June 23, 2008 by f4denz.

So RSL beats New England and the fanboys, the wagon jumpers, the fair weather fans all come out of the woodwork. Here is a sample of national and local coverage, some of it is the work of those mentioned above, and the local coverage continues to be pessimistic and negative.

RSL down road warrior Revs rsl.american-soccer-news.com
Real Salt Lake (5-5-4, 19 pts.) continued their impressive run of home domination; dispatching the New England Revolution (8-4-3, 26 pts.) 2-1 in a match that now place RSL in sole possession of second place in the Western Conference. With the win, RSL move to the .500 mark and continue their unbeaten streak at home for the season.

The Good, The Bad, The Coyote Ugly blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider
The Good
*RSL remaining unbeaten at the Rice-Eccles quarry (4-0-4), extending its unbeaten run to five and taking over second place in the West.
The Bad
*Jay Heaps’s own goal, the first by New England in four years.
The Coyote Ugly
*Confusion between Nick Rimando and Nat Borchers, leading to Cristman’s goal (reminiscent of the Gonzalo Peralta-Jose Carvallo mixup early this season).

MLS Weekend: Six Goals For A Point ussoccerplayers.typepad.com
The Crew and Galaxy hit each other up for three goals a piece and DC wins the first leg of their Sunday series. Meanwhile, Real Salt Lake make the weekend’s major statement.

SBI MLS Power Rankings Week 13 soccerbyives.net
Call it the Curse of the No. 1 spot. FC Dallas was once No. 1 in the SBI MLS Power Rankings, then the Hoops promptly fell apart. The Columbus Crew had it for a while, but eventually suffered a losing streak. Most recently the Chicago Fire grabbed the top spot and hasn’t won a match since.

Now you have New England, which moved into No. 1 last week only to promptly go 0-1-1 in a week where two wins were probably expected. Was that enough to knock the Revs off the top spot? Nope, not yet. With the Galaxy settling for a tie and the Chicago Fire freefalling, nobody was able to take advantage of New England’s tumble.

Two teams currently streaking up the standings are D.C. United and Real Salt Lake. D.C. is 4-0-1 in its past five while RSL, which just beat New England, is 3-0-1 in its past five. Not bad for two teams that were near the basement just a month ago. Now, both squads reside in the top half.

MLS Saturday Round-Up: Shoot-out in LA, Salt Lake Cruising goal.com
Landon Donovan scored twice on his return from international duty, but the Galaxy could only draw with Columbus. Meanwhile, RSL bested MLS leaders New England to extend their five-game unbeaten run, and New York earned a precious three points.

Real Salt Lake: surprising RSL holds off Revolution deseretnews.com
One of the only consistent things about Major League Soccer is its unpredictability. Three nights after Real Salt Lake battled to a scoreless draw against the worst team in MLS — a team playing with only 10 men no less — it seemed logical RSL might struggle against league-leading New England, a team on a seven-game unbeaten streak.
It’s funny how things don’t always unfold as expected, especially in soccer.
(funny how the local media need a negative sounding headline for a great RSL victory- the article is more fair than the headline)

SL Trib coverage from Saturday before the match
RSL squanders opportunities
Real Salt Lake just played back-to-back scoreless draws at home.   One hundred eighty minutes, 10,800 seconds, 43 shots, but no goals. Ugh.
(come on Steve, your discounting a great effort by Kevin Hartman and horrible calls by the officials against San Jose, your better than cheap shots)
Trib coverage from Sunday after the win
RSL sits alone in 2^nd place
When Real Salt Lake was shaking off another scoreless home draw against a last-place team a few nights ago, coach Jason Kreis insisted that even almost halfway through the Major League Soccer season, it was still too early to start checking the standings. He could be forgiven for indulging a peek now, though.
 For the first time since after the third game in franchise history - a span of 1,154 days - RSL is sitting higher than third place in the MLS Western Conference standings this morning, after its impressive 2-1 victory over league-leading New England in front of 11,965 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night.
(I really wonder what short of winning the MLS cup and having sold out games at the new stadium, it will take to get some level of supportive coverage from the local media, who would rather dedicated more coverage to potential Jazz draft picks or a couple Jazz players making the Olympic B-ball team, than a currently playing team in second place and on pace to have their best year as a franchise?)

