April 29, 2008 by f4denz.

A change is coming,

So the weather in Salt Lake on Tuesday was the mid 70’s and breezy, RSL got beat down 4-1 in DC, San Jose got beat 2-0 in NYC, but Wednesday will bring a change, in at least two of those things. See the weather is going to change a high of 47 and a 30% chance of rain or snow (see NOAA for more details), and there will be a winner in the match on Wednesday. The MLS has 8 automatic berths into the LHUSOC tournament, and two additional slots are available for the other teams to compete for, so there must be a winner on the 30^th to see who will move to the next step in trying to grab one of those slots. As of this posting there is no official game guide out yet for this match but RSL and San Jose have articles about the matches, just use the links to read the articles.

So this should be an interesting match to say the least San Jose have not looked at all like a typical (RSL) expansion team, and much of the credit for that could go to coach Frank Yallop, who may know the league as well as anyone out there. San Jose has only scored 2 goals in their 4 MLS matches this year, but for their scoring woes, their defense have only allowed 5 goals into the back of the net, in part due to their multi time all star keeper Joe Cannon. RSL has struggled on the road the last two weeks, but should fare better at home, and if history is any indication last year in their first play in game, they won an ugly match against KC. The weather will be much closer to last years match as well, which was 37 and snowing, nothing funnier than watching the second match that night as the Fiji national team saw the orange ball for what must have been the first time in many players lives. Last year RSL got the winner in extra time as Andy Williams scored in the 109^th minute to give us a 2-1 lead that held up as the final score.

I would not be at all surprised if we end up going to extra time again, as both teams will probably start line ups mixed with starters and bench players. For RSL it sounds like Talley will be out and Williams in (given his performance in prior LHUSOC matches, this could be a good omen), it also sounds like Beltran will get a start for either Joy or Mantilla, who both are nursing injuries. San Jose will not play O’Brien, but new forward Peguero Jean Philippe is expected to see action on Wednesday. I like a 1-1 regular time score line, and then a RSL goal in extra time, I am hoping that we will get our first chance to see Tino Nunez in a first team role.

Blog and News Update

MLS Weekend: The Donovan Show ussoccerplayers.typepad.com
On yet another big night in Carson, it was Landon Donovan making himself the difference against co-tenants Chivas USA.  Also, DC United gets the calls and finds their form against Real Salt Lake.

The Good, The Bad, The Coyote Ugly MLS Week 5 blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/
*Five Saturday matches averaged nearly 20,000 spectators. And then there was the one Sunday game in the Swamp (see The Coyote Ugly).
*Landon Donovan’s hat trick, increasing his league-best goals total to eight.
*The past three No. 1 overall draft picks — Marvell Wynne (2006), Maurice Edu (’07) and Chance Myers (’08) — played 90 minutes in the same match at Toronto.

Garber discusses Soccer Specific Solutions goal.blogs.nytimes.com (don’t miss the audio links on the left hand side of the page)
The commissioner of Major League Soccer is no longer concerned about the league’s survival. Don Garber is instead focused on finding soccer-specific solutions to the next set of challenges facing the 13-year-old league.

Turnabout is fair play: DC United crushes RSL deseretnews.com
Carey Talley hobbled through the Real Salt Lake dressing room with an ice pack on his right knee, thanks in part to a collision early in Saturday’s game with a D.C. United player. But the pain was more severe in his words and expression following a 4-1 loss to United before 23,269 fans. Two weeks ago, Real beat United 4-0 in Utah. But Saturday they fell to 1-3-1 while United improved to 2-3-0.

Stadium Update James Edward’s blog deseretnews.com/blogs
I swung by RSL’s Sandy stadium late Monday afternoon to get a quick update about the construction progress, and I thought I’d relay some information. I spoke with Elliott from Icon Construction and he informed me that the project is about 65 to 67 percent done. It’s been about a month since I’ve visited the stadium, and the progress is incredible.

Update from RSL FO via Fan Experience email
Tomorrow Wednesday, April 30, vs. S.J. Earthquakes   7:00 p.m. Kickoff 
LHUSOC Open Cup Qualifier; Winner plays @ Columbus
Carnival Real begins at 6:00 p.m. 
Item of the Game: Cinch Sack

Special Green Kits will be worn by RSL to commemorate our Green Initiatives and to celebrate Earth Day 2008! Availability of these special green kits for purchase is limited so call us at (801) 924-8585 or come by our front office at 515 S. 700 E. Suite 2R Salt Lake City, UT 84102

That is all for now, OFF MY SOAPBOX see you at RES

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April 28, 2008 by f4denz.

If you are a fan, a supporter, or just a casual observer of Real Salt Lake, then you know disappointment, we have three years of it, tonight was an example of many things that have gone wrong in the last few years, but I offer no excuses, I will assign some blame (after watching the match live and then watching it again this morning to ensure that what I think I saw is really what I saw.

