Friday Blues + MLS Picks

Sorry for the late pics ya'll.

Friday was a forgettable day for yours truly.

B$ and I went to watch our alma mater, Georgia State, drudge through another awful loss.

The Panthers fell 1-0 to William & Mary in Colonial Athletic Association play, failing to score a goal for the fifth consecutive game. No, that's not a typo. That is five straight games without scoring.

The predictability of GSU has become so pathetic that it's laughable.

PK chance in the second half? Of course it was going to be stopped (why let the player who was fouled take it instead of your best player, Eduardo "Lalo" Liza?).

GSU gave up the winning goal in the 89th minute on one of their textbook defensive breakdowns.
William & Mary had been winning every header all game long, and they played a cross to the far post, where the Tribe forward won the ball over 5'8" left back Javon Carrington. The sad part of this is that GSU had a 7-on-3 advantage defensively yet failed to win the most important ball of the match.

What's even more pathetic is the fact that this team cannot send players forward. Everytime a GSU player had the ball in the final third, there was no option to pass the ball to a player who had an opportunity to create a chance. This comes down to bad coaching, something that has plaged Georgia State for years.

It's not like Georgia State had bad players. Liza is a great playmaker in the middle, yet is usually forced out of position or isn't given options to distribute effectively. Spenser Sumpter is a nice defender, but since he's constantly bombarded he's has no margin for error. And goalkeeper Felipe Carvalho has saved the Panthers from getting embarrassed consistently. One could only imagine how well he would do with a team who could actually score goals and play better defensively.

Afterwards I went home to watch UAG Tecos play Jekyll and Hyde against San Luis and lose 3-2. Los Tecolotes dominated the first half and should have been winning better than 1-0 at the half. Then capitan Juan Carlos Leano and the rest of the defense fell asleep in the second half, giving up three awful goals.

Time for work, so here's my MLS picks for Saturday:

New York 3-1 New England
FC Dallas 1-1 Houston
Kansas City 2-0 Chivas USA