Archive for August 2007
Biased Reporting
August 31, 2007 by f4denz.
Houston, Columbus, Kansas City, Chivas, Vancouver, and Salt Lake City, what do these cities have in common?
They all have matches scheduled with the LA Galaxy, and do you know how many of them have been hounded in their local media for not offering refunds to their scheduled matches? Only one, yup once again our local media is using a chance to bag on RSL, and they are beating it like several RCB members were beating the drums Wednesday night. Vancouver, a USL team did make a statement today on their website saying they are committed to making their match next month still take place.
Do you wonder why it is that is? Listen, I am sure the FO is thinking of something to do to make the Sept. 19th match a special event for fans, should they offer refunds? I personally do not think so, the Jazz would not offer a refund if Kobe, or Lebron was injured. Would our local media question their ethics if the Jazz were the ones who had a promotion get undermined by the opposing team having an injury? Hell No!
Earlier this week in a online article from Deseret News, they stated that our 3 recent signings were earning over $650,000 per year. I questioned that info, because I had heard the number was under $300,000. Well the MLS players union put out the actual salaries of the new players and the number is actually under $250,000 a year.
The actual numbers are:
Javier Morales, RSL: 120,000/120,000
Edgar Espindola, RSL: 72,000/72,000
Matias Mantilla, RSL: 48,000/48,000
Numbers are provided by
Steven Goff’s Soccer Insider
If you need further proof, we need only look again to the DN coverage of RSL, within 48 hours of a great upset win; they are back looking for negatives. They do an article about Robbie Findley, but the focus is on how he sat on the bench (hint he did have a minor injury) and how he has lacked consistency in his 8 matches with RSL. How about a new player who has come to a team that has a new coach, has struggled, and done a decent job of provided some offense (3 goals in 8 matches, from his 4 shots on goal and 11 overall shots), but that story would not create strife or shed positive light on the team, so nope we go for a story that we can twist into a negative. Read it for yourself
Inconsistency lands Findley on bench .
Now I will give the Tribune a little credit, within the last couple weeks their coverage has not been nearly as negative as the Deseret News coverage. Well at least one thing will hold true, now that College Football has started, the local media will pay a lot less attention to RSL, and based on their history, that is a good thing.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
Hey, Hartman it’s all your fault
August 30, 2007 by f4denz.
When the RCB started chanting that at the start of the second half, little did we know that in the 85th minute it would be proven to be oh so true. But let’s back up just a little bit, what is without a doubt the best first half of the season and perhaps in team history, the jumbled line up that the cynics ridiculed proved to be lethal. I was just 15 seconds in that a blistering shot by Beckerman challenged Hartman who pushed the ball past the endline, and on the following corner kick the Argies paid their first RSL dividends. A well served ball from Morales found the head of Matias Mantilla and then the back of the net, all this in under a minute, yes the team that so often has given up the quick goal, found the net first tonight.
The first half saw an incredible change in style of play and attitude on the pitch, the team in Red did not look like the last place team in the west, they looked like they had something to prove. Maybe it was they had nothing to lose, but whatever it was, it was fun to watch. As we headed to the half with a one goal lead, Esky intercepted a pass at midfield and delivered a great pass to the third member of the Argentina trio, and Fabian did not disappoint, he put a second goal on the scoreboard in the 42nd minute. The very late arriving crowd howled their approval as the team left the pitch at the half.
Now I am so very sure that the cynics and haters will say it was a fluke, they will say KC was tired after their match in Chicago this weekend, they will find a hundred things to blame for the win versus just enjoying the win. Now don’t mistake my celebration of this win as thinking everything is roses with RSL, the second half was a different story.
Real played a much more reserved, defensive style of play in the second half, and it appeared that Coach Kreis was not too happy with how his team looked. He made a couple of logical and sound substitutions, Andy Williams came in at the half for Morales, who is still suffering a shoulder injury. In the 55th minute with KC playing more like the team we expected to see, with a much better attacking effort, Jason put in Wingert for Eddie Pope, which may have been to rest up Eddie for the upcoming road trip. KC continued to attack and while RSL managed a couple counters, nothing was too threatening from either team until a ball ended up on the right foot of Eddie Johnson on what will most likely be a goal of the week candidate (great shot from the volley), which found the back of the net in the 69th minute of the match. Carrey Talley came off in the 70th minute, he appeared to be a bit hobbled, and he was replaced by Atiba Harris, who would get his first assist of the season in the 85th minute. I will admit that the RSL response to the Johnson goal did look a lot like a certain cynics lineup card, with Esky being the only attacking player, but RSL did manage a couple of counter attacks but they did not look like the same attacking team that impressed so many in the first half. As a team that has the reputation of giving up big goals in the last 10 minutes, everyone including Kevin Hartman was surprised at the 40 yard plus shot of Andy Williams that found the back of the net. Hey, Hartman it really was all your fault.
