Real Salt Lake vs. Santos live blog

Prematch, well nothing special except very empty stands with 5 minutes to go before the match, it looks like RSL has all their starters warming up. Santos appears to have about 8 players warming up, perhaps they already went in to get ready for the match. I will try to post every 5-10 minutes during the match, but I think I have to find a better place to sit.

Kick off

Well for RSL it is a mainly reserve starting line-up it looks like Seitz, Wingert, Dema, Mantilla, Morales, Nunez, Kirby, Beckerman, horst, nimo, and Yura for RSL.

Sanchez, Ortiz, Estrada, Figueroa, mares, arce, Castillo, torress, Rodriguez, Herrera, peralta, for Santos

A early counter by Santos, but the shot goes wide of the goal. I think there are a good number of starters in the Santos line up, another break, but the turf monster jumps up and tackles the player. A foul at the 20 yard line gives a free kick but it is played out of bounds.

RSL is having issues getting the ball out of their end of the pitch, finally RSL is getting a little possession, but no real threats on offense so far. Seitz has made an easy save, and pushed another one out of bounds. I like the guy with orange shoes for Santos, much better than the guy with yellow ones.

10 minutes

So far Santos has been the better side, but that is to be expected since they are playing more starters than RSL. So far RSL has not been able to find Nimo. Well it was just a matter of time, but another own goal causes RSL to be down 1-0. RSL got a bit of an attack but a ball played in caused a hard collision in the box and one player from each side went down hard. RSL then got a corner kick, but not much came of it, Kyle Beckerman did get a decent shot on goal, but it went just wide. Santos is looking a bit sharper than our reserves, but our starters are finally getting into the match.

20 minutes

Seitz made a nice leaping save on a shot from about 20 yards out. It was Yura that went down after a head to head collision in the box earlier, but he seems to have recovered. Yura puts a shot on goal, but Dirty Sanchez makes a nice save. A lot more play in the middle of the pitch by both teams, the Santos defense looks like it can be beat, but RSL will still have to deal with Sanchez. It looks like Santos is going to play some nice long balls up the sides, but they have to understand the speed of the turf, so far they have been caught offside a number of times. Oh and a bit shout out to RES security, I think I have had to show my tickets at least 4 times so far.

30 minutes

Well about the 35^th minute Santos got a great shot that just made it past Seitz, and the score is now 2-0 Santos. RSL has gotten a couple chances and a number of corner kicks, but so far everything even remotely dangerous has been handled easily by Sanchez. Not too much else exciting has gone on.

40 minutes

A couple very lack luster efforts by RSL and you can tell that not too many players are taking the match serious, but Dema is busting his butt as always. Oh Paco Torres is the player with the lovely orange shoes. You can see the numbers on their jerseys if you can get past all the ads, including the ones on their socks. No fewer than 3 ads on the back, 4 on the shorts, one on each sleeve, and 5 or 6 on the front. Damm now that is a great example of capitalism at its finest, the whistle blows and the first half is over with the score Santos 2-0 over RSL, perhaps we will get to see some starters get into the match in the second half.

Input by Safaia at the half: We all paid $35 to see most of the reserve players play this match. We know it doesn’t matter when it comes to the MLS standings but come on, we still need to win. Insults are being made in different languages, the away fans swearing in Spanish and the RCB swearing in German. We aren’t playing our strong players this match and so far it shows. We need to switch out Seitz and get Rimando in for our keeper to keep any further goals from going in.

Second Half

Well RSL made a number of changes brining in Cutler, Williams, Reiman, Beltran, not sure what changes Santos has made since you can’t see their names or numbers. RSL has had more chances in the first 10 minutes of the second half than they did early in the first, it looks like there will more changes coming soon as several players are warming up in front of us.

I have to admit that Sanchez playing to the crowd and posing for pictures if funny, he is also laughing as we chant “cook county jail” and “dirty Sanchez”.

65 minutes    

Well it is the 61^st minute and a couple more changes as Borchers, Joy and Deuchar come into the match giving RSL 6 starters in the lineup. Ah Sanchez is gone it appears he needs to catch his flight for his court date on Friday, perhaps now RSL will be able to convert one or two of their chances.

75 minutes

In the 69^th minute RSL scored a goal. Welcome to RSL Alex Nimo, who found the goal, but in the 73 minute it was Mr, Yellow shoes who scored a goal to make it 3-1 Santos, but I have a that we may see a few more goals before this one is over. Not sure what team will be scoring them, because the Santos lineup is mighty fast and doing a good job attacking up the sides and getting chances on goal. RSL gets a corner kick, but this one goes over almost everyone but Borchers plays it back into play but it goes over the top of the goal. Santos wins a free kick just outside the box, and RSL puts 4 guys in the wall but the shot is high and wide.

85 minutes

OK, the where’s famous FCB chant is got to be one of the highlights of the night. I have to say I am really happy that only the fans from Mexico seem to like the wave, hopefully this will be the first and last match of the year that we see that dam thing at RES. Last time Andy got a free kick from that spot, he played a great ball but no one finished, this time he played it high and far over the top of the goal.

Crap a second player with yellow shoes is on the pitch, but the guy with the orange ones is gone. RSL gets another free kick, but they make a save and counter very well and sure enough Santos scores another goal and it is 4-1 with less than 5 minutes left in the match. Oh well it was semi entertaining.

Wow a nice play by RSL to play the ball into the box, but it is knocked out by a Santos player and the following RSL corner kick does nothing to impress. I wonder why in the hell Santos is still attacking when they are up 4-1 with just a couple minutes left? It looks like half the RSL players are simply going through the motions at this point and it is showing, thank god that the clock shows 90 minutes and the match is over. Oh well what can you expect from a reserve match?

OFF MY SOAPBOX

This entry was posted on July 9, 2008 at 9:49 pm 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.