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June 22, 2008 by f4denz.

Well we saw another night of firsts at RES last night, so lets do a look back at the match with some match highlights and then wrap up with a summary’

1^st ten minutes

Well the match starts with both teams looking for their chances, and the first real big chance of the match comes a couple minutes in as a set piece gets played into the box and Deuchar’s header goes off the pole and bounces out, and the rebound is played directly to Reis, but the nice thing is the attacking effort early in the match for RSL. It was followed quickly by another attack by Andy Williams, but the offside flag goes up and the play is over. As the restart comes from Matt Reis, the ball takes a high bounce towards the RSL goal and Nat Borchers and Nick Rimando have some communication problems and Cristman goes over the back of Borchers and heads the ball into the RSL net past the Rimando as he charges the ball. RSL is down 0-1 early in the match, but within minutes RSL gets a set piece and again it is played in well and the ball gets past Reis, it looks like it went off a New England defender to tie the score 1-1.

RSL keeps attacking and a shot just goes wide off a Rev player, and RSL gets a corner kick but this one doesn’t pose a threat, but despite the early mistake on defense RSL is dominating this match early and putting a lot of attacking pressure on New England.

2^nd ten minutes

I have been very impressed with the early effort of RSL, very good attacking effort and keeping the majority of play on the New England half of the pitch. A very high energy RSL appear to want to ensure a much better result at home than the last two draws. Nice to see some very nice passing from RSL, a lot of first touch passes and while a few have gone astray, it has allowed RSL to really keep possession and dictate the pace of the match, both things that will play to RSL’s favor. It is clear that RSL is taking advantage of fact that New England is without Shalrie Joseph, but the Revs are working hard and Nyassi is putting in a good effort that creates some opportunities. A yellow card to Jay Heaps, who the announcer says is too slow to get out of the way, funny but the card is still issued, and the RSL effort from the set piece that results in a fairly weak effort on goal after the header by Beckerman, but a good ideas.

3^rd ten minutes

Well the frantic pace of the match has slowed down a little bit but RSL is still continuing to control the pace of the match and the majority of the possession. Dube goes down to get some attention and all the players take advantage to get a drink on a very hot night, the temp at the start was 97 degrees and while this was a 7:30 pm start the temp has been slow to go down. A great ball played into the box and Kenny goes up with Matt and the ball plays out of bounds but nice to see him not back down and go full effort for the ball. Nyassi goes down easy on a light tap, what a wimp, give the Rev’s a free kick that goes into the box and the header by Albright goes wide and poses no threat. RSL counters and wins a quick corner kick off their attack, and it is played wide to Dema who takes a shot but it is wide and results in a NE goal kick.

Last 15 of the first half

Well the last 15 minutes of the first half start with a corner kick by New England, but nothing comes of it as the RSL defense appears to have gotten their confidence is back after the early miscue. Not sure how Borchers got away with the hip check, but the Revolution appears to have found some energy and have kept the ball in the RSL half of the pitch for the last 4-5 minutes. Another NE corner kick is headed out and Nyassi tries a short from 30 yards out, that sails over the south stands and out to the concourse. Another attack from New England on a great ball played by Dube to Nyassi, results in a cracker shot that Rimando makes a great save on and prevents what should have been a goal. RSL is finally getting some possession in the Rev half of the pitch, but a counter by New England and a dive by Nyassi who goes down easily again. A collision at midfield involving Findley has him down on the pitch and moving very slowly, not sure who the other person in the collision was, but Robbie looks a little glassy eyed as he comes off the pitch. Tino Nunez is warming up as the staff evaluates Robbie after the clash with Nyassi, interesting how he falls down when anyone touches him, but had no problem knocking heads with people. Nunez comes in for Robbie who I believe was diagnosed with a mild concussion resulting from the incident. Both sides seem to be slowing down as the end of the half looms close and in this heat and with the pace set early in the match everyone appears ready for some Gatorade and orange slices. RSL is still trying to create some offensive chances, while the Rev’s are looking for more long ball counters, but neither side is looking very threatening right now. A hard foul on Dema has him down on the pitch after Larentowicz commits the foul, but more important than the free kick is Dema limping off the pitch. Morales lines up to take the shot, a good shot and a nice save by Reis, as Dema is still on the sideline getting some treatment, and the 4^th official says 4 minutes of stoppage time. The play is getting a bit chippy on both sides as the first half comes to a close.