Well, where to start is really the question, so at least unlike last week we did not drop into a shell, but rather came out and tried to make a fight of it. Dema’s hand in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a PK makes it 1-0 DC United. I can not blame Dema too much, it did not appear that it was intentional, but rather human nature to as he was sliding to drive the ball away to extend his hand to try to balance. Would the ball lead to a goal, who knows but we know that Moreno doesn’t miss many PK’s and this one he put into the back of the net without too much problem. The first half was an interesting half as DC United made two changes, first to take out an injured Fred in the 22^nd minute and then in the 41^st minute Dan Stratford (a decent effort from a guy picked in the 2^nd round of the supplemental draft this year). RSL really controlled the first 10-12 minutes, but the rest of the first half was much more even but DC got the better chances on goal, RSL had a couple shots on goal a free kick by Morales forcing Wells to make the save and then another Morales shot off a glancing header from Deuchar which again forced a great save by Wells. The half ended with a score of 1-0, but DC United had a much more attacking lineup in their midfield and on the other side RSL’s midfield was a very defensive midfield with Beckerman, Talley, and Kovalenko all more defensive minded and skilled players, and Morales the only real attacking force in the RSL midfield. This line up would come to haunt RSL in the second half as DC United would continue to attack up the sides and work around the clogged middle of the pitch.

Only five minutes into the second half and Moreno (not the quickest guy on the pitch) divides the RSL back line which had moved up to support an attack, he made a great pass to Emilio, who on the edge of the box was being driven out of position by Wingert with Borchers in support, when Talley slide in and fouled him from behind. There really was no need to create a 90-100% scoring chance from a PK, vs. 20% or less from the actual attack. The result was a 2-0 lead for DC United, RSL pushed back with attacking play and had a couple good attempts, but no results other than a foul outside of the box, which is interesting because just minutes before the DC announcers mention that a foul that continues into the box is a PK, but in minute 57 when that happens to RSL, no PK but rather a free kick.

Just before the free kick with the score 2-0 and RSL attacks getting no results, Jason made a couple changes to add some more pop to the attack. I think the idea was great but I didn’t like the changes, pulling Joy and expecting Talley to pick up the slack on the outside attacks (something DCU had done all match) was a mistake, I would have pulled Talley instead of Joy and still brought in Williams. I also would have considered bringing in Tino Nunez instead of Movsisyan, Nunez showed some great skills a couple weeks ago in a reserve match and Yura looked like he was just going through the motions, if we are going to reward effort in training and reserve matches, than Tino deserved his shot. Pulling Joy allowed DC United to get the ball wide a number of times after the changes and twice is cost RSL a goal. I could see that we had no one covering the wide side of the goal, and even after United burned us with a goal by Santino Quaranta in the 67^th minute, we did not cover the space on the side and in the 80^th minute Gallardo made us pay again. In between those two defensive collapses RSL did manage to get a goal, Talley chested a ball into the net off a corner kick and a deflection.

Now before people start thinking I am just bashing, let me tell you a couple things I was impressed or at least satisfied with, first Olave, while he may be a big physical brute and while he may have been caught out of position a couple times, he recovered well and brought a strong physical presence to go along side Nat Borchers. I also love the energy and grit of Dema Kovalenko, he is a bulldog on the pitch and was all over the place in the midfield, up the edges in attack, and on defense when needed, when you play against him, you know you were in a battle.

One major issue I saw was that after about the 20^th minute we really slowed our attack of the ball in the midfield, we let a team that to be honest has more talent than we do, have time to relax on the ball and think out their next moves. We have to attack the ball from the minute it leaves the opposing third, we have the physical ability and fitness to drive teams into the ground, if you looked at the expression on several United players toward the final 10-15 minutes they were beat, and we should have been able to take advantage of that, pulling Beckerman (who had an off match- really it was the way United played him more than him doing anything wrong) for Tony Beltran after the 3^rd United goal to shore up the defense again was the wrong move, Beckerman forced DC to account for him no matter if he was in attack or covering defensively, why leave Talley on the pitch, he had done nothing up to that point?

I am not sure if we really were trying to play 3 in the back, or if Talley was supposed to move to the back line, or if Borchers was meant to cover the side, but communication was not there and there were several times that RSL was simply lucky that DC United did not take advantage of that open side. If Talley is the captain of the team, he has to be responsible to ensure people are in the right place and be the coach on the pitch, be the leader. It really appeared that Wingert moved up into the midfield, that Olave moved to one side, Talley took the middle and Borchers took the other side, whatever the intent was the performance was not there.

OK, after power failures, lost usb drives, and all the issues involved in getting this one done, I am still angry, and disappointed in the performance of RSL, we did not attack when we should have, our passes were questionable for a majority of the night, and too many players seemed to be playing for themselves more than for the team. That is not typical of Jason’s lineup, and let’s hope we do not see that type of behavior again.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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April 28, 2008 by f4denz.

I am sorry that my match summary isn’t up yet, I was about 80% done last night when a power outage occurred and I lost the ability to save and post what I had been working on. I will finish my post at lunch today and post it as quickly as I can.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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April 27, 2008 by f4denz.

So I will get to the RSL vs. DCU match a bit later, I want to watch it again and see if I am still as angry and disappointed after seeing it again. So let’s start with the match of the weekend.

