Real Salt Lake’s Christmas in July
July 15, 2008 by f4denz.
First a little housekeeping issue, MLS 2008 All Star game has 8 players from the Western Conference, but not a single RSL player, you know the team in first place? The only other team in the West to get snubbed this way is San Jose, who sits as the worst team in MLS with 13 points. In fact every other team in MLS got at least on player on the All Star team, so I am not sure how you by pass a keeper who is third in GAA and tied for a league best 6 clean sheets, for Pat Onstad, who is .06 ahead in the GAA stat, but has only 3 clean sheets, oh wait it is because he is from Canada and the match is being played there, same for DeRo getting picked in front of Javi Morales, who has better stats and is tied for second in the MLS with 7 assists and has 3 goals. DeRo has 4 goals but only two assists, but because he is a Candian he got picked. How about Olave, Wingert, Borchers, or Beltran, you know that back line that has allowed just 3 goals in their last 8 matches, nope none of them, but Jim Brennan from TFC gets to go despite his team giving up 11 goals in their last 8 MLS matches. Oh wait the same answer applies, I hope next year that choices are made based on merit alone, because you and I both know that no 3-4 RSL players will get picked by the coach or commissioner simply because the match is held here. Welcome to yet another example of the MLS double standard.
Now the good news
Yup, that is right RSL is holding on to a very slim 1 point lead in the West and with the race as close as it is, it really is a big accomplishment, as all the Western conference teams have struggled to get points on the road. Funny thing is the best team on the road is San Jose who have 8 road points and have scored more goals on the road than at home. Now RSL has played one more game than the other teams in the West, but they didn’t write the schedule. The victories at RES over the best teams in the East is a clear sign that RSL is a team to be taken seriously, beating New England and Columbus within a couple weeks of each other is an accomplishment for any team.
Top RSL Players
Javi Morales is tied for second with Landycakes and Beck’s for assists in MLS with 7, and some people questioned if he was worth the money being spent on him? Consider of the top 5 assist guy in MLS all but one of them are DP’s, makes me think that we may have gotten a bargain with Javi.
Rimando is moving up the rankings of keepers, now tied for 3rd in GAA, and tied for 1st for shutouts, not bad for a keeper that basically got shunned out of DC, who have a keeper with a 1.57 GAA and no shut outs and ranks close to the bottom of MLS keepers.
I also think the collective play of our back line has got to be getting attention from every MLS team, I know that offensive teams like Houston, New England, and Columbus sure are paying attention. To start the year everyone was a bit concerned about how the defense could replace Eddie Pope, and it was a fair question. Who would have thought that not a single defensive starter from our first match in 2007 would even be on the roster in 2008? Our midseason pick ups of Chris Wingert and Mantis Mantilla last season were the first steps in what would be a very impressive rebuilding effort. In the off season RSL would add a couple of MLS veterans who had been playing overseas, both Nat Borchers, and Ian Joy had played in MLS and then journeyed to Europe, while Joy has battled some injuries and struggled to reacquaint himself to the MLS game his recent performance has been up to the expected standard. RSL also added Jamison Olave from Columbia, who is quickly becoming one of the major impact players not only for RSL, but in all of MLS, he did struggle with understanding what role Jason wanted him to play, but once they got past the language barrier, the impact was huge. Offensive players are quickly finding out that Jamison is not only large and strong but his speed is very deceptive for a player of his size. The draft was also good to RSL this year, as Tony Beltran was the first RSL pick and while some questioned taking him much earlier than expected in the draft, the decision is proving to be a wise one. I have to rate his performance high enough to force MLS to consider him as a “rookie of the year” candidate.
While the offense has still struggled a bit, I have to say the overall play of Kenny Deuchar is greatly improved in recent weeks, while he hasn’t become the scoring machine I and many others expected (at least not yet), he has proven that he is a huge impact. All one has to do is look at last weekends goal by Robbie Findley, which was a direct result of a great first touch by Kenny to get the ball in a good position for Robbie to attack the goal. Robbie has proven that speed kills and he has plenty of speed, the goals are coming and with the ability to interchange attacking players I think we are only starting to see what Robbie can provide for RSL. Yura is back healthy and appears that he now has a much better understanding of distributing the ball as part of the overall attack, this could lead to some really good things in the future.
Overall as we head into the All Star break, it really is sad that no RSL players were chosen, but it speaks volume to the style of team play that Jason preaches and our team has bought into that concept and it brought them to the top of the West, a solid performance this weekend getting either a win or at least a draw on the road, will go even further to ensure we head into the second half of the season with the mindset and momentum that we will need for the long summer months that follow.
A dose of reality
So I am excited by where RSL is and the match against Columbus proved one thing to me, even when we don’t play our best, we still have enough talent, heart, and motivation to win. Funny that now that RSL is in first place that all the local media is paying attention, now that the stadium already has a big event scheduled for next year, that the media coverage is now more positive, funny how that happens.
I am going to throw a little cold water on the all the enthusiasm that is going on right now with a couple cold hard facts that will have to be dealt with if RSL hopes to make the playoffs, first is performance on the road we have just 3 points from 7 matches (.428 per game), we have 13 games left this season and 5 are at home and 8 are on the road. If the numbers stay the way they are right now that means that RSL will end up with just 4 points from our remaining road matches, at home we can look for another 10 points, that would put us at the end of the season with a total of 37 points. That most likely will not be enough for the playoffs, last season that is the total that Columbus had and they missed the playoffs. The safe number for last season is 40 points, so all it will take is an improved effort on the road to move our average up. One more road win, could be the difference, but more likely will be our need to get 3-4 draws on the road, and we must do that without losing any momentum at home be it the final 3 MLS matches at RES or the two matches at the new stadium in October.
Injuries and call ups, with our improved play we may see players like Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Robbie Findley, and others get some time either with the national team or the Olympic team. Injuries can be huge this time of year, while we have some nice depth at forward, and on defense, our midfield has shown that one player missing can make a huge difference. I am hoping that we will hear some news in the next 24-48 hours about potential signings, added depth and firepower in the midfield is my choice, but another talented striker would be a nice addition to have as well.
It is a long season, and I am really very hopeful that we will get more than just 2 matches at the new stadium this season, but we can not spend too much time patting ourselves on the back just yet, enjoy being in first, but fight like hell to stay there.
OFF MY SOAPBOX