Bernardo Anor; 1st MLS start at LB
Josh Williams; 1st MLS start at RB
Eric Gehrig / Chad Marshall; 1st CB pairing since April 21st.
All totaled, since the beginning last year Gehrig and Marshall are 2W, 2D, 3L when starting as a pair at CB.
Recent signing, Jairo Arrieta, also got his first league appearance and start of the year up top for the Crew.
1ST HALF
Peter Vermes' Sporting KC club came out in full attack mode and literally ambushed the green back four of the Crew. It only took six minutes for KC to break though and after which, were content in easing off the attack and pressuring Columbus in the middle third.
Columbus has no answers in the middle part of the pitch.
2ND HALF
KC continued to hold off on the attack and pressure the ball in the middle part of the park. Again, the Crew had no answers.
Once Columbus got more aggressive late on another goal game for KC. 2:0 Final.
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THE END, RED FLAGS and CONCLUSIONS
• Most of KC's games look like the one last night. Unattractive but effective.
• Columbus should have been prepared for KC's style of play, yet the looked surprised by it. Their match preparedness, even outside of the lineup changes in personnel, was poor.
• Fan's might have not liked it but a 5th mid-fielder is what the Crew needed. Chicago has beaten KC twice this year by using an extra mid.
• Kei Kamara was a man amongst boys last night.
• Speaking of Kamara: KC "bullied" the Crew for much of the 2nd half. It is the Crew Captain who needs to step in and put a stop to it.
• Chad Marshall looked lethargic and slow. No urgency and seemed perfectly content to defer to Eric Gehrig to distribute out of the back. Marshall seems to want to disappear more than be out front of this team. This is a problem. A very big problem.
• “Yes! I am the most boring interview ever!” – Chad Marshall, arms triumphantly raised in the air, upon being told that Gol TV had no further questions after a very brief (and presumably boring) interview.
- Sirk's Notebook. April 6th, 2012.
• I don't have any problems with putting your best players and athletes on the field but just throwing them out there and expecting it to work is foolish.
• It is unfair how Anor and Williams were jammed in last night. It is also unfair to Sebastian Miranda and Nemanja Vukovic, who were benched* presumably for not performing something correctly.
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• Warzycha and Co. are making fundamental managerial mistakes. Here is a quick list:
2. Unpreparedness
3. Team effort level
4. Not properly identifying problems and weaknesses
5. Using a team position (roll) as punishment*
*I could go on, but I'm going to stop at that last one. Number 5. Warzycha has benched two players (that I know of) as punishment. As a coach or manager or leader you cannot do this. Being a substitute is a JOB on the team. A very important roll. You need your subs to be motivated and ready to go and cheering on the guys out on the pitch.
Regularly using benching as player punishment is a cop out and creates a cesspool of a club. It's what bad managers do. You've probably seen this type of thing in at work (moving poor employees from department to department instead of addressing problem) or in school (using extra homework as punishment. Good job, good effort teachers).
Players need to be dealt with directly and Coached. What is the message Warzycha is sending to his substitute players? This is where I put crappy players I don't like? I don't get it.
It could be that Warzycha's lineup changes are acts of a desperate man.
Columbus has a brutal schedule coming up and this could get ugly.
DC
KC
DC
TFC
LA
[crickets]
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