back on track
well that was nice eh? well let’s get right to it eh?
to many peoples joy, we see zakuani on the wing and scott replaced with sturgis. how did it work? to the bullets i say…
- zakuani seemed to give us that width that we needed and the game opened up because of it. i know tactics are never a sure fire thing, but it sure seems like we need that width doesn’t it? at the times he is playing vs the times he doesn’t, it seems like night and day. the funny thing about it however, is that he doesn’t seem to be beating people consistently, but that isn’t the point, he can beat people sometimes, and that threat alone keeps the right mid and right back honest, giving ljungberg some space in the middle…. which leads me to …..
- i think ljungberg had his best game so far. he seemed to be everywhere and his dribbling was starting to show that skill that he has. you could argue that his confidence is may be just a bit higher than his skill still however. he tried to dribble through double and triple teams a few too many times however and lost possession. but there were times where it was successful, and it is nice to see him demand those double and triple teams. if he can discern when it is appropriate to pass or drible, then those triple teams are only going to leave the wingers more open. speaking of learning when to pass….
- anyone else notice how pissed FL10 was at FM17 later in the game? there was 3-4 times in about a 15 minute span where montero found himself in some space with player running into the box. montero decided in each time to take it on to himself, and each time resulted in a turn over. each time ljungberg was visibly getting more and more PO’d at montero’s decision. now it is natural to get miffed when you find yourself in a shooting position and the other player decides to do it themself, we all would have the same reaction. but the last time, freddie honestly looked disgusted at montero. his hands on his hips, just staring at him. now, from my point of view, the answer is somewhere in the middle. montero will need to look for those passes, but at the same time, you want your main scoring threat to be a bit selfish. that is how all great goal scorers are. but if the defense ALWAYS knows you are going to shoot, well, that makes you easier to stop. so he will need to make those passes.
- as for montero’s lack of goals, well i am not too worried about it. i am not worried b/c we look dangerous from other options. as much as it is fun to have a 20 goal season striker, i will take goal distribution to multiple players any day.
- speaking of goal distribution. one player who seams to not want to get in on the act is jaqua. now i am not going to get on his back too much, but when you are 6 foot 4, and you get a free header 10 yards out from goal, you MUST do something better than heading it right at the keeper. also, i don’t know if this was a planned tactic, but with about 20 minutes left in the game, he started to look more like he was playing midfield than striker. not sure why he was doing that, but let’s just say he isn’t a midfielder. time for jaqua to start using his frame in front of goal. he did get an assist however, so maybe i am being a bit harsh.
- mr zach scott has been the butt of some ire from fans on many different message boards, and to be honest, i haven’t been too impressed myself. so it was interesting to see how sturgis was going to do since he got the nod over scott for the start. well i don’t know if you want to call it nerves, but he had a nightmare of a start. he was playing right in front of where i sit so i got quite a good look at him, and it wasn’t pretty. no harm done, and only one game, so we will have to see if mr sturgis just first game jitters. let’s hope to.
- finally, what can you say about keller? i was at the opposite end of the stadium, and i haven’t seen a replay, but how he stopped that one shot, early in the second half, where he jumped back to his left, i will never know. he looked like a twenty year old on that play. anyone else get a closer look than i did? was it as amazing as it seemed?
- finally finally, while the crowd is still amazing by MLS standards, i have found that the general chanting and cheering has started to die off a little bit (south end zone excluded). what about the section you are in?
nice to get back in the win column. chivas beat a poor dallas side yesterday as well so keeping pace with them was important
what were your thoughts on the match then?
