Cleaning the Brown off of the pitch…and other musings

It’s been a while since I managed to put anything up on this site, and I apologize for that.

In truth, I’ve been searching for a way to effectively illustrate the oddity that is Kreis’ formation. His attempt to play a 4-3-3 which looks and plays more like a 4-4-2. His 3 center midfielder thoery is a grievous oddity at best. Unfortunately I need some Flash animation help or top down game photos to effectively explain both what he’s trying to do and why I believe it has no future in MLS. In truth, the evolution of this midfield strategy started back in the middle of last season when Medhi was unable to stay on the wing. I remember sitting at practice and watching Carrey Talley, Chris Klein and Medhi toying around with their interchangable midfielder plan. In essence, Kreis’ new strategy is a modification on this implementation with an emphasis on structuring around a strong defensive center shape while always forcing a player in transition into the center. Yesterday’s version, while CB was in the midfield looked substantially more like a 4-4-2 with constantly switching wings rather than the drop center 4-3-3 which Kreis has in mind, so it’s difficult to use this game as an example…Therefore I’ll save this evaluation for a game where they actually attempt to execute this strategy and instead I’ll talk about the second win of the season.

It was after all a win…Happy Birthday Findley! He definitely took advantage of some overtired defenders, but he looked extremely dangerous and very nearly had 2 in this game. Robbie seems like the likely choice for a MOTM award, but I prefer to opt for the Corazon Del Leon. There are two candidates for this award in my opinion, and both of them are outside backs. Chris Wingert had a breakout game in my opinion, showing tremendous poise under pressure. He was stout on defense, despite an embarrasing nutmeg in the first half. Constant pressure and great defensive position, combined with some excellent runs up the wing made for a very entertaining outing. Jean Martial Kipre on the other hand was simply out of this world, constantly punishing Houston down the wing, on both sides of the ball. Kipre’s outside technique, which has shown some significant flaws in recent games was outstanding today as he bodied up with enormous attackers and routinely denied the cross and turn. It was simply a tremendous effort, and despite Wingert’s breakout game ranks as my CDL.

RSL managed to put together a win against a somewhat impaired Houston side, though for a good portion of the match, I’m afraid I didn’t have a lot of hope. After all we started the 2Brown lineup, and for a much of the first half (barring the first few minutes) struggled to maintain possession and looked much less than dangerous. I’ll give some credit to Kreis for not starting Chris Brown up top as he’s been inclined to do this season. Unfortunately, he started him on the right flank…or as he’d explain it, Right Center mid.*sigh*. Kyle Brown, while he doesn’t raise my ire quite the same way simply needs much more time facing better defenses to make a quality forward in this league. If Findley occasionally looks a little young and inexperienced up top in this league, KB often looks like a kindergartner. I see flashes of good things from KB, but he’s just not solid enough on the ball yet to be very effective against better defenses.

Now for those of you who know me, I make no great secret of my distaste for the play of Chris Brown. I’d be thrilled to have him on my over-30 roster, but I simply don’t think he has enough quality to play at this level. I can see why Kreis has a bit of a soft spot for CB, after all, he’s a junk guy…but unlike Kreis, who tirelessly worked to create his junk, CB is as near as I can tell, merely a mediocre player who has an unreasonable amount of luck. He lulls people to sleep with his lack of talent and then strikes when you don’t expect it. Make no mistake, CB can finish, but he cannot create for himself or others. His good games consist of a seemingly endless string of bad touches, stupid runs, a great deal of jogging around without much purpose, which results in his eventually getting a good strike on target. His bad games consist of all the previous (excepting the strike) combined with some horrendous give-aways, usually to an onrushing midfielder, putting them one v one with Rimando or whatever poor soul was unfortunate to get hung out to dry. I have seen CB do some smart things on the field, but not nearly enough to outweigh the better part of his play which is best watched with a blindfold. He represents a huge sucking black hole on the pitch when he’s out there and typically makes the entire look worse for his mistakes.

Ok, enough venom on CB.Fortunately Kreis did eventually pull CB, and in fairness, KB did have a much more productive second half. Jamie Watson came in to replace CB and provided a fair amount of pressure if not an enormous amount of control. Harris eventually replaced KB and proceeded to take his pound of flesh (literally) from the Houston defense. When will this kid outgrow the incredibly dangerous tackles he attempts. If he keeps going this way hell eventually be banned from the league. Kreis has GOT to get ahold of this kid and talk some sense into him. He would be MUCH more effective if he was just a little more in control on the pitch. Sturgis found himself lost and behind the play numerous times in this game, as his defensive positioning, which is usually the strongest part of his game, gave way to some stabbing and flailing to stay in the play. He did manage to hustle his way out of the mess on most occasions, but his game looked decidedly out of synch. Talley occasionally looked like he was replaying the NE game, as many of his passes out of the back were atrociously misplaced and he looked uncommonly frantic on clearances which had a clear safe opportunity to maintain possession. Kotschau, despite playing a good amount of time against an Ngwenya, who spent more time picking himself up off of the short-lived RSL grass, managed not to give up a PK almost despite himself on occasion. He worried me a few times, but ultimately managed to put together a decent game. Beckerman gave a solid effort, though he looked a trifle wrong-footed playing a bit further forward than normally. He definitely provided his fair share of hoisting the team on his shoulders to force Houston to play him honestly.

All in all, RSL should feel good about their effort in this win. Perhaps Kreis will even pay attention to the fact that RSL’s formation looked substantially more like a 4-4-2 tonight than it did his truncated 4-3-3. If he does, perhaps he’ll find success a little more often.

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