Yes, it may be a little difficult to get Mix on the field next to Pirlo, for now. Keep in mind though that we could have Mix for 10 or even 15 years. I'm happy to invest the time and money in him as it could pay off big time for us.
I think this has a lot to do with placement. Yes, his free kicks were unusually poor. But we also had veeeery few kicks from dangerous spots with Pirlo over the ball.
This is interesting. Kreis had a great run as a coach. He looked fantastic on paper. But one thing I think we learned is that no one knew how he would do going to a new team as opposed to rising in the ranks of his own squad. That was exacerbated by the fact that the new team was brand spanking new. So where any coach going somewhere new might try to bring along a player or two, when there is no roster at all, that tendency is exacerbated. Combine that with JK never having made a transition before and he over relied on getting his known quantities. Should CFG have better understood that risk? I don't know. Have they built other teams from scratch? Or have they bought existing clubs? Seems like the tough kind of thing that most organizations will only ever have one chance to learn.
With Pirlo, any free kick in the offensive half should be considered a dangerous position. Seriously though, there were plenty of chances from places just outside of the box that Villa had been making look routine, and yet Pirlo skied it over the bar. I like Pirlo a lot, but the guy really underwhelmed with his free kicks. I had hoped that Lampard or Villa would boss him off the ball once or twice to take the shot, but that never happened.
those Pirlo free kicks really baffled me. that is not his usual free kicks. Does it have to do with the artificial turf? i don't think that's the case or it was sheer rust? Hope he has been practicing free kicks 1000 times everyday as we speak/type. He needs to score some free kicks.
I've read somewhere that MLS' match ball is lighter than the model used in Italy. That could be why his shots seemed like auditions to be an NFL kicker. Beyond that, I cannot think of any reason he'd have such poor control other than he was lifting his head expecting to watch it go in.
Villa didn't work great as a lone striker, I hope that is not the plan this year. Also, Allen sucked at Left back, and if White is starting, I give up.
Any time Pirlo took a free kick, I just stayed sat in my seat while every time everyone stood up and whipped out their cell phones. Lots of footage out there now of whiffed free kicks sailing in to the stand, while I sat comfortably sipping my beer in peace.
I agree he looked lively vs PR, but they were applying zero pressure. Allen looked as bad as brovsky as LB against MLS.
Why is the US different than Italy? we should have the same field and balls used in world cup. Otherwise we put ourselves at disadvantage internationally. Jeees, first salary Cap the MLS style and now this....I generally believe in US exceptional-ism but not on something like this.
There are multiple equipment/ball makers: Adidas, Nike, etc. Within each equipment company are different models of balls. Each league around the world has it's own tie-in/sponsorship with an equipment company. Pretty tough to get everybody to agree on one match ball since that'd kill the market for the other companies.
I still want to see Lampard cannon a few off of the other teams' faces and knock them out of the game for about 5 minutes while they get the rung-bell protocol administered. Call it the 11v10 power play we could run periodically.Villa actually did have some trouble. He sailed a ton of them early in the season - especially on corners. He actually didn't score on a free kick until July - when he scored in two consecutive matches at which point Pirlo joined the team, took over as fk specialist, and sailed the remainder (although Pirlo almost hit that olimpico in which case much would have been forgiven). So considering the season started in March and Villa didn't score a free kick goal until July - it took him 4 months (less injury time) to hit one - maybe Pirlo just ran out of time. November would have been his month
Now that Lampard is officially married he might have less leg strength left during the daytime to power such cannon balls
if he does what all newly weds go through 
Now that Lampard is officially married he might have less leg strength left during the daytime to power such cannon balls