SuperClasico

Wow talk about a match that had it all, it looked like a typical match up of the LA based teams 1-1 at the half with goals by Landycakes and Sasha, but all that changed in minute 59 and the remainder of the match was equal to the hype of the LA Galaxy in preseason. The Galaxy showed that when their attack is in form, that you better have a very solid defense or it will get out of hand in a hurry. It started with Landy’s second goal of the night and then just 3 minutes later in the 62^nd Razov answered to tie it at 2-2, things then clamed down and it looked like a typical MLS match would go to the record book as a draw, but then the Galaxy simply exploded and put 3 more goals into the back of the net in a span of just over 8 minutes. Alan Gordon put one in, then Donovan got his hat trick a minute later, and then in the 84^th minute was the exact attack that the Galaxy had been hoping for when they brought Beckham to MLS, a three player attack with the ball going from Beckham to Landycakes in the box, but without a real shot he puts the ball at the feet of Gordon who closes out the scoring. Chivas didn’t look horrible, but LA did look that much better and finished their attacks. After each of Galaxy goals, Chivas did attack and try to quickly counter and twice their shots were within a foot of goal but, a foot the wrong way meant that the Galaxy put this one away 5-2.

Toronto wins again

If anyone had been talking about Toronto having 3 wins in their first five matches, when they only had six wins in all of 2007, you would have thought they were crazy. But, Toronto has changed, the players they have brought in since week two have made a huge impact, we saw it last week as Robert got the game winner on a set piece, and this week both Toronto goals were scored by Amado Guevara. While KC remains a point above TFC in the table, there is no question that in this match TFC was the better team.

The Crew keep on working

I am not sure if it is magic, or if the team with a workman as their logo is simply working harder than anyone else, but as week 5 comes to an end, the Crew are the best team in MLS with 4 wins and only one loss. They have beat Chivas, Houston, DC United, and TFC, their only loss has come on the road against the Red Bulls, their 12 points are enough to give them a two point cushion over New England, KC, and Chicago. This win came with a little bit of controversy, as the Dynamo blow it on a set piece and an offside call pull a goal off the scoreboard in the 13^th minute, as the issues continue for the former MLS champions. Houston has struggled to score goals and if you take away their 3 goals against Dallas, they have only scored two goals in their other four matches. It sure had some strange moments like the scrum on the goal line as Columbus kept the ball out of their own goal in minute 35, talk about strange. Both teams had a good number of scoring chances in the match, but goals were far and few between in this match, with only one goal a 22^nd minute shot by Alejandro Moreno making the difference as the Crew win 1-0.

The matches that no one saw

So the MLS in their attempt to do something, no clue what have allowed matches to be exclusive to HDNET (which holds about 10% of the cable HD market- which is about 1% of all actual HD programming) so I can offer nothing more than a score line for the Fire vs. Rapids 2-1 (play by play – from MLS website). Slightly better than not being able to see the HDNET exclusives is having to watch a horrible quality signal on Telefutura (what will they do when they have to broadcast in digital?), I actually enjoy the Spanish commentary, despite knowing very little Spanish, but the picture quality is so bad that even the graphics look horrible. I was able to see enough to know that the Earthquakes held their own against the Red Bulls, as both teams really did seem to be balanced on the pitch. Of course had New York been able to play injured Juan Pablo Angel, it most likely would have been a different matter, but injuries happen and the result is that both teams struggled for offensive chances. 78 scoreless minutes were broken by a PK, and then as the clock was winding down a goal from Jozy in the 94^th minute to end the match at 2-0 for the Red Bulls.

Week 5 is over and the East appears dominant

This week saw 5 matches of East vs. West and in every single one of them the East got a win, the only team from the West to win was the LA Galaxy, who faced fellow Western Conference side Chivas. FC Dallas the best team in the West would be in 6^th place in the East, and no team in the West has more than two wins in the first 5 weeks of the season. It is still early in the season but this weekends results showed that as of week 5 in the MLS, the East is simply dominating the West, and the worst team in the East is DC United, the team that ended 2007 by winning the supporter’s shield for best record in the league. It could be a long spring and summer for all the teams of the Western Conference unless something changes. The next time there will be 5 matches between the East and West on one weekend will be the end of June, let’s hope it is not a clean sweep again.   Just a final note, my predictions were right in 4 matches, and an exact score pick in the 2-0 New York win over San Jose.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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April 26, 2008 by f4denz.

Match Results

OK in the interest of fair disclosure, I had a minor technical glitch on the first match (ran out of disc space on my camera), so I had to replay the match. The first match ended in a 1-1 draw, interestingly enough DC United scored on a ball that Joy failed to clear and Simms put in the back of the net in the 92^nd minute. Tell me that doesn’t sound familiar.

So the second match can be seen at the link below (I know it is not the greatest quality), but it will have to do for now. The end result of the second match is a 2-0 win for RSL; the video is mpeg4, so you can watch with QuickTime, your ipod, or Zune.

http://roguecavaliers.com/DCUvsRSL.mp4 (if you want to download it, right click, if not it will open but takes a while)

I hope you enjoy it all.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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