Another Week

Sorry about last week. I was on vacation with my wife's whole family and did not have a chance to cover, or watch, any games.

DC United 0 at 1 Sporting Kansas City

The weekend's first game was a dud. Neither of these teams have had high octane offenses so far this season and it showed. KC had the majority of possession and deserved to win. DC seemed to settle for a draw after 65 minutes or so.

 KC's offensive problems seem to be partly by design. In playing a 433 with 4 central midfielders, and both of the other forwards being service reliant, the The team will control for long periods of time but does not seem to have much incisiveness play in the final third. This can be seen when Soony Saad came in for Benny Feilhaber in the 70th minute and changed the KC attack. He constantly run at players with the ball, something that for all there talents Sapong, and Beiler are not going to provide routinely. This put the DC defense on their heels. It was his pressing of the DC defense, that allowed him to strip the ball and make the cross to Beiler for the goal. Moving forward KC will need more movement and service from Feilhaber and Zusi. They have the forwards in Beiler and Sapong to finish chances, and have great midfielders but need to have more decisive and dynamic play making to set up scoring chances.

DC needs a makeover. With DeRo, DeLeon and Thorington out the DC midfield was found wanting. Both -Raphael's, need to be more involved in the game. They have both shown they can score but not really help in  the build up. While Pontius has shown he can be a offensive force in the game Marcos Sanchez has yet to show he can play at the speed of MLS., and Pajoy is active and good at setting up teammates but rarely looks a threat to score.  It does seem to be a problem, that the most effective looking offensive player on the team, Carlos Ruiz, has yet to be given more than 20 minutes run. I am not looking at the day in and day out performances in training but I do wonder what Ben Olsen is looking for, that he leaves Ruiz on the bench in this game.