Monday, April 17, 2017

And before you know it, we're flying backwards

Bonus points to anyone who can name the series above (which this post's title comes from)

Yep, another game, another defensive meltdown, another loss.  We've gone from a historic home defense (7 goals allowed in 34 games, a league record) to one that's allowed over half of that in just 3 games.  Meanwhile the defense averages almost a shot on goal per game less than any other team and half of the best team (approx. 2.5 to 5).  This is a team that's gone backwards on defense and offense from last season, which has lead to the worst start of Pablo's tenure with the most goals allowed in the first 5 games since 2007.

This game encapsulated the issues we're seeing this season.  Once again we had multiple chances and couldn't finish more than one of them. Full credit to Doyle for a great header for the goal off of some nice work by Boateng and Hairston.  The lack of an attack allowed FSL to push further and further forward in the last minutes of the game and our weakened defense broke.  A clear handball lead to a PK and red card for Jared Watts, followed by slopping defending from the defensive midfield and FSL waked out as the first regular season road winners at the Dick in about 18 months.

The worst part about it is that this wasn't a poor performance by the team as a whole.  The team played fairly close to their abilities.  They got sloppy late but generally this team isn't built to win in MLS this year, especially after the trade.  Pablo's coaching isn't helping but at this point we just need to accept that's not going to change.  In fact nothing is going to change until the Front Office does.  This team is suffering from the FO's decision to sit on their hands in the offseason, then dismantle the defense just a few games into the season.  Until the FO can come up with a stable long-term plan they are capable of executing this team is going to need moments of fluke runs to have any chance of being anything more than a "squeak into the playoffs" team. 

Man of the Match: Centennial 38.  The fans deserved better in a home Rocky Mountain Cup match than they got.


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