Archive for July 2007
2nd half more of the same?
July 30, 2007 by f4denz.
OK, so coming out of the all-star break and two gutsy performances against international foes, expectations were high going into the Saturday night match against the Revolution (heck we had not lost to them since 2005), but it sure appeared that even with a very different line-up that the old RSL team was back in force. There were both great performances, and typically poor ones. I thought Kyle Beckerman continued to be the brightest spot on the pitch for RSL, followed closely by Nate Sturgis, and at this point of the season our teams MVP Nick Rimando. Average performances ruled the pitch, Wingert, Findley, Kyle Brown, Williams, Pope, and Harris, it seems average just seems to be our norm. Half-hearted performances were turned in by Talley, Chris Brown, Richie Kotschau, and Kirpre (who shows moments of brilliance, and then follows it with awful passes, horrible decisions).
I know that everyone wants to blame this one on the officials who were, in a typical MLS style, horrible. How you can call a straight red card on the Andy Williams tackle in the 67th minute? Yellow card, yes, but there is no way that was a red card. Allowing some other horrible tackles to take place, while awarding a free kick to the Revolution for what was a very iffy call, it seems much like the teams in MLS the officials have a far way to go to become true professionals.
So what does the rest of the season hold? Rumors of international players to fill our DP slot, seem to have been pipe dreams more than actual options, Mackelele is staying with Chelsea, Jay-Jay is well too expensive for RSL, and it seems we would rather pick the reserve rosters of teams like Boca, than chase a world class player. Oh well, I am sure that eliminating almost 1 million dollars in salary cap room this season by cuts, releases, and trades is just a cost saving move and never was a real attempt to find a “cornerstone” player. I mean it fits well with the FO efforts to cut costs by eliminating fan giveaways, replacing programs with generic newspapers and crappy newsletters. Oh to actually get a roster insert, but hey those cost money and besides it appears that RSL fans could care less about the play on the pitch, I mean we still show up, despite the product being offered. I mean heck, how many fans would have revolted if they had actually announced that John Ellinger wasn’t fired as coach but rather he was promoted to run the whole team. After all he lead us to 15 wins in 2+ seasons of play, instead of just saying hey we are putting John in as our new GM, they create some elaborate job title and say they are looking for a GM, 4 months later they still are just looking. Sure, what the hell we will buy it, it seems that nothing is too good for us RSL fans, why not take a guy who performed so poorly as coach that we had to replace him with a player who had no coaching experience, and let him run the whole team into the ground. Oh wait that would be exactly what we have been given. Here is my question, is John just running the on the field team or is he actually running the whole organization? If the latter is true, it would explain a whole lot of things that have happened this year.
So the promise is that perhaps on of the players from Argentina, or one of the guys here on a trial will provide some spark to drag the all time worse MLS team out of our funk? Of course the promise was that Freddy would be here all year, or that trading Jeff, would be good for the team, or that a public letter from the coach, would change player attitudes. I am still waiting to see what happens to those players who simply do not perform, the release of Torres today, is not a bad thing, considering that his play this year has been a far cry from what we expected from him. Is Stewart next? Or maybe Talley, who since the injury has had one decent match? Who knows what is next for the drama that is RSL.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
A Christmas miracle in July?
July 25, 2007 by f4denz.
Wow, so for those of you who may have been sleeping since last Friday let me update you on what I am calling a “Christmas Miracle in July”. So with two top level international teams coming town, few if any thought that the matches would be entertaining let alone competitive. After heading up to Park City to watch Everton practice, I thought it would be a bloodbath with us getting a couple lucky goals but still getting beat 4-2, Everton looked sharp during their practice. Then a little over 24 hours later as the match started one team looked sharp, passes being completed, overall attacking style of play, and then there was Everton, who looked like they forgot how to play in just 24 hours. Sure you can point out that it was 3am Liverpool time or that it was still in the 90’s, or even that they were playing at elevation. I am sure all of those factored in, but I think what caused the most distress was that the team they were facing sure did not resemble the team that dropped a July 4th match to Toronto.
