RSL in the WSL Part 5
Houston, We Have A Problem
RSL in the WSL Part 5
We’re heading down to Houston for the third match of the season. As you can see, the odds are against us, though only slightly. As the media insinuates here, there is every reason to believe that we’re still going to find ourselves in a relegation battle, even after those two good performances at the start of the season.
No major injuries yet. We’ve been pretty lucky.
This match comes only 3 days after our last one. The season just started, and yet we’re already in the mode of playing two games a week. That’s what the World Super League will do to you. You really need two starting squads just to compete.
Starters
A few more substitutions here and there. Papazov at right back is very young and a bit of a risk; aside from him we should be good. Onuoha provides the senior leadership, and, as we saw in our last match, Tonin can be a terror in front of the goal.
The Match
I wasn’t as nervous going into this match – but I should have been.
We were destroyed, absolutely annihilated. Christian Ramirez scored in the 27th and the 29th minutes to put us down 2-0. We simply couldn’t come back from that deficit.
Our only goal came on a header from Richard from a corner in the 32nd minute. Houston got one back minutes later, though, and it was all over when Houston tacked on one more in the 89th minute.
The final score was a heavy 4-1 loss, and a few more grey hairs for me.
Analysis
Well, there’s not too much to analyze here, is there? We played poorly. Stott looked bad in goal, and the defenders simply didn’t do anything to help him.
We did narrowly win the possession battle, but we didn’t do anything with our possession. This tactic is designed to knock the ball up the pitch quickly and try to score on the run, not to hold the ball in midfield and see what we can do.
We usually have a lot of fouls, but this was out of control. I’m guessing that Papazov was so outclassed at right back that he simply fouled his way through the entire match.
I levied fines on any players with less than a 6.3 rating, and warned those who hit a 6.3. There wasn’t much of a hit to morale, thank goodness. This kind of performance is absolutely unacceptable.
I’m not as concerned about young players like Kiprono, Roxo, and Papazov – they’ll get better. I’m much more worried about Onuoha deciding not to show up.
It might be that some of these players are feeling fatigued. We’ll need to rotate quickly – we’ve got another game coming up next Wednesday.
Normally I would blast Stott’s goalkeeping efforts. However, it looks like he did about as well as could be expected. Greene played poorly, and Papazov was simply overwhelmed.
Again, not too much to say here, other than that Okafor really should be starting as much as possible on the right side of midfield.
Fallout
Yeah, I slammed the team. I’ll do the same again when we lose again. I don’t want them to like me – I want them to win for me. And they can certainly play better than this.
This is what the standings looked like immediately following this match. It’s never fun to go down the table like that, but it’s also really early. A lot could still happen, and I’m frankly happy that we haven’t lost three in a row. It could always be worse.
Anyway, there you have it. Proof that this isn’t an unfair project or an example of modern day save scumming. I just hope we can keep morale from collaps