Real Salt Lake vs. Columbus (semi live)
Prematch
Well it is a warm sunny afternoon at RES, and the crowd looks like they got used to the 8pm start times, as 15 minutes before the match the parking lot and stands are fairly empty. The team is working on shots which is a good sight to see, that they are doing well finishing their shots. Columbus appears to be taking it easy during warm ups, I am sure they know that the elevation will make this a rough match on them as the match wears on.
Robin and jeff are putting the team through their paces with a number of drills, the only focus is finishing passes and shots, as opposed to the normal little mini 5-5 passing drills. OK the teams are heading in, so I am going to put the laptop away and watch the match. More at half time.
Halftime
RSL started a new lineup, and put in Yura and Tino at forward, and Ian Joy in for Chris Wingert. It has paid off as just a couple minutes in RSL got a free kick from just outside of the box and a great shot by Javi Morales was on and beat Hessman to give RSL an early lead. RSL had a number of other decent chances in the first 15 minutes, but couldn’t get anything past Hessmer or on target, while Columbus did a good job of trying to get attacking chances and a number of set pieces but the RSL defense continues to be working its way towards being one of the best in the league. With Colorado giving up a goal today a blank sheet would move him up on the list of best keepers this year in MLS.
Halftime entertainment is a group of little kids playing soccer not sure what is up with the adults with the “go white” signs it must be to get people to cheer for the kids, too funny.
2nd half
Well it was a promise made by Dema Kovalenko that RSL would win the match and take advantage of their fourth shot at first place in the Western Conference. A great goal in the second half by Robbie Findley who worked hard to get past the defenders and keeper to put the ball into the back of the net and give RSL a 2-0 lead. RSL continued to attack while keeping the Crew offense in check, despite them taking a lot of shots and forcing Rimando to make a couple big saves.
That is right RSL wins and is now sitting in first place and with a result in Chicago next weekend could be the leaders of the West going into the All Star break.
This entry was posted on July 12, 2008 at 8:52 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.