Joleon Lescott of Everton said it best “I thought they did well and were sharp, I’ve been told they are bottom of their league, which I find surprising because they fully deserved their victory.” Two goals in 2 minutes from RSL was all that was needed, the last time RSL had scored two was in our only MLS victory of the season a month ago against DC United. A beautiful goal by Talley on a corner kick from Esky, showed that Carey is finally getting his head back into the game. Then only seconds later, a super pass from Andy Williams (who played a great first half), and Robbie Findley, played beat the keeper for the second RSL goal of the match. The rest of the first half was a battle with RSL actually playing a very attacking style of football and if not for some incredible saves by “Timmy”, the score could have been 4-0. The second half saw wholesale roster changes by RSL with 6 at the half and another 5 about 15 minutes into the half, the changes did not result in any goals for Everton but the nature of the match changed as RSL no longer dominated in the midfield and played on their heels for a majority of the half. Things got a bit chippy in the latter stages of the match, but nothing too nasty. I think it will let EPL teams know that if you come to play in the Colonies you better bring your “A” game.
The biggest disappointments were the lack of preparation by the RSL front office, we looked like a pub team off the pitch. No real merchandise for sale at the match (one horrible t-shirt, meant for autographs-hint, you might want to have those at your autograph session), no real hype for the match (a late notice of the Everton practice, a autograph session with 80% people with nothing more than a black and white roster sheet to get signed), and poor ticket sales (package deals, inflated prices, confusion all around). All of that lead to the other disappointment, 10,000 fans, in a stadium that can hold 40.000, we could not even fill it to 25% of capacity. I understand that Everton is not Real Madrid, but it was sad that so few people were there to see what I think was the best half of football in RSL history.
Well it was only a couple days later that Boca Jr’s showed up in town and again few if any thought it would be entertaining or competitive. That Saturday match against Everton must have been a fluke. Once again a lineup that looked very strange, no Esky, Findley, Torres, or Seitz even in uniform, but RSL played with a lot of heart and energy in the first half, attacking when they had possession of the ball, and playing strong defense when they didn’t. Just before the end of the first half Freddy Adu was working some of his magic, and got tangled up with 3 Boca defenders on the edge of the box, he made is past them only to be fouled by two of them from behind. The whistle blew and everyone knew it was a penalty shot for RSL, Freddy took the shot and into the net it went. Surely it could not be happening again, RSL the laughing stock of MLS, not only playing with but beating an international powerhouse, what is going on? Could it be another miracle in July, were the soccer gods going to favor the downtrodden one more time? Once again wholesale changes to the RSL roster at the half 5 new players on the pitch (Watson, Harris, Cutler, Besagno, and Jimenez), and once again the style of play changed to a more defensive style. A couple great counter attacks from RSL but the second half was an exercise in great goalkeeping and desperate defense, in the end Boca put one goal on the scoreboard but should have scored at least 3 others. So while it was not a miracle, it showed that when our players show up, fight hard and do not quit, that they can play with anyone and hold their own.
I came away from the last couple days feeling good about our team, and excited for New Englands visit on Saturday. We almost always play well against the Revolution, in fact last season we had a 0-0 tie and 3-1 victory against them. I am going out on a limb and calling for a 3-1 win this Saturday, the only question is will more than 10,000 people show up to watch the match? I hope so, the new line-up and new attitude seem to be just what the fans wanted, a hard working team that does not know how to quit.
What is a fan?
July 19, 2007 by f4denz.
So I stepped a bit over the line the other day and questioned if some people are really fans of RSL, hell I step over the line all the time but when some people I like and respect started taking the position of “I am not going to matches anymore” or “I am not renewing my season tickets”, I got a bit bent out of shape. I am sorry if I offended anyone, really I am.
I understand our desire to be mad, upset, just downright pissed off at how “our” team has performed this season. There is plenty of blame to go around and I will get to my evaluation of blame a little later in the post. I thought it might be nice to understand why I reacted in such a negative way to those comments, and I think I can explain it using some basic sports fan psychology. Most of what comes next is not my opinion but rather quotes from studies (Why Your Favorite Team is “Your” Favorite Team?: The Psychology of Sports Fans by Sascha Hansen, Michael PerryMerritt Posten & Jamie Schlabach) & (Basking in Glory and Cutting off Failure by Merritt Posten)
“According to Webster’s dictionary (1976) those who are “an enthusiastic devotee of a sport or diversion, usually as a spectator rather than a participant” are called fans as opposed to those who “exhibit excessive enthusiasm and intense uncritical devotion” are called fanatics.”
This might explain a lot, if in looking at those two, I am not a fan but I would have to classify myself as a fanatic. A term that carries a stigma with it in today’s culture.
