Three of the Soca Warriors were in acton over the weekend as Mekeil Williams got his first start of the season, Kevin Molino is on the score sheet for the 2nd week in a row and Joevin Jones puts on another great performance.
Mekeil Williams RB Colorado Rapids
Mekeil Williams got the start on Saturday against a struggling Minnesota United team after defender Axel Sjöberg went down with a hamstring injury and would be out 6-8 weeks. His first start could’ve gone better for the Soca Warrior defender. According to Whoscored.com, he made 4 total tackles and picked up 2 fouls, including a yellow card on the defensive side, and made 47 passes with a 74.5% passing percentage. 4 of those were crosses, and 6 long balls, one that found a teammate.
Despite showing poise on the defensive end and an eye for taking the ball down the touchline, he still had his shaky moments:
Look at the top of the gif. You see that he’s beaten already. Then Venegas makes his cut and leaves Williams in the dust, giving him the space he needs to get the cross off. Lucky for the Rapids, Christian Ramirez couldn’t connect and finish off the goal.
Another moment was when Williams tried to go for the ball when a Minnesota player had it on the touch line. Studs connected and that got him a card.
This final moment here had me befuddled:
Look at the near side of the box. This collision here between Williams and Collen Warner, to me, shouldn’t warrant a penalty. While Williams was trying to engage, his and Warner’s feet just got tangled up. Was it intentional? To me it didn’t seem so, but it was an unlucky break for Williams that it resulted in Molino converting it from the spot.
All in all, it was an up and down day for Williams. Hopefully he stays in the main lineup and keeps at it to impress the coaches to keep him there until Sjöberg comes back or use this as an opportunity to audition himself for other teams around the league.
Kevin Molino MID Minnesota United F.C.
Molino’s probably glad that the international break has come around because I don’t he could take the cold (or the bad Minnesota defense) anymore.
It’s not his fault that the Loons are 0-1-2 and have allowed the most goals in the league so far (13) but that’s usually the case for an expansion side (don’t tell Atlanta United that). I still think that Molino could try to get himself more involved in the game. It’s not like I don’t he’s not involved, it’s just that I don’t notice hime. Sometimes I just don’t see him whenever I watch the Minnesota games, he’s just seems invisible (especially last week in the snow, I couldn’t see anyone). It’s not a knock on Molino and I don’t want it to be taken the wrong way. The man is the reason why I got into the MLS, and to highlight the Soca Warriors players in the MLS. But looking at the stats, he is doing a decent job at incorporating himself in the game and doing what he can to get this fledgling franchise to some victories.
According to Whoscored.com however, stats show that he had 43 touches on the ball with a passing percentage of 76%. One of his passes into the box resulted in a tangling of legs between Williams and Warner, where Molino managed to convert his 2nd spot kick in consecutive weeks.
With international duty calling, we’re glad to have him back on the Soca Warriors side for the WCQ matches against Panama and Mexico and we hope that his presence could better impact the games
Also, great gif MNUFC👌🏾:
Highlights:
Joevin Jones LB/LW Seattle Sounders
Joevin Jones man. It’s gonna come where I’m just going to say the same things about him week after week.
The man was spectacular yet again with an assist, a key cross that resulted in a goal and a shot on goal, to go along with completing 76% passes, connecting on 3 of 6 long balls (Whoscored.com), which with good defensive performance gets him a 7.2 match rating.
Now let’s watch in awe at his highlights as he returns home for the WCQs, starting with this:
Bruh!
I blame Lodeiro for this. He pushes that ball so far out but Jones just has the pace to catch up to it to keep the play alive, then just has the awareness to know where the goal line is and his defender, leaving him no choice but to fill the gap left by the defender’s legs:
I feel bad just watching this.
Let’s take you to his assist which I’m pretty sure was not planned:
He basically takes a shot from outside of the box, takes a deflection off of Harry Shipp and it rolls in with the keeper just as bewildered as I am.
Now to me that seems hard, re-directing a shot with that kind of velocity to curve it enough to skinny past the post, but with Joevin, anything’s possible.
Well the international break is this week which means no MLS action for any of the T&T players (except Shannon Gomez) but I hope to be in attendance to root for our Soca Warriors on Friday and Tuesday for our home games against Panama and Mexico. With Molino making his return and Joevin Jones’ recent run of form, I can expect positive results for our T&T football squad.
Q Sports 