Houston, We Have a Problem (Actually, several)

By: alessio | September 13th, 2009

With the end of the regular season coming up, this is the time for Darren Tilley to focus on our issues and fix them before the playoffs. It does not appear that we are resolving anything. There were two big issues that rang to me from the match.

#1- Tonight, against Miami FC, we had our fifth consecutive scoreless draw at home. This isn’t completely disastrous, I suppose, over two-legged playoff games, a scoreless draw at home isn’t awful, not good, but it negates the away-goal rule for the other team. But seriously, 5-consecutive scoreless draws, at home? Why can’t we score on our home turf? There’s a lot of implications for this, and they extend to the business portion of the team as well. Most people who go to Rhinos games are casual fans, not strongly tied to the team or the sport. Will they keep coming back? It’s hard to believe, but over the last 10 games, our away form is much better than our home form. Listen, as a fan of Serie A (and Juventus) I appreciate clean sheets at home as much as anyone else, but we’ve gotta start banging in the goals.

#2- The possibility of a penalty shootout in the playoffs is high. And we have been unbelievably piss-poor at penalties this year, we have got to work on that. A missed penalty should be an abberration, not expected. As of now, we have converted 2/6 penalties this season, a dismal statistic. Against Miami we got a penalty won by Johnny Menyongar in the 17th minute, and Kenny Bertz blasted it wide. Just out of curiosity, since when does a center-back take penalties? I don’t want to single out Bertz because it is a team problem, but it just seems a bit strange that he took the penalty.

But all is not bad. Menyongar left the field injured today, but preliminary reports say he should be fine, he will undergo an MRI tomorrow. He still leads the league in goals, at 11. Scotty Vallow is still a terrific goalie, he gives tremendous confidence at the back. The Rhinos are still guaranteed a playoff spot.

The Rhinos conclude the regular season this Friday against Charleston at home…please, let’s get a win for the fans, and for some pre-postseason confidence.