“Why is it that the day after a “big win” everyone pulls out their old sweatshirts and tee shirts, that haven’t been worn since the team last won a game two years ago, and proudly displays their school colors or team logos? Or right after a team wins a championship the sales of their products sky rocket until another team wins the next year? This phenomena has been labeled by social psychologists as BIRGing and CORFing. BIRGing is an arconym for Basking in Reflected Glory and CORFing means Cutting Off Reflected Failure.
… The different levels of commitment that a fan might have towards a team dictate the degree to which he or she can distance him or herself from that team when failure occurs. If a fan is strongly allied, the social identity theory states that it will be hard for them to distance themselves, and therefore, to not threaten their self esteem, the fans must attribute the loss to external cues of the situation but not the team itself. If a person is not so closely linked they then engage in the phenomena of CORFing, which means cutting off reflected failure, done by distancing themselves as far as possible from the losing team.
…Fans CORF in a variety of different ways. For example one might change the language they use to describe the game after a defeat or after a win. For example a Knicks basketball fan might not even know the psychological defenses he or she is using when they say, “We won” when the Knicks won and “They lost” or “the Knicks lost” when the team suffered a defeat. Fans might also distance themselves from the team by not wearing any team affiliated clothing after a loss and not supporting the team until they win again. But as soon as the team is victorious, the individual will waste no time in associating with the team once again. Another way that fans can CORF is by “blasting”. Blasting is a form of indirect self enhancement used when when self esteem is threatened.”
I hope this brings a little light to the discussion on why I find those who are too critical to be just as annoying as they find me. I believe there is a fine line between honestly assigning blame where it is due and “blasting”, which is what I believe, is done by many.
Now to show I am not a total lost cause, I will explain where I believe the blame for RSL’s current situation belongs, and trust me there is plenty to go around:
RSL Ownership and Senior Management- Wow talk about doing just about everything wrong that can be done wrong, this group has broken records and relationships like few others in sports history. Apart from them establishing RSL and their efforts to bring incredible supplemental matches to the MLS season, there is little this group has done right. They have created a public relations nightmare out of getting a portion of funding from the local government (I understand why they would want to, it is done in most arena/stadium deals around the nation), but it was handled very poorly. This comes from getting in the middle of a battle between Rocky/Peter/Jon, which really is a battle between the City/County/State over who should decide what is best for the citizens, but most often is done with personal agendas taking top priority. They have also blown it as far as the GM and coach positions within the organization. I really like Steve P. but he was put into a position that he was not prepared for, and he struggled, he should have been the Asst. GM (with a focus on marketing and PR). John Ellinger, knows soccer and no one should underestimate his potential value, but he was not the best choice for a new franchise to be the head coach, he simply did not know how to build a team from professional players and how to adjust team tactics during the match. The solution to this issue will be for RSL to find a strong, knowledgeable GM for the club, someone who has been involved in running a soccer team in a league somewhere in the world outside of MLS. I think John Ellinger should be put in charge of the daily operations of the RSL/RM academy, I believe he could do well in this environment; he did well at the youth academy level.
Front Office Staff- OK, now I like a lot of the individuals in the front office but as an organization, they are lacking the skills and knowledge to run a world class organization. Many of the positions in the front office have been filled by a group of people who wonder around the MLS, performing various positions from team to team, they are my version of a travelling circus. It may appear entertaining for a while, but they lack depth or real abilities, they get by with some flash and diversions from real issues. Then there is the local group, most of whom are very qualified but often ignored by the management (who feel they know best), but many of them struggle to understand that RSL is not a church organization and sports fans often do not comply to the local religious standards. Hint, sports are never PG, in the best case they are PG-13, but most often they push the ratings system to “R” and trying to stifle that will only lead to failure and upset customers on both sides. This is a group who instead of leveraging last years RM match into a powerful marketing and retail opportunity, had to discount tickets at the last minute to sell out the event. Did they learn from this, nope they have failed horribly this year to leverage the potential of Everton and Boca Jrs. coming to town. No souvenirs, no t-shirts, nothing and it is less than 48 hours from the match. Information about the event has been slow to get to the public, there has been little hype created for these matches. The fact that tickets are still available in every price range, speaks volumes about their inability to do their jobs. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been left on the table because our FO can not do their jobs? That directly affects our ability to sign players, it also impacts fans in the stands and the image of the team in the local and national press.
