Another Real Salt Lake disappointment
Well it takes just a second for a match to turn, in this case that second happened in the RSL box, when Maitas had his hand up and the ball hit it and Penalty Kick issued and converted. My fear that RSL would panic has happened, they look very rattled and you can tell these teams don’t like each other. RSL spent the last 10 minutes playing silly long balls over the top, instead of mounting a real attack, and Colorado bunkered down and simply repelled the attacks. Well at one down there was hope but the second goal was the back breaker as RSL got out shot 8-2, RSL simply did not have the attack down tonight and once again a team took advantage of RSL’s inability to stop attacks down the wings.
As much as it pains me to say it, the Rapids earned this win, they took better advantage of their offensive chances and Bouna made a couple decent saves. I had a bad feeling when RSL was forced to put Cutler into the line up, he is a decent player and when you have a lead he can clog up the middle but he isn’t the quality we need in the starting eleven. I would have put Dema into the holding mid role, and played Kyle and Matias out wide with Andy in the middle, that would have probably lead to more possession and a bit more offensive punch.
RSL now has a break until the 24th when they head to Dallas for a rematch against FC Dallas, which gives them 8 days to get a couple players healthy, and figure out how to get more offensive chances as well as how to finish them. I still think RSL has not figure out how to take advantage of Deuchar, he is working hard but we have to find a way to attack up the wings and cross the ball in, Kenny is a finisher but he has to get more touches on the ball in order to find his scoring touch and help RSL put more goals on the scoreboard.
I have to wonder what is going on in Colorado with their fans, this is the second match straight home match where there are as many empty seats as there are full ones with an announced crowd of over 11,000 but it sure looked more like 7-8,000 to me. A first place team, playing a hated rival, on national TV, not sure what it will take to bring the Rapid fans out.
My weekend predictions and previews for the other MLS matches will be coming late Friday.
This entry was posted on May 16, 2008 at 1:05 am and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.