2^nd half

Well the first half was dominated by RSL for the most part, while New England had more shots, RSL had 5 on goal to the Rev’s 4, but it was the defensive miscue that let New England get on the scoreboard first and they returned the favor with a own goal, but possession and play were truly dominated by RSL.

1^st ten of second half

Much like the first half RSL is coming out and controlling the possession and having the better attacking efforts and a good ball played in by Andy is just a bit long for Beltran who was making a run into the box, but so far almost all the action has been in the NE half of the pitch, with the occasional Rev counter attack. A ball into the box and Kenny’s header is not strong enough to get past Reis, who makes the save. Well Andy took another one of those huge shots from distance that went high and wide but it makes you respect the cannon that Andy can use to put some strong shots on goal from just about anywhere. The RSL defense is really stopping any type of attack that NE can muster, while having the majority of possession and attacking chances, and the camera guy gets a great shot of the RCB’s giant chicken (yeah I know you really wanted me to say it the other way, but PG-13 on Sunday). Wow Beltran busts his butt to get the ball back in the box; Kenny tries a Bicycle but fails. Now another chance for RSL on a ball gets loose in the box and Tino Nunez puts the ball into the back of the net for his first MLS goal. RSL is now up 2-1.

2^nd ten of second half

As time moves forward in the match, RSL is slowing the pace and New England is not doing much to pick the pace up and when the Rev’s do get a chance they either put it wide or the RSL defense is quick to regain possession of the ball. It looks a bit like RSL is bunkering in to protect the lead, I wonder if this is more due to players being tired from the heat or a deliberate attempt to get some rest, but NE is starting to look more aggressive than they have at any other time in the match. Rimando is there to make another save, but RSL needs to get back in charge of the possession battle or their lead may not last for long.

3^rd ten of the second half

In the 71^st minute RSL brings in Kenny “Ginger Ninja” Cutler for Kenny “no goals tonight” Deuchar, who once again was one of the hardest working guys on the pitch both in offense and defense, can’t wait for him to catch fire on the scoring front. A good shot by Andy forces Reis to punch the ball over the top of the goal and out of play, giving RSL a corner kick which drops in the box but the Rev’s get it back and drive it out of bounds but back to RSL on the throw in. Well the majority of play is in the middle of the pitch, and that is allowing the Rev’s to press forward a bit more as the match gets close to the last 15 minutes.

Last 15 minutes

RSL seems to have gotten a bit of energy again, and a shot by Beckerman required a save by Reis and was followed by an effort from Andy Williams, getting RSL another corner kick but a bad ball from Morales goes over everyone. RSL continues to try and maintain the possession of the ball, which is limiting the attacks by New England, but RSL doesn’t look like they are much interested in adding another goal as much as they are trying to protect their lead. This is something a month ago in Dallas cost RSL a match, but the defense is much improved in the past few weeks and only the miscue earlier in the match has broken what was a 3 game clean sheet. RSL counters with an attack by Williams, Nunez, and Beckerman that results in a shot just wide, and then a second effort by Nunez that should have resulted in a shot. A foul by the Rev’s give RSL a free kick from just outside the box driven in but cleared out to the far end of the pitch. With just over 5 minutes left RSL pulls Andy Williams and brings on Matias Cordoba who has looked much better in recent weeks. RSL is doing their best to eat up as much of the remaining minutes of the clock as possible, a lot of long balls and balls back to Rimando, all in an effort to secure a much needed home win after two straight draws. The Rev’s have had their fair share of chances in the second half, but a solid effort by the whole RSL team on defense and good recovery by both Borchers and Rimando after the early mistake, has protected the lead. As the clock hits 90:00 it is clear that New England is simply out of steam as their efforts to get into the attack seem very half hearted, and RSL continues to attack as Cordoba just misses putting up a third goal for RSL. That is it, RSL wins 2-1 on another night of firsts.

