Happy birthday, Mr. Findley
Well, we went from a Christmas in July with our performance against our two international foes, to a nail biting loss to New England (in part thanks to the lack of professional officials in MLS), to a birthday celebration victory over defending MLS Champion Houston.
It was an interesting match with some stars missing on both sides, Houston was without Mr. MLS Dwayne De Rosario, and RSL was missing both Esky and Andy Williams. RSL’s starting line up featured a set of Browns, but their performances were very different. Klye Brown put forth a solid effort and tried to use his speed to provide some offensive opportunities, and Chris Brown looked like the reserve of last year, who looked more like a brown stain on the pitch than he did a quality player. Incomplete passes, jogging on attacking runs, more turnovers that the rest of the lineup combined; all were part of Chris’s effort against the Creamsicles. He has lived too long off a couple lucky minutes in LA and a good shot against the Red Bulls.
Other than the Brown’s, RSL got solid efforts from Kipre, Sturgis, Pope, Beckerman, and Wingert; while Talley, and Kotschau put in half-hearted or at least half-efficient efforts. Nick Rimando, again proves why he is my choice for MVP of the team this year, and the birthday boy put in the goal of the match in the 84th minute. Thank you, Robbie Findley, you have been a breath of fresh air, for a team trapped in a funk.
I do have to say that the giant cardboard creamsicles were a real highlight of the night:
(photo stolen from Julia Fizer)
And for those who did not attend the match, the announced 13.000 attendance was overstated by probably 4-5,000, and most likely that drop is a direct result of the poor performance on the pitch. Even Carnival Real, was at less than 50% of capacity as it appears that many of the vendors and partners that fill the tents of the pre match entertainment are simply losing interest. That is too bad, it was a great match, a super result and for one of the new faces of RSL, one hell of a birthday.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
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