Players – You can toss a lot of blame around to others but to be honest, most of the responsibility for the poor performance this season has to be given to the players on the field. We have seen players simply quit, throw temper tantrums, been too interested in getting laid, or simply under perform. We all have seen it; I don’t need to list names, everyone already knows. It seems amazing to me that guys who are getting paid to play a game, to do what they love, could do anything less than give 100 percent all the time. I understand that type of behavior from those of us who work in the daily grind, punch a clock, or are stuck in going nowhere career, but my god, how many of us would jump at the chance to be a professional soccer player if we had the talent and ability to do so? This is the saddest part of the season for me, I can handle bad owners (hell the Yankees have it much worse than we do), I can handle an office filled with lackeys and incompetence, I can even handle a coach that is in over his head. I can not understand what is going on with our players.
Coach Kreis- How many of us can say that in under 90 days on the job, had complete understanding of the job, and were as good as those who had performed the job for years? I think Jason can be a great coach in MLS, for a couple of reasons: He understand how MLS’s version of soccer is played, and he knows that if you work hard and give 100 percent that you can be successful, I would like for him to have had a season of being an assistant coach to begin to understand how the mechanics of the league works. Now, do I wish that the organization would have looked for a world class coach, sure, even more so since they did not have a person to fill the GM role. But honestly does anyone think Rafi, or Eriksson, or Alan Shearer, were coming to RSL? He has shown that he is willing to pull the trigger on benching players (Forko, Adu, Williams, Stewart), or trading start (Cunny, Klein, Medhi), in an effort to make the team better. I will give him a few more months before I call for his head on a platter, but expectations are high and he has a lot of work to do.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
Let’s try to find some good.
July 15, 2007 by f4denz.
So in an effort to battle the local media and cynics that will only focus on negative RSL things, I thought I would take a page out of their playbook and make my list of 5 good things that have happened in RSL history.
- July 14th, 2004 - MLS awards Salt Lake City a expansion franchise. “The Salt Lake City bid for a 2005 kickoff emerged from a crowded pack due to the experience and savvy of Dave Checketts and his group,” said Commissioner Garber today at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, where the team will play its first few seasons. “The Checketts-run team will make an immediate impact in this diverse
and emerging soccer community and in the League. We are proud to now call Salt Lake City home to Major League Soccer.”
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Dec 11
th,2006 - Freddy Adu traded to RSL. While the much heralded arrival of Freddy Adu to Salt Lake City has not produced the results many had expected it was a major event for the kid labeled “
the prodigy of American soccer” at age 13 and RSL. It was the first blockbuster trade for RSL, which had spent the first two seasons trading draft picks, unproven youth, and unimpressive foreign talent. Yes, there was the Cunningham for Mathis trade, but more on it in a second. Freddy is coming off an impressive U20 World Cup, and hopefully will bring some of that play back to Salt Lake City.
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Dec 12th, 2005 – Mathis out, Cunny In. So with RSL struggling for goals in their first season, they trade much maligned Clint Mathis to the Colorado Rapids in return for Jeff Cunningham. Cunningham flourished in Salt Lake in 2006 winning the leagues Golden Boot with 16 goals and 11 assists. Cunny holds the team record for goals with 18 and assists with 11, Jeff was traded to Toronto FC in May of this year.
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June 7th,2006 – Real vs. Real announced. In what anyone would have to consider a landmark announcement for a 2nd year franchise Real Salt Lake will host a friendly match against one of the most decorated clubs in soccer history, Real Madrid. While this match was a great PR event for both teams it was the 10 year agreement, which will bring Real Madrid back to Salt Lake City 4 more times in coming years, along with the ground breaking of RSL’s future home stadium (yes, they are actually building it), and the announcement of a co-hosted soccer academy (this plan is still up in the air, but I expect it will happen and that a major announcement will come next summer as Real Madrid visits Salt Lake City again.
I am sure we could list more good things, like RSL staff and players donating countless hours to local charities and schools, the US vs. Costa Rica World Cup qualifier match, the upcoming friendlies against Everton and Boca Jrs., yes trust me there are more things I could list. It never stops amazing me that despite their fair share of troubles, both on and off the pitch, that we all to quickly forget the good things when times get tough. For some out there, they would want you to forget these events, and turn into the bitter, cynical anti-RSL critics that they are. I implore you to not give up hope, to support your team, and to enjoy that fact that we get to watch MLS soccer in our hometown.
