KCRag Forum

Get ready for sunshine and rainbows. Cal isn't back because he wasn't positive enough and that's why Nate was hired.

TheBigChuckbowski wrote:Get ready for sunshine and rainbows. Cal isn't back because he wasn't positive enough and that's why Nate was hired.

We all know that didn't backfire for the Royals.

I'm fine with Bukaty doing it. It always seems gimmicky to me when you have a euro announcer for a team in KC. It just felt like we were trying to be something we are not.

swid wrote:Well, we now know who the mystery international signings are: forward Krisztian Nemeth (Hungary) and keeper Luis Marin (Chile).

Also picked up midfielder James Marcelin and acquired defender Jalil Anibaba from Orlando City (who was taken from Seattle in the expansion draft).

Dom Dwyer signed a contract extension which I thought was surprising. Glad he likes it here.

KCMax wrote:Dom Dwyer signed a contract extension which I thought was surprising. Glad he likes it here.

I'm not quite sure how it works, but part of the bargaining for an extension could have been that Dom can elect to be put on loan given an expressed interest from a team in the EPL. Dom would get job security and a shot at being bought/loaned out given great performance, and Sporting KC has more to leverage in a sale of his contract considering they would lose the extra years.

bobbyhawks wrote:

KCMax wrote:Dom Dwyer signed a contract extension which I thought was surprising. Glad he likes it here.

I'm not quite sure how it works, but part of the bargaining for an extension could have been that Dom can elect to be put on loan given an expressed interest from a team in the EPL. Dom would get job security and a shot at being bought/loaned out given great performance, and Sporting KC has more to leverage in a sale of his contract considering they would lose the extra years.

Sam McDowell ‏@SamMcDowell11 Dec 17
Dwyer says there was interest from English clubs. He says his extension is a signal for them to "back off."

Roger Espinoza is coming back!

Good summary of their off-season moves with a stamp of approval of what they're trying to do.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2311 ... -offseason

Claudio Bieler gone.

Will the season start on time?

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2015 ... -the-wire/

the two sides came to an agreement yesterday, so the season will start as planned. sunday at 6pm against new york. it's nationally televised on fox sports 1.

1-1 draw. Didn't get a chance to see, how did they look?

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For most of the game, Sporting just seemed to lack any "fight." They looked average at best.

i'd agree that we looked average... but then, that's about par for the course for us at home over the last 1-2 years. one could easily argue, though, that we did enough to get the 3 points, and if we had converted, then our perception of our performance would be different.

pash wrote: still might have scratched out a win but for some uncharacteristically poor finishing from Dwyer.

i'd probably disagree with the "uncharacteristically poor finishing from dwyer" part. it very much is his characteristic. he's never been a particularly good finisher, but putting in 22 goals last year glosses over the fact that he could've easily had quite a few more had he not missed a number of easy chances. we also have to remember that 7 of those were pk goals. now, this isn't to say that he's a bad striker, just to keep things in perspective and not be skewed by raw numbers.

Guys did not look like they are on the same page, but seemed to gel a bit more as the game went on. This is probably due to the fact that tenured players replaced new additions as the game went on. Overall, though, I did like what I saw from many of the new guys. Nemeth is going to be awesome IMO.

Marin looked good to me. His distribution was the only thing I didn't like. It looked rushed and inaccurate, but I think part of that was not being on the same page as the team and getting used to a new environment. He drop kicked several balls either straight out of bounds or to an area where no one was breaking...

I think things need to come together alot still, but fortunately the season is young. I think we have the talent to fight for a top spot in the west.

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pash wrote:Hardly anybody in MLS is a "good finisher" by absolute measures, but I think Dwyer is clearly in the league's top tier. Not as a pure striker, but as a guy who puts the ball in the back of the net, yes.

i wouldn't disagree with your first statement, but i would with your second... at least as far as the usage of "clearly" is concerned. again, i'm not saying he's a bad player or isn't worthy of starting up top for us. i think he's gonna get his fair share of goals for us this year. his misses (of which there'll be plenty more) will continue to glare, however, because his production is more important with vermes continuing to play him as a lone striker.

pash wrote:A bit hard to tell since Red Bulls also made some changes over the off-season, but I think this iteration of Sporting has a good chance to be better than last year's, even imagining that last year's squad hadn't gone through that ridiculous sequence of injuries and World Cup vacancies. I think the only position at which they're likely to be worse is at center back, in replacing Collin, but Opara looked good enough on Sunday that I have some hope there too.

i was of the opinion last year that i thought opara could be a top centerback in this league if he could stay on the field, and i saw nothing in week 1 that has changed my mind. in fact, i feel even better about it. besler, on the other hand, needs to get his crap together. he let us down numerous times in the second half of the season last year, and he got a pass because of our situation and his fatigue. he doesn't get a pass this year. getting sent off for such an unnecessary challenge in your home opener is not what i want to see from the captain.

i also agree with kboish that nemeth looks like a good pickup.

not exactly the start to the season we were hoping for. it would certainly be fair to say, though, that the ref did us no favors in our last game. i think we'll pick up 3 points this weekend, so i'm not getting worried yet.

Anyone have any opinion on Nate Bukaty so far?