Houston down Kansas City
in a turgid MLS Cup Western Conference Final.
Some awful football on display, from both sides, in a poor advert for
the MLS Cup Final next weekend.
Robertson Stadium was a sea of orange,
interspersed with some Kansas City
shirts. The support was overwhelmingly Houston
in the Conference USA stadium, the pitch wasn’t in the best of shape and despite
a dry spell was a slick playing surface, not ideal for football.
Basic 4 4 2 for Kinnear, he has
Onstad in goal with a back four of Waibel, Cochrane, Robinson and Barrett. The midfield has Mullan and Davis out wide with De Rosario the creator
and Mulrooney the holder. Jaqua gets a
start up front alongside Ching.
Onolfo opts for the same 4 4
2. Hartman keeps goal with a back four
of Jewsbury, the experienced Conrad, Garcia and Harrington. Arnaud provides experience on the right with
Zavagnin and Morsink inside him and Victorino on the left. Johnson and Sealy make the front pairing
quite pacy.
The midfield is a muddle, neither
side being able to play with any rhythm.
Conrad is the first to show some
skill with an excellent covering tackle.
De Rosario wins a corner kick but
Houston finds
Hartman capable in the goalmouth.
Mullan puts a poor ball in.
The midfield build up is guileless
and Jaqua shows his lack of vision when he shoots aimlesslessly instead of
knocking the ball wide to better placed teammate.
Victorine shows some quality with
a good crossfield ball but Johnson can only display pace and no finishing
skills. Johnson displays the same lack
of a finishing touch from a well delivered Arnaud free kick.
Hartman pulls one out to save his
defenders’ blushes then De Rosario skies one wildly. Conrad displays his grit when he beats two Houston players to
shepherd the ball out for a goal kick.
Jaqua shows his wayward
finishing.
Arnaud displays some skill with a
good flanking run and cross but again Johnson can’t finish.
Mullan delivers another poor
cross.
Hartman keeps a clean sheet; thus
far; and saves his defenders’ blushes a second time.
Ching fluffs a good chance
without troubling Hartman. Mulrooney’s
free kick is awful and wasted.
The midfield continues to be
muddled and unproductive for the most part.
Houston
step up and put Kansas City
under some pressure, they are unable to pull the trigger or trouble Hartman,
Ching has the shot to end the move and it isn’t a good one.
Mullan puts another poor ball
in.
The midfield returns to it’s
muddled status quo.
De Rosario has a go from thirty
five yards, a daisy cutter which gives Hartman ample time to fling himself at
and turn around the post. So obviously
not a ‘world class shot’. The corner
kick is a decent one but terrible ‘keeping and woeful defending allow Houston’s tallest player a free header from close range,
even Jaqua can’t miss this one and Houston
take the lead.
Sealy isn’t that good but he’s
fast.
Jewsbury slips on the slick
surface and Davis
can’t make the most of the opportunity to beat Hartman and clumsily skies his
shot.
Johnson is playing very deep in
order to try to get some possession; it’s not a tactic that is working for
him.
Jaqua shows his MMA skills with a
fierce forearm which connects with the throat of Jewsbury. The flaccid referee bottles it and merely
hands the lanky striker a yellow. It’s
very obvious that Jewsbury isn’t play acting.
Arnaud shows a flash of skill
with a good run that ends with the wide player running into trouble and having
no support, of course Johnson is playing too deep and Sealy isn’t very
good.
Mullan is called offside when he
had the chance to beat the Kansas City
defence.
Skip to touchline and we get a
lovely shot of Kinnear spitting, a lot.
Onolfo puts Marinelli on for
Zavagnin in the hopes of turning around the one goal deficit. He wants more from his side. Kinnear keeps
his side the same. He’s happy with the
way the game sits.
Jewsbury, still breathing after
his brush with Jaqua, fires wide.
Kansas City shows a complete lack of
understanding the basics of defending a corner but manage to get away with
it.
Another beautiful shot of Kinnear
spitting, rapidly, again.
Johnson’s first touch is poor and
another move breaks down because of it. Sealy
is still not very good.
Mullan senses the feebleness of
the referee and takes out Harrington with a wreckless and dangerous
challenge. Happy to oblige the home fans
the referee waves play on.
Sealy and Johnson combine to look
aimless and confused with their roles.
Arnaud fluffs it this time with a
poor cross.
Harrington passes on a chance to
play a good ball in.
Jaqua crosses well and De Rosario
is beaten to the back post ball by the smart tackle from Victorine.
More candid shots of the Kinnear
phlegm machine on the Houston
bench.
Harrington finds himself with
plenty of space and time out wide and shows a lack of calm with a very poor
cross.
Davis
skins Garcia to win a ball the Kansas
City defenders should have made his own then sees an
alert Hartman claim his cross.
Sealy’s first touch is poor but
he gets to the ball quickly. Great
impression of a headless chicken all night.
Ngwenya leaves the ball for De
Rosario, who finds himself up against Conrad; the Kansas City defender wins the ball but gives away
corner kick.
Cochrane tackles Arnaud well to
stop the wide player in his tracks.
After 80 minutes Mullan finally
gets the idea and puts a decent ball into the Kansas City area.
Garcia’s poor defending allows De
Rosario to show his ample skills and get the goal that kills off Kansas City. Hartman is actually meant to stop those
opportunities.
Another scintillating shot of
Kinnear spitting, yet again.
Johnson’s opportunity goes astray
with a poor ball to the well positioned Arnaud.
The youngster finally has another chance to test Onstad and fires it
high and wide.
A final shot of Kinnear, he isn’t
spitting, oh there he goes twice in quick succession.
Kinnear must be wondering how his
team actually won. They do say that good
teams win even when they play badly, Houston
proved that point tonight.
Onolfo will wonder at whether he
can actually turn Kansas City
into a winning Franchise. Maybe they
just laid themselves out with the win against Chivas and had nothing left in
the tank for this game.
Awful refereeing performance for
such an important game. He made two very
bad decisions and numerous bad ones. His
control of the game was suspect and he lacked any sort of spine in the
atmosphere generated by the vocal Houston
supporters. One moment a tackle was
worthy of a yellow card the same tackle fifty yards away was let go. His bias was terrible and overall he isn’t
really competent to handle a professional game.
