May 17, 2008 by f4denz.

TFC stand tall against the Crew

In what might be considered an upset Toronto and Columbus battled on a very windy day in Canada, the match was very chippy as the players were not afraid of physical play. Toronto controlled most of the possession and had more shots, and shots on goal, but the match also featured the very questionable officiating of Kevin Stott (RSL will remember him from the Galaxy match), who missed several calls and was very inconsistent in on many others. Columbus had a couple chances but truly TFC played a better match in what ended up as a 0-0 draw which when your facing the best team in MLS has to be considered a victory, if even just a moral one.

RSL News

Real vs. Rapids Reviews

Rapids emerge victorious in the ‘battle of the West’ merinews.com
REAL SALT Lake (RSL) and the Colorado Rapids (CR) played in the ‘battle for the West’ for first blood and a first place berth in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The match took place in Commerce City, Colorado, at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, on May 15, 2008. The match was played before 11,414 spectators.

Real Salt Lake blows chance to climb on top of conference race deseretnews.com
Three-quarters of the MLS season remains, but Real Salt Lake definitely missed a golden opportunity at putting its stamp on the Western Conference race Thursday night. Knowing that a victory would’ve pushed it to the top of the diluted Western Conference heap, RSL played an awful second half and the Colorado Rapids capitalized with a 2-0 victory at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Rapids double up RSL at home sportsnetwork.com
The Colorado Rapids claimed the top spot in the underwhelming Western table with a 2-0 home win over Rocky Mountain rivals Real Salt Lake on Thursday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Major League Soccer action. Omar Cummings and Christian Gomez scored in the second half to lead the home side to its fourth win of the season. With the two late tallies, the Rapids have scored 12 of their 13 goals this season after the break.

Bad News gets worse

Real Madrid pulls out of Aug. 9 visit to SLC sltrib.com

Real Madrid backs out of exhibition with RSL deseretnews.com

Official communication to fans from RSL President via Client Experience newsletter
Royal Club Members,

As Season Ticket holders, I wanted to personally communicate this message to you before it becomes public knowledge later today.

We have recently learned that Real Madrid has decided not to make their U.S. Tour this summer; instead they will be traveling to South America and Europe for pre-season.  Unfortunately, they will not be stopping in Salt Lake City as previously planned, but we are hopeful they will return here in 2009 to play in our new stadium. 

With this said, we are in final negotiations with a handful of first division European and Mexican clubs to play us in Salt Lake City this season.  Please know, we will continue our commitment to bring world class soccer clubs here to Utah as we have done in the past.  The bonus tickets that you hold in your package, as well as the Real Madrid ticket will be fulfilled with these future game announcements.

As an organization, RSL values your loyalty and we appreciate your continued support.  We look forward to an exciting MLS season and to another set of compelling international exhibitions.

Sincerely,

Bill Manning
President
Real Salt Lake

ON MY SOAPBOX
Coming off a commanding season in the Spanish league to claim another championship their 31^st, I am not really surprised that Real Madrid is chasing money versus keeping promises. How much does the Spanish organization really value the partnership deal they signed less than a year ago with SCP Worldwide (read about it here)? So what is the response of the RSL organization, to pack the stadium with fans of some Mexican teams that most RSL fans have little or no interest in seeing, I hope that they put forth a solid effort to get a better replacement than that. Here are a couple suggestions; Barcelona just signed a deal with MLS, how about them, West Ham United, as much as I really could care less about the hammers, they are a team with a huge worldwide following and besides what would be better than hearing “forever blowing bubbles” at RES, perhaps a revisit of the USMNT, what about Roma, Inter, or a team from Italey, how about this get us a DP who is either a incredible forward or a great attacking midfielder, and if you can’t do better than a couple teams from Mexico, how about allowing a $50 refund or $50 credit towards next year season tickets?

I am sure in the next few weeks and months that we will be offered a number of solutions, but I expect more in the way of excuses which would be a big step back in the progress the RSL front office has made in recent months. Add this to the impending debacle of the seat transfer process to the new stadium and not much could be worse for RSL, a team that continues to struggle on the pitch, and now a PR black eye that will be hard to cover up. There are a lot of options for Manning, Lagerwey, and Checketts, none of them are going to be cheap, none of them are going to be easy, too often the fans have been given the same lemons that the team is supplied with, this time fans deserve and should demand the very best lemonade money can buy.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

Posted in MLS Review | No Comments »

May 17, 2008 by f4denz.

Well I blew it by picking RSL to beat the CRapids, so let’s see how I do on the rest of the week 8 action.

