June 22, 2007

Silverbacks @ Battery - Postgame thoughts

I can't root against this team. I just can't. It's not in my blood and after talking to some of the players, they're good guys who I want to see succeed.

But I just don't know who to place the blame on here. I don't think as much of the blame rests with Jason Smith as it does with the players.

Maybe playing with a late lead isn't something they're used to. The last time they had a late one-goal lead was in the comeback in Puerto Rico. Aside from that, it hasn't happened at all this season.

I did like Buete's goal, some nice one-touch football played him in nicely and he finished. I haven't seen anything like that out of this team this season.

But not being able to kill the game off is extremely disappointing. (Why do I keep using that word to describe this team?) I don't know if you can fault Smith for this, he actually brought Antoniuk off at the end and put Liendo on.

I'm not going to mention names, but look at where King scored and where the penalty was given up. Same place on the field. Name the player who was playing that position.

The big thing I think killed the Silverbacks was the inability to finish, mainly by Warren Ukah. He had two breakaways early in the 2nd half with the 'Backs leading 1-0. If he puts either one of those away, it's 2-0 and probably the win. Charleston showed nothing until the tying goal in the 87th.

What bugged me is thinking that if it had been Antoniuk instead of Ukah, he would have finished off at least one of them.

And I guess you have to be Fox Soccer Channel to get an injury report, 'cause they mentioned that Millwood had surgery (didn't specify where) and they were hoping to get him back in the next few weeks.

So where do they go from here? I think it's time for heads to start rolling. The message needs to be sent to everyone related to the team that this is unacceptable.

Two points in the last six games, and the Southern Derby Cup all but gone.

Only a couple more wins in the US Open Cup can save this season from being a disaster.

3 comments:

Longshoe said...

I didn't get to see the game, and that's probably for the best. I'm glad I didn't even put my DVR through the misfortune of recording it.

I did see a guy that the 'Backs passed on score a 35 yard GOLAZO today, always fun...

Longshoe said...

Even taking into account some quotes from Charleston fans that the 'Backs looked really good tonight, I have to update this statistic.

In their last 26 league matches, Atlanta has won 6 games. 6-14-6 is not good, no matter how you slice it.

Anonymous said...

Strangely, the 'Backs actually did look pretty good ... for about 82 minutes. Maybe it was the white uniforms.