Summary

A very solid effort for RSL against the Eastern Conference leaders, despite the Rev’s missing a number of players for various reasons they are still a very solid side and have done well when missing players all season long. Despite a early mistake that lead to a quick New England goal, RSL did not get too consumed by the mistake and just a few minutes later evened the match on a set piece that was counted as a own goal by Jay Heaps. RSL dominated possession for long stretches of the match, and in the end had more shots 19 to 14, more shots on goal 8 to 5, and ended up with a 2-1 victory, in a match that had a number of firsts. Our first win over New England at RES, our first 5 game unbeaten streak, Tino Nunez’s first MLS goal, and RSL set their team record by extending their shutout streak to 283 minutes.

RSL is doing the job at home and after last weekend’s road win over Chivas, RSL gets another chance to pick up some road points as they head to the baseball stadium that the Wizards call home. The Wiz will be without Roger Espindoza, but they will have Selena Gomez (star of the Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place’), we know the last time these teams faced off it was only the superhuman efforts of Kevin Hartman that prevented a RSL victory. It should be a good match and chance for 3 more points.

RSL will sit in second place in the Western Conference standings until at least Thursday, when Houston and Dallas will face off, Houston is only one point behind RSL and Dallas trails by three points. A good result in the next 4 matches before the All Star break will go a long way in if RSL makes the playoffs and how long they can stay closer to the top of the standing, as opposed to the bottom.

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June 21, 2008 by f4denz.

Unbeaten in 7 visit unbeaten at home

Well unless we get another tie, one of these streaks is going to be broken. During the 7 game unbeaten streak by New England they have scored in every match, and RSL have not given up a goal in their last 3 matches and only 1 late minute goal against San Jose back on May 31^st in the RSL four game unbeaten streak. Both teams are coming of matches on Wednesday, in which both teams got draws as well. So can RSL do something they have never done before and get a win over New England at RES? It will be a tough challenge against a New England side that is 5-1-1 on the road and looking to extend their lead in the Eastern Conference. A win for RSL and they could move as high as second place in the Western Conference race, depending on the result from the Colorado vs. Houston matchup.

Kings of the East

Well it seems every year that either DC United or New England are at the top of the Eastern Conference, this year is no different as United have struggled New England has excelled despite a number of injuries and missing a lot of players for national team duty. The team that has represented the East in the last two MLS Cups will be missing some players during their visit to Rice-Eccles Stadium, Shalrie Joseph, Khano Smith, and Kenny Mansally will be gone on national team duty. The injury bug continues to hamper Taylor Twellman who along with Castro and Valentino are doubtful, while Cristman, and Parkhurst are probable but nursing injuries. I think the biggest threat to RSL will come from Nyassi and Dube working together up the sides in attack, something that RSL was very susceptible to earlier in the season.

RSL looking for offense

Three weeks ago Robbie Findley came on for an injured Espindola against San Jose, and RSL was able to put three goals on the scoreboard in a convincing victory. The next week RSL got shut out by a world class effort by Kevin Hartman as they got a 0-0 draw at home against the Wizards, then last weekend in a match filled with firsts RSL picked up a victory over Chivas on the road on a goal by Robbie Findley. A midweek battle against San Jose saw RSL take 24 shots, but a couple questionable calls went against RSL and another 0-0 draw at home. So while the RSL defense has helped Nick Rimando get three straight clean sheets, only one of those resulted in a victory, so everyone is waiting for the RSL offense to step up. Some good news is that Yura Movsisyan should be available to be play, and Andy Williams is back from his stint with the Jamaican national team. RSL will still be without Espindola’s offensive abilities, and Nathan Sturgis is still out as he tries to recover from a nagging hamstring injury.

