03/16/13 :: SSFC : Portland - Kick 17:00

[thanatos80]

I think we wasted a sub by bringing in Oba. Needed to change the formation, instead we continued to stick to the 442. Is there a reason Neagle isn't playing? I'd much rather see him come in late in the game over Mauro if we need to protect a lead.

I think the wrong sub was Caskey coming in, not Oba. If Sigi wanted to kill off the match, he had three defensive players available that he could have subbed in; Leo, Zach, and Servando. All would have been better choices, defensively, than Alex. I would have subbed in Leo, and had Burch play a defensive role at left mid.

[seadoc]

this post is excellent:
http://www.sounderatheart.com/2013/3/17/4114490/tactical-analysis-sounders-timbers-cascadia-cup-zakuani-chara-wallace

Heads up: looking at the frame of the header & where our defenders are is NOT awesome

thanks for setting me straight, the goal was not on JKH...I'm still not a big fan of his lately...

[bulldog]

as an Englishman...embarrassed to say Rose is shit..need more skill to play midfield

Lucky for you, Rose is technically an Aussie.

guess that makes it worse then!

Yedlin is a raw talent...exactly that raw...needs a lot of coaching
but I wonder if he will fall into a rut and become like many we see...average because of lack of coaching
his lack of experience is the reaso why his positioning is off.

I fear it's going to be a tortuous season

[SP The Ghost]

That's what we said last season, and it wasn't even close to as bad as most people feared in the early going. Way too soon to be really worried imo.

[bulldog]

That's what we said last season, and it wasn't even close to as bad as most people feared in the early going. Way too soon to be really worried imo.

but what happened? we still couldn't get past our first playoff round...
didn't win the Open Cup (struggled in that final)
you expect a team to progress over time..same as any job..learning more and improving..
that means winning..bottom line

don't expect Martins to save us..it can't all be on one player..
he cannot make up for a lot of the lightweights.

I know we have only played 2 MLS + the champs league....
but when your are not paying well..the longer it goes the harder it is to shake it off..mindset
playing well and winning well does more than just give you 3 points..all about confidence..

let's see what happens now with a few road games

[bulldog]

ps this game seemed really flat for a Derby match..it was weird

[IVIaN1aC15]

While there are certainly negatives to dropping points like that and in a derby, the fact remains that in MLS these first couple of months don't really matter so long as you can remain in the hunt by July and August. As per usual, our squad was thrown together last second before the season so I don't think it is fair to have high expectations that everything will click right off the bat. (This is something the FO ultimately needs to be accountable for, but I really do like the outlook for our squad this season)

Traore so far looks to be a fantastic bit of business by the FO, and I think he is partially responsible for JKH's improved play from last year. JKH still has his moments, but otherwise he has looked a little bit more assured so far this year.

The other big positive I took from Saturday was that this was the first game where I felt Z was at least approaching preinjury confidence. I'm not saying his performance was spotless by no means, but this was the first game since coming back where he really seemed to be wanting to create something and constantly running at Zemanski. I still have my doubts that Z will be able to replicate preinjury form on a regular basis but Saturday's performance gave me hope that I didn't have before.

So far we've had basically 1 of 3 DP's playing so far. For that, I'll reserve judgement of this team until once we get all three playing together after a couple of games.

[RatCity]

That's what we said last season, and it wasn't even close to as bad as most people feared in the early going. Way too soon to be really worried imo.

but what happened? we still couldn't get past our first playoff round...
didn't win the Open Cup (struggled in that final)
you expect a team to progress over time..same as any job..learning more and improving..
that means winning..bottom line

don't expect Martins to save us..it can't all be on one player..
he cannot make up for a lot of the lightweights.

I know we have only played 2 MLS + the champs league....
but when your are not paying well..the longer it goes the harder it is to shake it off..mindset
playing well and winning well does more than just give you 3 points..all about confidence..

let's see what happens now with a few road games

Except we did get past our first playoff round, we were a shoot out from and open cup, dominated our ccl group and now have advanced past our first ccl knockout stage. I will panic in may.

[Jabsco]

I have a hard time pointing at "didn't win USOC" as a failure. It was lost in a shoot out, on a ridiculous amount of inconsistency with them calling keepers off their lines. And we were a goal away from overtime to get to the MLS Cup final.

2 matches in, hardly time to panic.

[Llarian]

Also, I'd like to point out this is MLS. I'd love to say, "Yes, the team should get better every season" and in most leagues that's a reasonable expectation.

MLS is specifically designed to prevent that from happening (or at least prevent that from being easy). Roster churn is built into the system, you have 2-3 years with a given team to make magic happen, then you have to blow is up as the mandatory salary increases overtake the cap increases.

That said, I'm not worried about a flat start for most of the reasons mentioned above. Can we do better? Sure, and I think we will. The pieces are here, we just need to get them integrated and on the field at the same time.

I expect SJ and RSL to be disappointing, we're out national team players and other injured players.

I also recall 2011 where we started so poorly people were asking who was going to actually score the goals for the Sounders. We ended up being the highest scoring team in the league and were one saved PK away from the Supporters Shield.

A flat start is all but meaningless. If we're still at the bottom of the table in May, then lets talk.

[McTrixie]

^^^^ This. All this.

[robinhood]

It was great to see poserland in the 300 level

[finnfan]

Zak? you must have been watching a different game m8 because when exactly did he use his infamous speed?

Our goal was a direct result of Zak running FAST down the left wing, and crossing the ball to Johnson for an easy goal.