King of the Mountain

So the Columbus Crew regained first place from Chicago by winning their matchup last weekend 3-2 over San Jose on the road, this week the Crew get the early match as they go to Canada to face TFC at hostile BMO Field. TFC has two wins and a draw in their last 3 matches all played north of the border, a stretch where they have only given up one goal on their home turf, while scoring 4. Columbus beat Toronto on opening day 2-0 in Crew Stadium, and the Crew have only one lost to go with their 6 wins, TFC started a little slow but a 3-2 win over the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center, and their current streak at home and they are one of the hottest teams in MLS. Toronto has added a lot of talent to their roster since the start of the season, most of it coming with a good dose of international flavor and experience; perhaps the two largest signings have been Lauren Robert (French International), and Amado Guevara (Honduran International) who have accounted for 3 of TFC’s 8 goals and 3 of their 4 assists on the season. I expect the rematch to be a tight contest, but picking against the Crew is just not smart at this point of the season, 3-1 Columbus.

On the road again

The Wizards started the season with four straight home matches (2-1-1) and looked to be a top team in the East, but they are in the middle of a six game road trip (1-2 so far) and have lost their last two matches, and have struggled to score goals of late, 2 goals in last 4 matches. They will be facing the Red Bulls, who have one of the best defenses in the league and have only given up five goals so far this season, only one of those was scored on them at home where they are 2-1-0. The Red Bulls have a number of injuries with Echeverry, Roth, and Stammler out, Leitch, Reyna, and Wolyniec listed as questionable, but with Angel getting his first goal of the season last week and the dangerous Altidore, they should be able to match up with the Wizards, leaving the boys from Kansas wishing their was someplace like home, Red Bulls 1- Wizards 0

Which Revolution team will show up?

New England has been one of the biggest mysteries of the 2008 season, they start with a 3-0 victory over reigning MLS champions Houston, and then get beat 4-0 by Chicago. They then go to KC and face off against the Wizards (who were 2-0) and beat them on a cold, wet, and windy night 3-1, followed by a 1-0 defeat to the Rapids, a tie at New York, a win at Dallas, another loss to Chicago, and last weeks victory over Chivas. Trying to figure out what team will show up for New England really is tough, but this week they are at home against a San Jose team that a few weeks ago looked much better than the average expansion team when they beat the Rapids 2-0 in Denver, and had a 0-0 draw against Dallas. The problem is that San Jose has only scored 4 goals so far this season, New England on the other hand have scored 10 goals, but the Rev’s will be without Taylor Twellman after his return to MLS action last week, but even without him New England should have little problem winning this one New England 2- San Jose 0.

Winless no longer

The defending champions finally picked up their first win of the season as the Dynamo beat Colorado 2-1 last weekend, with DeRo and Ching getting their first goals of the 2008 MLS season. The bad news is they are facing the second best team in MLS at home, the Chicago Fire have won 5 of their last 6 matches, to make matters even worse for the Dynamo who have struggled to score (their 7 goals come in 3 matches and they have 4 matches without a goal) will face by far the best defense in MLS. Chicago has only given up 3 goals, while scoring 13, so this one is really easy to pick Fire 2- Dynamo 0.

The mighty have fallen

Who in their right might would have picked the two top regular season teams from last year to be a combined 3-9-2 going into week eight of the MLS season? But then again who would have picked these teams to have some of the worst defenses in MLS (Chivas has given up 15 goals, and United has given up 14), and both teams have had their offensive struggles of late, in their last two matches Chivas have scored only one goal, but even worse is the goose egg that United have scored in their last two. Bad defenses, and bad offenses, this could be really boring but I am going to pick it to be a fairly exciting match as both team put two into the back of the net United 2- Chivas 2.

Which superstar will shine?

Landon has scored over half of LA’s goals (8 of 14), Beckham has been good (3 goals and 4 assists) for LA, but their 2-3-2 record is not what one would expect from a team with 3 players that qualify as DP’s. Kenny Cooper has scored over half of the goals that FC Dallas have this year (5 of 9), their keeper Dario Sala has been solid with a 1.00 GAA so far this season. So which team will see their stars shine, it is hard to say, both teams have faced RSL recently LA drew 2-2, while FCD lost 2-1, with all 3 goals coming from stars (2 for Beckham and 1 for Cooper), I have to say that it is likely that the stars will shine for both teams, but the Dallas defense will be the real star of this match, they have only given up 3 goals in their last five matches, Dallas 3- Galaxy 2.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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