I keep waiting for Deuchar’s efforts to pay off; he is working hard both in the attacking third as well as the rest of the pitch. A couple times his touch has let him down in when he had great chances, but more often it has been the failure of RSL to get quality balls into the box from either crosses or set pieces. I think RSL is still struggling with how to play with a true target player in the box; we have always had players who run into attacking position vs. a stand up attacker. I do think we have seen RSL trying to do better on set pieces, as we often can move 3 great targets into the box with Borchers and Olave moving forward to offer more attacking options.

The RSL defense has been massive, limiting San Jose to 7 shots and only one on goal, limiting Chivas to 8 shots with 4 on goal, KC got off only 7 shots, during their current clean sheet run. The efforts of Olave and Borchers in the middle of the defense and continued solid play from both WIngert and Beltran on the outside, both have made it easy for Rimando to improve on his GAA which is now down to 1.31.

It will really be up to the offense to offer the scoring support that will allow the defensive efforts result in a win against a very tough foe.

The wildcard

As much as I hate to be doom and gloom, I fear that RSL may suffer a third match impacted by the officials in a negative way, as this weekend we will have to deal with Kevin Stott (of the horrible LA match at the beginning of May). I can only hope that he remembers the screw job he did on RSL then and will be looking to keep himself out of the match. I have watched a number of other matches in which Stott has been the head official and more often than not he has made wrong decisions and improper calls that have impacted the results of the match. Perhaps we will get lucky and he will get some bad shellfish or something else to keep him from being able to officiate the match.

I am going to go out on a limb and predict that RSL will score, but so will New England; this one will be a 1-1 draw against the best team in MLS this year (so far). Yes I think we will have a chance to win the match but a poor call will prevent RSL from getting the win.

GAME GUIDE

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June 19, 2008 by f4denz.

So I will post a more complete review of the 0-0 draw with San Jose later today after I have time to watch the match on TV, but I can tell you a couple very basic facts.

Squandered

With 24 shots and 4 on goal, we simply have little excuse for not getting 3 points at home. We allowed San Jose to push players forward in the first half (much like Chivas did in the 2^nd half last weekend), and our play suffered. When Hernandez got his second yellow card in the 44^th minute of the match San Jose responded by pulling their players back a bit and this provided RSL with a perfect chance to get a couple goals in the second half and pick up 3 points at home.

Spoiled

There is nothing worse than when a goal is scored and put up on the board, that the officials take the goal off the scoreboard. I will say it did appear the Kyle may have been a foot or two offside, but to be really honest I am not sure how either official would have felt comfortable making that call since both of their views were obstructed by players in the box. It surely did spoil a RSL celebration.

Stolen

So the spoiled goal was bad, but two things were worse for me last night. First a great shot that went of the post of the goal, not exactly stolen but close enough to get me upset. Second, and much more importantly was the obvious tackle of Kyle Beckerman in the box when he had the ball in a scoring position. When the official blew his whistle and went and stood on the penalty spot everyone expect the right call had been made, but for some unknown reason Jasen Anno made the wrong call and pointed for a goal kick.

I understand that this was only the 4^th MLS match that Jasen was the head official in, and to be honest it should be the last one. Far too many missed calls, handballs that were clearly seen in the stands were missed by the officials on the pitch, I thought the worst official in MLS this year was Kevin Stott, but Jasen is giving him a run for his money.

While even MLS officials reviewing the match against LA and admitting that wrong calls impacted the outcome of the match, I am sure that this match will also be reviewed and the performance of the officials will once again have impacted the outcome of the match. Both of these matches would have given RSL 4 additional points, and in the west that is the difference between 3^rd and 1^st.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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June 17, 2008 by f4denz.