It was a solid effort by almost the whole team. I thought Chris Brown was simply a stain on the pitch who provided nothing for 90 minutes, Carrey Talley put forth a better effort than in recent weeks, but the stars of the match were easy to see. The trio from Argentina put forth the effort that brought them to RSL’s attention and appear (at first glance) to be solid additions to the roster, once again a brilliant night from Nick Rimando. Kyle Beckerman was a shot taking force tonight, 6 shots and 3 on goal, Esky also played a great match and picked up his second assist since arriving in Salt Lake.
I believe that RSL found out tonight that if you take 17 shots and put 10 of them on goal, good things can happen. I am looking forward to Saturday’s match against the now last place Galaxy (who barring a last minute miracle will lose the SuperLiga final tonight)*, if we can put together 90 minutes of attacking football like we did for the first 45 minutes tonight, then we will walk out of the Home Depot Center with our 4th win of the season.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
*OK, I have seen it all tonight. In stoppage time Chris Klein ( you know the guy with his shorts pulled too high) put in a bicycle kick to tie the SuperLiga final match, only time will tell if LA can pull of a overtime miracle.
A week without
August 29, 2007 by f4denz.
So I have to admit I found myself wondering what is going on at RSLFM, since it has been a week since she attempted to compare the co-owner of Murray Energy (company that owns the Crandall mine, site of recent accidents that have left 9 people dead and a community in real grief) to the coach of Real Salt Lake. So I broke my self imposed boycott, it took about 90 seconds to realize I was better off boycotting. I do find it funny that as I looked at three days of posts, I could not find a single positive thought or opinion; it was even funnier to check out the comments where I am the hottest topic on her site. Ah see, they so love to attack when they know you won’t respond (a true coward’s way).
I did find a couple interesting articles today
Desert News give us Motivating factors an interesting look at why our players are still trying so hard (well most of them
The Seattle PI has an article about tonight’s match KC tries to get back on track, I hate to tell them if KC is off the track, we are probably looking for the train.
Always a light of optimism is the SL Trib, who offer us Goalie Shines, I love how their final line is “Goalie’s performance solid, wasted”
KansasCity.com provides us with a look at Scott Sealy Sealy keeps his head up
MLSnet.com warns Wizards wary of Real Salt Lake
A couple other notes,
Somewhere out there is the rumor that RSL is paying about 650,000 for our 3 new players from argentina, my sources (as they are) tell me that number is more than double the actual amount.
I also hear that at this point we are not really looking internationally for our DP, since that window closes in 48 hours. I do not expect RSL to sign a DP this season, but I do expect another trade within the league for a player from the Eastern conference who has voiced his displeasure with his current team (pay issues).
The Beckham vs. Marsh conflict takes another bite out of Chivas Goff reports that Zotinca is suspended for 3 additional matches
In listening to Jason on the coach’s radio show last night, he made some interesting points. He does see the improvements within the team, if you look at the effort and energy of our players now, and compare it to the pre-all star break matches, he is right. The problem is that it still is not producing the results we expect. One point that I will have to strongly disagree with him on is, he claimed last night that from the beginning he said this was a rebuilding process. I remember that during the 2nd week of his reign when I asked him on the weekly coach’s show if we had “backed off the goal and expectation that Dave Checketts had set to make the playoffs”, Jason smirked as he counted out 9 on his fingers and reminded me that to make the playoffs usually requires 32 points (I believe we had 5 at the time) and said it still was a goal. Well we have 12 points now and to get 20 more points would require that we get 6 wins and 2 ties out of our remaining 11 matches over half of which are on the road. Not even I am that optimistic.
Oh Frank, grow up.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
Goats and spilled milk (and other links)
August 28, 2007 by f4denz.