On a separate note, I found an interesting blog post talking about our boy Freddy, it is a good read: http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/freekicks/jonbfreddy.htm
OFF MY SOAPBOX
The difference between being critical and being against
July 13, 2007 by f4denz.
So I am a fan of RSL, I have not missed a single home match or major home event in the history of the team. I am a supporter, I am a member of a supporters group, and I am allowed to be critical of team, staff, players, and coach. I am not against the team, staff, players, or the coach; if you are not aware of the difference, please allow me to explain.
I believe that many who are in the public forum (bloggers, media members, and others) are firmly against RSL and some have been against them from day one. Why, is the question I am asked when I offer that opinion, it is easy, they dislike Dave Checketts, or they dislike soccer, or they dislike Dean Howes, or they dislike Spencer Checketts, or they dislike Trey-Fitz Gerald, or they dislike anything that might challenge their control of local sports, or they dislike them because they don’t get to make money off them, or they dislike them because someone said or did something to offend them, the possible reasons could be limitless.
How do you know they are against RSL, that to is easy, look at their words or deeds. Listen, I am the first to admit that RSL and their staff from top to bottom have given everyone reason to question their logic, intelligence, or sanity at times. But to claim that every action, every statement, every intent of RSL is evil, or that they are greedy, or that they are whatever negative term you want to use, is just plain wrong and inaccurate. I have looked for anyone in this group to mention the jobs being created in Sandy by the new stadium project, but they haven’t. I have looked for anyone in this group to mention, how many local business owners and managers near the stadium site are excited about the potential increase in customers, but they haven’t. I have looked for anyone to give credit to RSL players and staff members who have donated hundreds of hours to local charities, educational program, and other local causes, but they don’t. Even last season when RSL had the best record in the 2nd half of the MLS season, and just missed making the playoffs, you could barely find a kind word from these cynical bastards. You can believe there is no bias, but you are fooling yourself, and if you simply review the history you will see it. Heck, in most cases it is not even subtle, but overt in every way.
Now see there are those of us who think the letter from Jason Kreis to the fans this week, was a good thing. It was a coach admitting that he, the team, and the organization are failing to meet the expectations of the fans. He is not assigning blame to any one person, but to the entire organization. Folks, if you didn’t know, that is a mighty rare thing for a coach to do. I respect Jason more today, than I did yesterday because of it. Will it change anything, I hope so, but as I stated yesterday “Actions, speak louder than Words”. Will Jason have the heart, and balls to bench his starters? He has in the past, just ask Freddy. Freddy may say that it was unfair, and some of us would agree with him. Will Jason be willing to do this more; he has shown he is willing to trade his stars. Even if they are personal friends of his, if it will improve the team, he will trade them.
I am still a critic of the organization in general, and of some specific individuals both players and staff members. I do still call for the resignation of Dean Howes, and the senior staff of RSL, they have allowed the failure to happen. I don’t think you can blame a coach with under 3 months at the helm, for a season of failure. I do think we have a number of players who are not living up to their expectations or potential; Medhi, Stewart, Talley, Torres, Adu, Williams, and Besagno. All of them have disappointed by their on field performance. I do believe that a few players have held their own, by playing hard, and giving everything they have while on the pitch; Eddie, Esky, Jamie, Atiba, and surprise Chris Brown. I am disappointed that John Ellinger has been allowed to keep such a tight reign over RSL, despite his removal as head coach. In reality it seems now that his actually got promoted and is filling the GM role, something he may end up being better at than coaching, but not what our team needs at this time. I must admit I am confused why John who has made so many bad decisions for RSL, Besagno, Mathis, Soto, Tejada, Gregorio, and others is still allowed to make call after call on player decisions. He should be unemployed at this point, but no he is the “defacto” GM & while he is not on the bench, we know he is still calling a lot of the shots.
But again, there is a difference between being critical, I am critical but I also see the good, the effort, the potential. See those who no matter what is done or said by RSL, they will only see what they want to see, they will only hear what they want to hear, they will only comment what they feel they want you to hear, they are against RSL for whatever reasons, they are a large part of the problem. They will not go away, but when you read, hear, or see things from them, remember they are not honest brokers of information, they surely are not fans of RSL, and they should simply be ignored.
OFF MY SOAPBOX