Better or Worse?

[BetterThanChivas]

My two cents:

RSL: B-, more wins so far than all last season. Play well and give up dumb goals.

Chris Klein: F+, had the longest streak of inconsistency ever. Has gotten better recently, that's where the + comes from.

Carey Talley: B+, Great player in the midfield, horrible in the backline.

Jeff Cunningham: A-, needs to pass the ball a little more, but if we have the leading goalscorer on our team, that's fine with me.

Jason Kreis: F--, yes, two minuses. Has totally sucked this season.

Mehdi Ballouchy: B, hard to say, but needs to dribble more. His skill is incredible. Ever since he hs moved backward, he refuses to dribble.

Daniel Torres: A+, best player on RSL, until the injury.

Willis Forko: A, best supplemental draft pick ever. He should win ROTY (rookie of the year).

Kevin Novak: B+, has a few mistakes a game, some costly. But plays very consistent in the back line.

Nelson Akwari: B-, Plays well, until he screws up the game for us.

Douglas Sequiera: F--------------------------, horrible, just horrible.

Andy Williams: B+, playing better this season than last.

Eddie Pope: C, needs to be motivated for this team.

Kenny Cutler: F, I just hate this kid.

Atiba Harris: B, the only player on our team who can turn and run down the sideline, but the yellow situation sucks.

[Loyal1]

Originally Posted by BetterThanChivas

My two cents:

Jeff Cunningham: A-, needs to pass the ball a little more, but if we have the leading goalscorer on our team, that's fine with me.

Tied for the team lead in assists too. Wanna see a Jeff Cunningham that doesn't pass go dig up footage of Columbus in the late 90's.
Cunningham and Talley are tied for 5th in the league in assists.

[BetterThanChivas]

Originally Posted by Loyal1

Tied for the team lead in assists too. Wanna see a Jeff Cunningham that doesn't pass go dig up footage of Columbus in the late 90's.
Cunningham and Talley are tied for 5th in the league in assists.

Never thought about that stat.....

But honestly, there are times when he really needs to pass and doesn't.

[Czar Jake]

Originally Posted by I_Believe_In_Kreis

Sorry but I'm going to disagree with a lot of these grades. It seems like both of you are putting a lot of weight on two things: 1, is the player performing up to expectations (whose expectations?), and 2, how certain players compare to the way they were back in their prime.

Consider the following example of two RSL players, both forwards.
Player A: 1000 minutes, 1 goal, 3 assists, 8 SOG.
Player B: 1500 minutes, 6 goals, 5 assists, 15 SOG.

Bordy gave player A a C, while player B got a D+.

Obviously guys like Pope, Kreis, and Klein are over the hill and not performing as well as they used to. But they're still producing.
Klein is 3rd on the team in goals, 4th in assists - not bad for an outside midfielder. Is that only worth a D/D+?
Kreis is only 3 goals away from his total last year, and he's already exceeded his assists from last year. How is he not playing up to last year's level? Is that only worth a D+?

Yeah my grades were totally and completely based on my own expectations, so they will be completely different from everyone else's.

I thought that was the game

[Czar Jake]

Originally Posted by Czar Jake

Atiba Harris: D+, love the energy, hate the dirty play

I'd like to reiterate this point.

[alianza]

Originally Posted by Czar Jake

I'd like to reiterate this point.

He ruined the game! What a jack@ss, he makes the beautiful game....UGLY!

[Balanceut]

Originally Posted by alianza

He ruined the game! What a jack@ss, he makes the beautiful game....UGLY!

Arguably, it is Ellinger's fault. Ellinger doesn't know how Harris will play in such a situation by now? How about wreckless??? Harris shouldn't have seen the field before the 80th minute or the outcome was obvious, whichever came first. Otherwise, he puts any positive outcome in greater doubt.

A yellow might have been better given, simply because it was a friendly. Beckham was arguing that he not be red carded.

[xlyte]

This being my first season following the MLS i didn't have any expectations. All i knew was RSL pretty much sucked last year, didn't have a clue who any of the players were etc ( i don't like half following a team its all or nothing for me and last year i just couldn't afford the all). For this reason i'm not giving grades just my opinions.

RSL - I think they have played well this season. They may not be getting the results but they're getting some good performances. Let me explain, apart from right at the start of the season when i believe the team really were gelling, RSL have played fairly well. Often they have been atleast as good as the opposition if not better. However they fail to put the game away by scoring and then one defensive slip and the opposition capitalises. Its true that we're still seen across the league as an easy win. Who cares about that win ... you were only playing RSL. However, those wins for teams are getting less and less easy, we're often competing and pushing just as much as them, we just can't finsih/shut them out.

Tonight i thought was a great example of this. For someone who didn't watch the game they'll look at the score, along with all the other RSL results this season and just see another loss. But the truth is we pushed Madrid a lot tonight. We created just as many chances as them, the difference was in the finishing. Once we can find someone to replace Harris and Kreis (personally i want to see more of watson .... he obviously wants in desperately, you can see whenever he gets on the pitch, his thirst for the ball and the enthusiasm he runs with shows he wants to prove himself. But for some reason ellinger keeps playing Mr. Attiba, i'm a juggernaut get out of my way, Harris.), some people who can keep goals coming a little more consistantly. Then we really will be a top contender in this league. I'm happy on the most part with our defence (especially considering how young they are) and our midfield, we just need to score more.

Player wise:
Torres - Very impressed with him, shame about the injury.
Novak - great game tonight, and has performed well all season, very pleased with what i have seen.
Forko - Love the runs up the side, adds an extra depth to our attack, don't feel as confident at times on the back foot, but has been solid all season
Besagno - Not seen a lot of him, but what i have seen i have liked. Very confident and solid at the back.
Ballouchy - Certainly has talent, although i feel at times he lacks confidence. Seemed very much in control of the midfield tonight though.
Cunningham - Having a great season, no striker will score every game, which is why we need more decent strikers.
Talley - impressive since moving into the midfield.
Klein - i feel sorry for him, from what i see of him, he is putting in a lot of effort at times ... but effort doesn't necessarily make a good player.
Kreis - seems to fade out in a lot of games
Harris - will someone get this guy a rule book and a shirt that says "John don't pick me until i know what i am doing"
Watson - like i said above i want to see more of him. He obviously really wants to get his chance to prove himself ... why won't coach E give it to him?

[prk166]

Originally Posted by BetterThanChivas

Atiba Harris: B, the only player on our team who can turn and run down the sideline, but the yellow situation sucks.

Granted Watson doesn't quite have the same pace as as Harris. But he brings just a much energy into the game as Harris with a lot less reckless play.