I thought Kovalenko was pretty decent sending several
dangerous balls into the box.

Gordon followed up one of his best performances of the
year at Toronto with probably his worst. I don’t want
to go back and look at it again but my impression live
was both goals stared with balls he turned over or should
have put out of danger.

As stated the central midfield was non-existent. Also,
several corners at the end of the game and Kirovski
couldn’t put one of them in a dangerous position in
the box.

I think Bruce got outcoached last night, RSL came out like the home team and we had looked shell shocked. It was bad.

There must be some reason why The Bruce doesn’t start Klein on the right, but I don’t get it. Even if he can’t last the full game, start with him on to spark the offense early and motivate the team. He is consistently good on that side and creates chances. He is the type of player that can motivate others on the field. I’d rather rely on him to get us in the lead and then take him out when he is tired.

Gordon was his usual. His play was okay. His misses forgiveable. But I always find myself thinking he’s almost a great player. Still, I’m not sure Jordan would be an improvement. If the midfield was solid, Buddle and Gordon up front might be workable.

I am left wondering though how much of the teams problems have to do with lack of talent and how much are really mental. Certainly we have some weaknesses in the skill department, but doesn’t it seem like this group of players should be doing better than they are? Still, The Bruce isn’t some rookie coach. You’d think if the issue is mental he’d lock it down. Puzzling.

I also agree that when Buddle has to come back for the ball, things have broken down. But at least he did. I was impressed by his hustle yesterday, which always seemed lacking last year. Of course, last year he could wait for a Beckham or Donovan delivery.

I have to admit that Klein looked pretty good yesterday, and had a really nice cross that the strikers should feel guilty about not finishing. But for these reasons I prefer Klein as a second half sub. He just doesn’t have the stamina for a full game. The last time I saw him play a full game at HDC, he looked okay at first and then went down hill as time went on. He likes to work his way into the opposition’s corner in order to get a cross to our strikers, but as the game goes on he loses the stamina to get back on D when the opponents counterstrike. So I say keep up the second half subbing, where he becomes fresh legs with experience to mix things up.

Ultimately, you have said here and before what our real problem is: we lack a decent holding mid-fielder who can bring the ball out of the box and control things long enough to start an offensive thrust. And neither Donovan or Beckham solve that problem. Unfortunately, our forwards lack the ball control to use long ball tactics to make up for our missing holding mid-fielder. Too often when we send a long ball forward, either the other team wins it directly or our inability to trap and hold the ball leads to giving the ball to the other team. Either way, we get nothing.

Man, last night was frustrating. First time that I had an urge to leave the game early.