So for about 60 minutes, I thought I was watching just another RSL match. You know lifeless performances from Talley, Andy, and Richie, with others putting forth an average nights work, Robbie, Kirpre, Kyle, and new boy Fabian. A couple players seemed to put out that extra effort (you know what should be expected from professionals), I thought Atiba, Andy and Chris W. played well, and then there was the expected outstanding performance put in yet again by Nick Rimando (my vote for team MVP). But then we pulled out Robbie and put is Chris Brown, you know the guy who has lived all season on a couple lucky breaks, namely two goals against the Galaxy months ago, he has one other goal all season, the result is more of the same, uninspired play and no goals. Right around the 70th minute we make two more changes we take out Andy and bring in another RSL newbie Matias Mantilla, please remember we are down 1-0 at this point and we are taking out our attacking midfielder for someone listed as a defender, we also take out one of our strikers Fabian and replace him with Chris Lancos, another defensive player. I am asking myself, has Jason lost his mind? Oh wait we all already know the answer to that one, yes. But then about 5 minutes later we actually begin to play attacking football, is this out of pure desperation? Probably but why did we play a more aggressive, attacking style with 7 guys (8 if you include Rimando) who are basically defensive players, than we did when we had multiple strikers and our attacking midfielder in the match? I am left clueless but I would much rather watch our team with this very defensive lineup play (they actually attacked), then watch our offensive players simply be offensive to watch.
We did not get a point, or three, which at this point of the season are so badly needed if we want to shake the “worst season ever” tag that will be assigned to us quickly if things to do change soon. Too often we saw an attack die because not a single sole seemed to want to join in with the attack, here is a hint: rarely do we score on the first shot, it is the cleanup shot that often gets us on the scoreboard.
I am not sure where the root issue lies but I want one question answered: We traded a lot of players, brought in a lot of new faces, and we now sit with a DP slot and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cap room, and are we supposed to believe this is the best team we can put on the pitch? The international transfer window closes in under 72 hours, we have had months to search the world over for help and are Jason, Dave, and the RSL staff telling us that this is the best product they can offer us? If so, then they need a real shot of reality, cause to be honest, this product is not worth the price. How can you ask the fans to remain passionate about a team that lacks passion? How can you ask a team to remain passionate, when it appears that the ownership lacks passion? You can build a new stadium, but you better build a team first. This is a clear case of the glass being half empty.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
News and Links
Deseret News Links:
Kreis not happy with team’s desire Jason none of us are happy with the team’s desire.
RSL Blanked Again Almost eliminated from the playoffs, and people accuse me of being a optimist.
Other Links
More bench time for Freddy Wow so twice in 12 months Freddy goes to a team and the coach gets fired, and Freddy gets time on the bench.
Another RSL Loss, without ever hitting the pitch
August 24, 2007 by f4denz.
Today RSL lost to the Galaxy, without ever hitting the pitch. MLS held a lottery (worst team had best chance-Yes it was RSL) and yet we lost out again. The LA Galaxy will have the rights to 16 yr old Israel Sesay. I could not find anything official on the MLS site but Steve Goff has this posted on his Soccer Insider blog. Israel is a young forward that has been at the U-17 Residency Program, who signed with MLS earlier this week.
The weighted lottery favored RSL but, like so many other efforts we failed to finish and now LA will own the rights to another young player. Other players who have been part of a lottery vs. being drafted include; Robbie Rogers, Danny Szetela, Alex Yi, D.J. Countess, Nelson Akwari, Kyle Beckerman, and Gus Kartes. A couple of those names should look real familiar to RSL fans, some of these players have been hits, others have been total misses and some it still remains to be seen. Just another chance lost.
In other news,
It looks like Dallas will use its DP slot on former World Cup Champion Denilson ( link ). The question is with a week to go before the international transfer window closes will RSL use either its larger amount of cap room or DP slot this season?
Could the Galaxy look any worse, I know they have one more win than RSL this season and have pulled in some big international name (Pavon, Xavier, and Mr. Spice), but to be completely honest they look worse for it. After watching their defense really blow it against the Red Bulls, last night was another night capped by horrible defense. I am going to go out on a limb and predict that we pull 3 points on the road against them on September 1st. If we can pull a miracle out against the goats on Sunday, we could move up the table.
OFF MY SOAPBOX