Teams that lose don’t have S-rated players. After a loss, I don’t see an S-rated player keeping his spot unless he didn’t play. That’ll be the case this week. Luke Spencer played well, but a smothering defense though kept him quiet. Oscar Jimenez had a slightly worse night. But I’ll give him a pass this week because of our complete and total lack of a possessing midfield. I don’t know where Abend and DelPiccolo were, but it wasn’t at Slugger. I haven’t looked at stats, I’m going by pure feeling, but I saw more perimeter passing than I can recall in any recent LouCity game. Passing would go from Davis, through our back three, or maybe Ranjitsignh, to Jimenez then back again. After they got tired of that, the perimeter would bomb it in towards Spencer, McCabe, or Kaye. Which is a perfect valid strategy when you don’t have a midfield that is effectively distributing and pushing play up the field.
I’m interested to see pass maps from Abend and DelPiccolo. If the number of actual forward passes was more than 30 between the two of them, I’d be surprised. After the mid-week game, I had DelPiccolo as a B-tier. That’s changing this week as he slips a spot back to C-tier. He seemed to effectively win challenges on defense, but the captain was ineffective in our attack. Abend though, was even worse. Maybe I’m too hard on Abend, but I feel he is our second weakest player on the field after Morad. Abend is a sloppy player. There is no way he should ever start before Williams, especially after that performance. A mid-week B-tier, I’m going to let about half my wrath out on Abend and drop him down to a D-tier. The rest of my wrath will fall on Morad, which as of this writing, hasn’t yet posted an apology to Twitter. (EDIT: He did tweet something before writing was finished.) He was purely victimized by Cox (giggity.) If Reynolds wasn’t there to cover Cox, Morad didn’t stand a chance. Morad was caught with his back to goal after a pass to Cox, who beat Ranjitsingh on the resulting run. Morad hadn’t played before Wednesday, so this will be his first appearance on the list, but unfortunately, he comes in at C-tier.
Ranjitsingh was spared a demotion up until the third OCB goal. I feel like there should be very little reason for a keeper to get beat on a set piece unless it was a flawless delivery and execution. Ranjitsingh was caught completely flat-footed after a corner kick went in at the far post. For the most part though, the defense let him down. He’ll drop one rank from A down to B-tier. And after watching the highlights, Totsch will be joining him. He was far behind Cox, which assisted in Cox beating Reynolds for the second goal. Totsch will be in the B-tier for this next week. Reynolds’ play in the second half spared him a demotion this week.
Our attack was great as always, and did what they could with the outside service they received. Kaye and McCabe both provided a great attack when our backfield was able to get the ball to them. Davis still was not playing his normal position, which explained why he looked uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this will cost him a rank. His link up play with Kaye was entertaining to watch, however. Lancaster was mediocre, more the effect of our midfield than anything else. He’ll keep his B spot another week.
Ilic also was a victim of our midfield, but had a decent showing on Wednesday. He’ll stick around in C-tier until we see more.
The biggest standout was Ownby. After coming on for Kaye after halftime, Ownby had an immediate impact, creating two chances within a minute. His presence enlivened a stagnant and ineffectual LouCity offense. Ownby, a mid-week B-tier, will get a bump up to A. He was my Man of the Match despite playing half a game. I’m not sure why Morad got included in the MotM vote and not Ownby.
After all that, here is the current Joker’s LouCity Player Tier List
S-Tier
- Loser’s always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen.” ~Sean Connery in The Rock
A-Tier
- Luke Spencer (Last Week: S)
- Oscar Jimenez (Last Week: S)
- Speedy Williams (Last Week: A)
- Mark-Anthony Kaye (Last Week:A)
- Naill McCabe (Last Week:A)
- Brian Ownby (Last Week: Unranked)
- Sean Reynolds (Last Week:A)
B-Tier
- Sean Totsch (Last Week: A)
- Paco Craig (Last Week: A)
- Cameron Lancaster (Last Week: B)
- Greg Ranjitsingh (Last Week: A)
- Ilia Ilic (Last Week: C)
- George Davis VI (Last Week: Unranked)
- Richard Ballard (Last Week: A)
C-Tier
- Paolo DelPiccolo (Last Week: Unranked)
- Tarek Morad (Last Week: Unranked)
D-Tier
- Guy Abend (Last Week: C)
- Kyle Smith (Last Week: D)
The universe tends to equal itself right. After LouCity’s recent form, a game like this was bound to happen. I’m thankful that Charlotte and Charleston both lost tonight as well. So we’ll hold on to first place a little while longer. I’m not going to post expected starting XI’s anymore. I’ve learned my lesson. But I will say that Speedy Williams has to start, or it’ll feel like LouCity starts the game playing from behind.
