Okay, Tom liked the last random chronological notes, so here we go again.
- Four in the back, Armas and Soumare in the midfield. We will have a hard time scoring in this match unless Diego Gutierrez and Logan Pause commit to the attack.
- Not to mention, being overly deferential to the Red Bull attack is what actually killed us the last time we were here, as we had 5 players behind our own 6-yard box on New York's first goal in that match, leaving every other Red Bull in the penalty area open.
- Bakary Soumare is going to lose us at least two more games before the end of this season. Bank on it.
- Reyna and Mathis against Blanco. This could get fun.
- If Soumare sees yellow in the first half, and it's still scoreless at halftime, we need to either sub him out for Robinson and slide Pause into the defensive midfield with Armas, or slide Pause into the middle, go to three in the back and put Carr out on the right wing.
- Seeing as how I bitch about this a lot, whoever is directing tonight's Comcast broadcast is doing a fantastic job.
- If we learn one thing tonight, it's that Kenny Stern doesn't know what "ironic" means.
- And I know Kenn will read this later, so I won't be too hard on him for pronouncing Kearny the way it looks like it should be pronounced, and not like the actor Art, which is how it's actually pronounced. The way their high school stadium was configured, you could see the New York skyline from the stands. It was pretty cool. Still wish I had kept playing for my school through high school, as I would have played against John Harkes and company.
- Chris Rolfe sighting in the 34th minute, but he had to go get the ball in his own half to make it happen.
- I think Kenny just said Wanchope likes threesomes. Is he the heir apparent to the "Andy Herron sleeps around" chant from Section 8?
- I'm going to keep harping on this formation, but we don't actually have a midfielder on the right side of the field. I think Rolfe may be realizing that and dropping back so he can receive the ball, so we're running something more like a 4-5-1.
- Kenny and Chris both sort of make my point differently. First, Kenny's point about the Red Bull defense playing up high isn't so much because they don't respect the speed of the Fire as much as there just aren't any players up there to mark. And Chris is seeing Blanco as a third forward, which makes the lack of an outside right midfielder even more glaring.
- Halftime. I'll publish this to the site and add to it in the second half in case anyone is reading.
- The quality of the direction of this broadcast is just striking. The replays are timely and show exactly what you need to see. Kenn, if there's any insider information you want to give in the comments about it, feel free, 'cause I'm really curious.
- "Carr chases." Heh heh. Yes, there's been that little to talk about since halftime.
- Guerrero may be out for a while, given how much pain he's in. I'm guessing severe ankle sprain, which will probably mean 6 to 8 weeks.
- Kenn just really, really wanted to say "Doe...oh, dear!" I know he did.
- I hope we're ready to run. Richards and Doe are going to keep coming at us for the last twenty minutes, wave upon wave.
- 72nd minute or so -- if Blanco gets called for the handball earlier in the half, the Red Bulls -- Van Den Bergh, I think -- should have been called for the same on Pause's cross.
- Angel does what Angel does, which is score. As much as I've enjoyed the replays, they make it hard to figure out who coughed up the ball on the part of the Fire. Looked like Segares or maybe Gutierrez. I will refrain from reflexively blaming XBox in the absence of proof.
- You know you're having problems offensively when one of your best chances in the half is Gonzalo Segares on a ball from Chris Armas.
- And I realize this is a total jinx, but have we really only seen one yellow card in this match through 80 minutes?
- Bambi? Really? Kenn, I'm disappointed. You can do better.
- I think we have a Torsten Frings rule in effect. And again, great job of going back to that handball replay even though play had gone on for a while.
- Mike Banner is this close to being dangerous out there. I mean that in a good way for a rookie, although we could certainly use a bit more out of him tonight.
- Jinx is also fully in effect, with two yellows since I made that point above.
- C.J. Brown almost gets caught bitching at the ref, followed by Calen Carr forgetting if his team is red shirts and white shorts or vice versa.
- If I'm feeling masochistic, I'll check BigSoccer to see how the fans are dealing with Juan Carlos Osorio executing a game plan almost exactly like his predecessor, complete with the "too little, too late" attacker-for-defender substitution. I'm sure they'll find some way to make it Sarachan's fault.
- And there's your ballgame. We had nobody pushing forward in the midfield, and we weren't even trying to play long balls in to Wanchope, so I don't know how JCO expected his team to generate any offense. For the most part, the defense held up its end of the bargain except for that one catastrophic mistake we've all come to know and love. Again, this was the team's M.O. in the first half of the season as well, so it seems the honeymoon for the new coach may be over, with very little actually changing.
That's it for this time. Diver starts at Cullen's in about an hour and a half.