yellow fair, red no), man we need Broome to get in there.

Super Kamler is still there with Akwari... the probelm is that Akwari shouldn't be starting in an ideal world. Kamler is a an Iron man though.

The attack is really starting to click... wahoo. :signsmurf

I say the season will boil down to the Rocky Mountain Cup...

We win 3... playoffs happen for RSL.
We win two or less in any combination the Crapids go instead.

Old Ska · 07-05-2005, 06:29 AM

The thing that I have a great deal of optimism about is how we finally seem to be doing things right on our set pieces.

I have optimism because we are scoring. Now we need to work on scoring more than the other team.

This morning I am agnostic regarding whether we will make the playoffs.

I still have a handfull of things that I am pessimisstic about, but I am less pessimisstic about them than I was two weeks ago. Top of the list is the winless streak, and the lack of a road win. Even with Kreis scoring, I still would like to see youth on offense and experience on defense. I spent part of the weekend with a friend of mine who is an MLS employee trying to get his take on who he thinks Real could get next year. His opinion, and I have to agree frankly, is that the draft is our best bet for acquiring talent.

So, my mid-season evaluation: where we are in the table is reasonable for an expansion club. It is not reasonable in light of the story the team was telling us in pre-season...that this would be a very offensive-minded team. But I think both of the expansion teams had greatly inflated expectations for this year (Chivas more so obviously). I also think that given the talent on the team we are not where we could be point-wise, and I will continue to question the starting roster choices.

Things I am hoping for, in descending order of importance:
-Stay ahead of Chivas
-Win an MLS match on the road
-Do well in US Open Cup
-Win the Rocky Mountain Derby
-Make the playoffs

taytay33 · 07-05-2005, 07:40 AM

I agreee that we do need to keep scoring and stop them from getting easy goals. The team seems to forget DJ can't play the game on his own until somebody's going one on one with him. Although we've been MUCH better about that recently, at least we're improving. I say we're doing just fine for an expansion team. No one expected us to do any better than Chivas is and at least we're not them. As my father would say "Thank god for Chivas!!!"

Jim Umber · 07-05-2005, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taytay33

As my father would say "Thank god for Chivas!!!"

Amen! :hypocrite

Old Ska · 07-05-2005, 10:45 AM

Oh yeah, one more positive thing...

We are now tied with Columbus for fewest goals, and out GF/GA ratio didn't get any worse. I would be happy if we ended the seasons not as the team that scored the fewest goals.

Stucki · 07-05-2005, 11:14 AM

I think we are playing like a typical expansion team. We have flashes of brilliance, but are maddeningly inconsistent. Our stars are starting to play like stars, and some of our young guys are beginning to play like veterans. The squad continues to get deeper, and we have to rely on fewer stop gap measures.

I think Cleetus had his best game last night. He was pressuring the ball on defense and made several probing passes including the one that led to the pk. Knowles saved the game twice with great plays in the box at the end of the game.

Aerick · 07-05-2005, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stucki

I think we are playing like a typical expansion team. We have flashes of brilliance, but are maddeningly inconsistent. Our stars are starting to play like stars, and some of our young guys are beginning to play like veterans. The squad continues to get deeper, and we have to rely on fewer stop gap measures.

I think Cleetus had his best game last night. He was pressuring the ball on defense and made several probing passes including the one that led to the pk. Knowles saved the game twice with great plays in the box at the end of the game.

Agreed. Mathis did a good job last night. Granted, alot of the guys did very well, they hustled that second half like I haven't seem them hustle all year. I loved it when Tiger dribbled past 3 defenders - awesome!!

Stucki · 07-05-2005, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerick

Agreed. Mathis did a good job last night. Granted, alot of the guys did very well, they hustled that second half like I haven't seem them hustle all year. I loved it when Tiger dribbled past 3 defenders - awesome!!

I think I would like to see him back in the starting lineup rather than Brown.

bordelais7 · 07-05-2005, 11:45 AM

Agree on Tiger. I thought that Mathis hustled pretty well last night, but his passing was pretty poor (even though he did have a few very nice ones).

Also, the one big thing that I think we really need to improve on is marking when the opposing team is sending in crosses. Killed us at SJ, and would have killed us last night if the passes had been better. People are running into the box WIDE open, while we have 2 defenders marking one guy.