Seattle fans got their first live look at a preseason match, but only if they traveled. Emerald City Supporters had 2 busses, Gorilla FC got a van, and of course there were dozens that traveled on their own. Thursday Night ten thousand more will be able to see the action live as well. This will be your last shot to see some of the depth on the team until injuries or the US Open Cup, so if you are intrigued by guys like Fucito, Estrada, Scott, Nyassi, Levesque, Wahl, Parke, Ianni or Graham you may want to get those cheaper tickets. (Yeah, I just tried to sell tickets).
This match seemed to be like one of missed chances, too many offsides, and a wasted opportunity when Fucito passed instead of pulled the trigger;
"I thought in the first half, we put together a couple of good combinations. We got caught offside today, and more so in 20 minutes than we have been called offside in the last five games together. Either some of the runs were really off, some of them were really close, you couldn’t really tell. I thought we had a chance to win at the end of the game, Mike Fucito really should’ve pulled the trigger."
"I thought in the first half we had four or five really good chances. Overall, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on trying to play balls behind the defence. And I think we probably tried to overflow that hand a little bit by trying to do that too much. I think the combination play wasn’t as good as it has been in the past. We got to make sure that we still find the right balance in possession of the ball and get it behind the opposing defence. We just have to become better at our decision making process."
Off and on-ball movement continues to be the message, as the talent on this team is completely capable of having a top 5 offense in this league. Minor injuries continue to clutter the reading of tea leaves, but the image of player rotations continues to gain some clarity.
| Montero | ||||
| Seamon (83) | ||||
| Ljungberg | ||||
| Estrada (83) | ||||
| Zakuani | Nyassi | |||
| Fucito (63) | Estrada (63) | |||
| Sturgis | Souter (83) | |||
| King (78) | ||||
| Alonso | ||||
| Vagenas (78) | ||||
| Gonzalez | Riley | |||
| Wahl (73) | Scott (87) | |||
| Hurtado | Marshall | |||
| Parke (73) | ||||
| Keller |
I have noted that Estrada likely slid to the withdrawn forward role when Souter came on, and Seamon stayed forward, but it would be great if someone who was live at the event could talk about how the 4 attacking players were distributed late in the game.
Sigi said that both teams slid into more of a 4-2-4 late, my guess is that the shape changed as each team's Reserves and Substitutes pressed forward to change the game and make the roster. Ideally in the Arrow we would hope that shape would compress and extend like a slinky to maintain width in attack and depth in defense.
From Ljungerg's comments it sounds like the Vancouver side play like a mid-table MLS side already; physical and direct.
"It may have not been the best game to watch, but it was a good game for our fitness. I thought Vancouver played quite well. They played very direct and are a physical side, so it hard for us to play against them today. I think they will do very well when they get into MLS next year.”
You can also read a recap from Bucholtz at Sporting Madness