things SSFC needs on the pitch next year

of all the top ten lists, i think this may be the hardest to write. i watch a lot of soccer, often 20+ hours a week, but that only makes me a massive fan, not necessarily a great analyst. however, i am going to put that hat on right now and tell you what i think the sounders need to do this off season. the usual disclaimers and stuff are in play, i realize not all are possible with salary cap, DP rules etc. but i am just talking about what they really need, not necessarily what is possible.   oh, and i couldn’t come up with ten, which isn’t important, but i didn’t want to just make something up, so i will go with the ol’ tried and true bullets rather than a top ten for this one.

k enough of the up front crap… let’s get into it.

- a penalty taker. funny enough, seba was maybe our best penalty taker. but with him not playing  that much last year, and with the obvious fact that he doesn’t play for us anymore, well that fact doesn’t matter one bit. if my memory serves me correctly, we only had 2 penalties given all last year in the league (right?). FL10 put his effort wide in only his second game back (he should never have taken it) and FM17 hit the snot out of his only to move the crossbar in his effort.  so yeah, we have only 1 chance each, and likely one of them would make their next 10… so if it is one of them, i can’t give a great reason against either, but the fact is, if we are given a few penalties next year, i have no confidence that we can say “oooh PK….. <insert a players name here> will slot that home no doubt”.

a good penalty taker is more about calmness in your head then skill with the foot. i am not here to big up my soccer skills b/c they are few. but funny enough, i am a very good penalty taker (at least in the over 30 fat ass league).  i can hit the upper corner with decent speed over and over, but i can’t hit crap the rest of the game.  point is… who on the team can have that mentality. seems like FL10 should have it, but he get’s pretty worked up and hasn’t proved it yet. i don’t think FM17 is the guy… his overhit mentality is exactly what a PK should NOT be. i am sure you have an opinion on this one… so give it.

another creative midfielder.  in the last 5 games of the season, we all saw what ljungberg can really provide… i haven’t gone back and looked, but i think he was responsible for pretty much every goal over 3-4 of those games if i remember correctly. but what he really needs is another one of him. ok, maybe the experience and ability don’t need to match, but something that gives defenses something else to worry about in terms of build up play. i feel like it would be a case of 1 + 1 = 3. if FL10 is our only really threat to cut through a defense through the middle, well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decide that double teaming him and hacking at his ankles will stifle much of the sounders scoring chances…  but if you give him another player to 1:2 off, work the other side, take the pressure off, i really think that will greatly open things up.

montero is not it, evans is not it, zakuani… well we all want him to be it, but it isn’t.

- speed up front. i am 20 pounds overweight and 14 years older than montero, but i say this in full honesty, a foot race between him and i, would be pretty close. he has quick decision making skills and can pull off a fantastic snap shot, but he can’t outrun a single defender in this league. we don’t need blinding speed, but just enough to pull away from the defender, and keep the space on a beat offside trap.

did we have one true breakaway goal all year (freddies 1:2 with jaqua in toronto doesn’t count).?

we probably had one or two and you will correct me, but i feel like we should have 5-10 of those a year. and lack of speed is our problem in that dept.

- decent crosses from the wing. riley and leo both do a decent job getting up and looking to get offensive, and we know that zakuani can run north south on that left wing, but decent balls into the box are not happening. they are neither high enough and far enough from the keeper for a jaqua et al to get a head on, nor are they pulled back enough for an onrushing midfielder to have a crack at the top of the 18, it just doesn’t happen. we get a break away up a wing, and i don’t start salivating.

i want to salivate people.

- learn how to not draw the red card. with almost all red cards this year, fans can point and give reasons to why it isn’t a red card. sometimes we are right. but the fact is, it is the players who get themselves into a position for the card, and if it is given, we can’t say too much about it.

Marshal raised his hand
Riley raised his hand
Ljungberg couldn’t shut his mouth
Keller raised his hand (outside the box
Montero threw an elbow

yeah there were some others, but i am just saying that we weren’t innocent and we gave the refs a reason to give it in many cases. the good news is that it tapered off dramatically in the second half. so maybe we did learn how to “work with what we go” in the ref department.

but playing a man down this game, and then having to fill a starters void the next, game after game after game is tough on the team and their ability to gel over the season and ultimately get results.

- montero maturity. ok here we go you say. he was our leading scorer, and there isn’t a good reason to believe that he won’t do the same next year, so why do i have to say he needs to mature?

well if you have been reading our blog long, you know where i stand here. so skip ahead if you like… but montero, being the scoring threat that he is, gets extra attention whenever he gets the ball. he gets that attention for two reasons. one, well, he is that scoring threat like i said, but the second reason, well he makes bad decisions when he has to think quick… and that comes down to his maturity, or lack there of it.

yes, you want your striker to be selfish and all that. too many passes can be just as bad as not enough. but we aren’t close to that yet, and when, as a defender, i know that 96% of the time, montero is going to look to try and beat me for a shot rather than look to pass, well that makes my job so much easier, as well as makes the other defenders jobs so much easier on deciding to come help me out b/c that killer pass, or pass at all isn’t likely to come. this is the maturity he needs. and as a result, he could easily have 10 assists next year.

to his credit, i do think that montero got better at this throughout the season, but it needs to progress and he will become MUCH more of a striker than he is today.

we worried about european clubs clamoring over him much of the year… but you know what, european clubs won’t really start the clamoring until he learns to take the pass and make the second killer pass to a team mate. his shooting isn’t in question, but if that is all you do, better defenses in europe will have you for lunch.

or less “ball massaging” as i like to say.

- overall finishing. i am not picking on any one player in this dept, but how many fantastic shot opportunities did we have last year. this may be one of those things where every teams fans are saying the same thing… “what if we took our chances”. so maybe we aren’t an anomalie, but lord did i think that we should have hit an extra 15 goals than we did.  

on this however, you can’t teach it… it comes with confidence and a bit of luck. let’s hope a year of this new team playing together will boost that confidence, and lets hope that we can score a bit of the luck of the french and find the right side of the post a bit more than last.

so that is it. what do you disagree with, what else do you think we need?

i didn’t mean for this post to be too negative…but i am talking about things we need… so off course, our deficiencies will be the point of conversation. there are many things we are doing well. hell, maybe i will even write a post about it soon!