Two teams warming up

So San Jose is 2-2-0 in their last 4 matches, impressive for an expansion team. Even more so when you consider they are one of only two teams to beat Columbus at Crew Stadium, and then a victory over two time defending MLS Champions Houston as the Dynamo visited their old home town. But wait RSL is 2-1-1 in their last four and coming off their first road win of the season and their first ever win over Chivas at the Home Depot Center. So this rematch of just a few weeks ago could be more closely contested than the last time, but I don’t think much more.

Your team is a natural disaster

The Eathquakes are coming off a beat down by LA in front of almost 40,000 people last weekend in a match played in Oakland, it was a very one sided match in which Edson Buddle was too much for San Jose’s defense to handle as Buddle got his second hat trick of the season. San Jose still have the worst offense in the MLS this season scoring only 9 goals while their defense has only given up 17 goals tied with RSL for best defense in the West.

There are still a number of injuries affecting the Quakes lineup, Ayres, Glinton, Philippe, and Garcia are all either out or doubtful. Jovan Kirovski is questionable, and Kamara is still on national team duty. Also affecting how they will play is Corrales being one yellow card away from suspension, so possibly 1/3 of their limited scoring punch could be removed from playing. They do get Ivan Guerrero back from international duty, but still have to play Ryan Johnson out of position at forward, since I guess that there is little confidence in Smarte. The defense of the Quakes did well against the Crew, earning their keeper a clean sheet, but in their last 3 matches they have given up 6 goals while only scoring 3.

Who are these guys

I think this is the most appropriate chant I have heard in a couple years, the answer is also appropriate “They’re RSL”. RSL is still undefeated at RES, they have a three game unbeaten streak going on, they have their first road win (over the goats is almost as good as a win over the crapids) and the defense appears to finally be giving Nick Rimando the support he is worthy of. Our defense is now tied for best in the West with San Jose having allowed just 17 goals in 12 matches, but the recent form is even better allowing only 1 goal in the last 3 matches while scoring 4. A big part of the recent improvement in defense is the play of Jamison Olave, who finally appears to understand what role coach Kreis wants him to play, a challenge for a player used to a very different system and with very limited English.

RSL will be without some players who have shown that they can make a huge impact, out with injuries will be Sturgis, who is still dealing with the hamstring injury (which was more serious than first expected), still out is Fabian Espindola whose knee injury is not a structural injury is a very painful injury and is proving hard to recover from even for the tough player from Argentina. When Yura Movsisyan came out late in the match versus Chivas on Saturday it was due to a reinjured knee, it will keep him out for Wednesday but he should be available for Saturday. RSL will also be without backup keeper Chris Seitz who is on national team duty for the US, and Andy Williams is still with the Jamaican national team.

We should see more of Cordoba after what was a good first half last weekend, hopefully his improvement will be similar to that of Olave on defense, if so we should see our midfield continue to improve as the season move along. I like the way Dema plays at D-mid, he is one tough customer in front of our back line, and we know he has a cannon to use on long range shots. I am also expecting some more highlights from Robbie Findley, he was able to use San Jose to re-establish his place on the starting eleven, and hopefully this will see him continue to thrive against them. Even if San Jose tightens their coverage on Robbie, they don’t have an answer for Kenny. Last match they simply committed a ton of fouls against him, and the shame is that the officials didn’t call a lot of them. I expect some good balls played in to Deuchar, as he also has been slow to adjust to MLS, but as we have gotten him better chances he has looked very threatening.

The streak continues

Listen San Jose is an interesting team, you never know what squad will show up or how they will play, but too little has changed in 18 days and RSL is playing better each week. I expect a better match, but I think RSL will prove to be too much once again for San Jose to handle; this one will end up 2-1 with RSL controlling the match, but a much improved overall effort from San Jose. This will give RSL sole possession of second place in the Western Conference going into this weekends action.

GAME GUIDE

OFF MY SOAPBOX

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