The Crew had plenty of chances to win last night's game, so a tie is pretty disappointing. The offense looked dangerous, but still not sharp (sounds familiar). The defense gave up a couple of goals to let Charleston back in (again, familiar). A few more thoughts below.
- Milovan Mirosevic looked sharp on dead ball situations. He's an upgrade over the Rogers/Gaven combo of last year. Marshall and Vargas each had good chances (that they didn't convert)
- It was a hard to tell over the live stream how well the offense ran with Milo and Tony Tchani in the middle.
- The Tchani/Mirosevic midfield is likely to be the first choice this year. It's a more technical duo than the Crew have had in several years in midfield.
- Ethan Finlay was impressive. He's is more comfortable on the right, but was impressive on the left. He will see major minutes this year and will be a starter when Duka is away.
- Eddie Gaven looked very good on the right as well. He looks in midseason form.
- Kirk Urso will make the team. He impressed in January in shortsided games, but is just as impressive in full games. With O'Rourke's injury status, he'll probably will make the game day 18 often.
- Shaun Francis looked shaky once again. He had several errant passes and wasn't sharp on defense. Left back is still a big question mark.
- Carlos Mendes wasn't impressive in what little time I saw. I hope it's just the odd bad game from the vet.