So, how bout them gnats?

Well, I never thought I'd live to see that... okay, that's not true. I thought someday I'd see the US get another result from Azteca. I was around in 1997, but I wasn't really following soccer much, despite playing in high school. Well, riding the bench in higschool. Shut up.

Anyway, I'm not shocked that the US got a point from Mexico, but I am really, really glad it happened.

I won't go into a lot of detail here, but Dan Loney, love him or hate him, nailed it, I think.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/dan-loney/2013/03/27/stolen-one-point-last-seen-fleeing-mexico-city/

In the mean time, I decided this would be a good time to actually dig a little bit into stats. Awesomely, MLSsoccer.com provided the Opta stats and chalkboard for this match, so I crunched the numbers to come up with ratings, much the same way I've been doing for SKC. Here's what the performances for each team looked like.

Maybe a little surprising to see Cameron ranked higher than Besler, but other than that, I think the ratings play out well. Great game from Gonzalez and maybe, just maybe, new CB pairing for the US has been found. Mexico with the slight edge ratings wise, which should be expected. In all honesty, they really took it to the US and were unlucky not to get the Edu penalty call (I think the Bradley "push" in the first 10 minutes was the correct non-call, hand checking a runner off the ball who goes down easy shouldn't be a PK that early in the match).

And still, a point from Azteca, while rare, shoudln't be cause for full blown celebration. This isn't the prize. The US is still only sitting on 4 points from 3 games, with 7 to go. I've seen 16 as the magic number, which would mean the US needs 4 wins from 7 games. With 5 at home, that's gotta be seen as doable, but at this pace the US is looking at aboiut 13-14 projected points. The next home match is going to be big. Bigger than this all told.

However, the best part about beating (edit - well, drawing... okay, now I've fallen into the "US beats Mexico 0-0" trap...) Mexico, in Mexico, is it takes away another home game of theirs and now might force them to get some road results, something very hard to do in CONCACAF.

I've been very skeptical/critical of Klinsman, but every time I'm ready to write me off, he pulls me back in. I really hope he proves me wrong this cycle.

Kansas City makes an Impact/tired joke

So on the one hand, after being in New York, I sort of wish I could have gone on to the Montreal game, but after watching it on TV I'm sort of glad I didn't. I mean I can always get some sort of enjoyment out of watching a match, but that was maybe the second dullest game I've seen this year.

That doesn't mean we can't hand out ratings though!

Check 'em.

Once again SKC keeps a clean sheet and once again Mr. Besler wins man of the match. I've got to think he's really earning himself more of a look for future USMNT matches, he's having such an amazing season.

Yo're Not in Kansas Anymore

So that was something new and interesting...

First, apologies for not updating this more. Well, not apologies really, work has just been kicking my ass as of late. I've sort of stopped doing weekly predictions since that was the least interesting stat stuff, and because picking the home team is just the safe bet in MLS anyway. But I do want to keep up with power rankings and player ratings.

So I guess maybe first things first. Let's do some player ratings for last night.

 

New York Red Bulls
Bill Gaudette	4.75
Markus Holgersson	4.75
Heath Pearce	4.75
Conor Lade	4.26
Wilman Conde	4.75
Dax McCarty	4.26
Joel Lindpere	4.50
Tim Cahill	4.50
Teemu Taino	4.50
Kenny Cooper	4.26
Sebastian le Toux	4.26
Thierry Henry	4.50
Team Average	4.50
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nilesen	6.24
Aurelien Collin	5.99
Matt Besler	6.98
Seth Sinovic	5.74
Chance Myers	5.50
Lawrence Olum	4.26
Oriol Rosell	4.26
Graham Zusi	5.50
Roger Espinoza	5.25
Julio Cesar	5.25
Paolo Nagamura	5.00
Kei Kamara	5.74
CJ Sapong	5.99
Jacob Peterson	4.26
Team Average	5.42

Not that surprisngly, Mesler get's man of the match, for a solid job on defense and his involvement in the first goal. So congrats to Mr. Matt, well earned and an excellent three points.

I actually think the wins more or less puts us in the playoffs for sure. I don't think it's mathematically certain just yet, but 8 points up on Houston and 9 points up on Columbus means we can skuff two matches while they win and still lead them going into the last few weeks... Of course the shiled is what we want, and Portland helped us out there, but man is San Jose good at scoring goals when they need to.

As far as the trip goes, I had a blast. Only bummed we didn't get to hang out with More New York fans while we were there, everyone I talked to was super nice and welcoming, but for some reason they didn't want us mingling with them pre-game... Go figure.

Poor crowd of course, and I mean, yeah, midweek game, stadium location isn't ideal, Yankees were playing, Bruce Springsteen was in town, blah blah blah. Kansas City fans can't really talk about attendance I guess, except Red Bull Arena is really really nice and the team is actually really really good, despite what the fans keep saying (I really think they expect titles and anything less is failure, which is one way to look at it, I guess... kind of a Yankees mindset that rubs me wrong, but whatever).

I thought the match was well played. Both teams looked good while attacking but New York didn't really have an answer to SKC's high pressure, and their set piece defending was just god awful. Flat footed stuff by everyone.

And then there was this..

Come on New York, you're better than that...

Also there allegedly was an Henry head butt? I didn't see it, but there was definitely a scuffle towards the end of the game... Gonna go look at highlights for it. I used to have a lot of respect for him as a plyaer, one of the best in the last decade, but after what he did to Roger a bit ago it's been fading...

Anway, I don't have much to say. Great to see us grab a huge three points, wish I could have stayed on for the Montreal leg.

Here's some photos if that's your thing. I just got a new phone with a great camera so I've been having some fun...