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So there's good news, and the bad news, and, from my vantage points, they're both the same thing.
Sporting KC seems to be back. In that, Graham Zusi, Benny Feilhaber, Dom Dwyer, and Matt Belser all featured in major moment. The offense actually happened. And, honestly, as critical as we (I - us -they?) have been on our lack of scoring options, we've knocked in 7 goals from our last thee matches. That's a fair amount of half priced Papa Johns pizza.
Still, as much as Sporting looked "good" for much of the match (as they have more often than not this season_, mistakes and mental lapses were a factor, as they have been all year, and it seems like visiting teams are not longer content to embrace a "bunk and counter" mentality, but play high press, force mistakes, and capitalize mindset when coming into the ChiMP.
ChilMP is a thing, now, but the way. It is known.
All of that said, Tim Melia, while not superman this year, came up big when he had to, which is what you need a keeper to do, and Peter Vermes broke his habit of minimal subs and made some changes that really changed the game.
Straight red for DOGSO? We can talk about that later (that rule was rescinded for Copa America Centenario, btw), and we continued our trend (in my mind at least) of "playing down" to teams we should handle easily, especially at home, but that really was a fun game to watch.
And, you know, Besler header for the win? I'll take it.
All that said, to the table!
Columbus Crew | |
Steve Clark | 5.5 |
Harrison Afful | 5.5 |
Michael Parkhurst | 4.5 |
Corey Ashe | 4.0 |
Tyson Wahl | 3.5 |
Hector Jimenz | 4.0 |
Justin Meram | 4.5 |
Chad Barson | 4.0 |
Ethan Finlay | 5.5 |
Dily Dyja | 4.5 |
Will Trapp | 3.7 |
Tony Tcani | 6.0 |
Rodrigo Saravia | 4.5 |
Ola Kamara | 8.5 |
Team Average | 4.9 |
Sporting Kansas City | |
Tim Melia | 4.5 |
Saad Abdul-Salaam | 4.0 |
Ike Opara | 6.5 |
Matt Besler | 6.0 |
Roger Espinoza | 6.0 |
Jimmy Medranda | 6.5 |
Lawrence Olum | 4.5 |
Soni Mustivar | 5.0 |
Graham Zusi | 7.0 |
Brad Davis | 4.5 |
Justin Mapp | 4.5 |
Jacob Peterson | 5.0 |
Benny Feilhaber | 6.5 |
Dom Dwyer | 5.0 |
Team Average | 5.4 |
So, yay. Ship righted? Maybe. But callus are done. Hopefully the injury bugs go away. CCL is going to make for a difficult coming few months, but the results last night was classic SKC. Above the red line (games in hand undiscussed). I'm starting to breathe a little easier.