Real Salt Lake vs. Saprissa Photos
July 26, 2008 by f4denz.
Warm Ups
stretching is important
Reynish makes a save
Yura practices free throws
Saprissa warming up
Anthems
Prematch huddle
1st Half
Save by Reynish
Save by Navas
Dema attacks the ball
Robbie tries out for the Olympic Keeper jumper event
Kyle on the attack
Robbie heads towards the box
I don’t think their discussing the weather
Olave clears the ball
Joy gets a break away
Navas starts the attack
Half time
Rimando Juggles
Some new faces for the second half
Second half
A. Robinson gets a shot off
Javi takes a free kick
Everyone is happy after the match
Fans get a hand from Borchers and Wingert
RSL’s Sturgis hurt again
July 26, 2008 by f4denz.
When healthy Nathan Sturgis is a soccer stud, the fact that he was selected to the US Olympic team despite having missed most of this season with an ongoing hamstring injury is proof of his quality. The problem is when is Sturgis healthy, we have see under 120 minutes of first team MLS action from him this year, and under 500 minutes since he was acquired with Robbie Findley from the LA Galaxy. His recent injury at the Olympic training camp is one that never should have happened; he never should have been named to the team. He wasn’t healthy and if your not fit enough to play for your club, your not fit enough to play for your national team. Hamstring injuries are ones that can linger for months and in some cases years, one only has to look at this years breakout performance of Edson Buddle in LA as how much a nagging hamstring injury can impact a player, for over a year and a half Edson was nursing an injury and trying to play whenever he could often resulting in making his injury worse. I am not sure if MLS has a injured reserve squad like the NFL, but we need to give Sturgis time to get healthy and get him back to the form he has had in the past.
With the addition of Robbie Russell who has the same level of versatility as Sturgis, who is able to play multiple positions, we should be able to not try to pressure Sturgis into coming back too soon. I find some humor in the mystery and secrecy around the acquisition of Robbie, it seems Garth was fearful that if we expressed our interest that another team would have snapped up his rights in an attempt to “leverage” RSL into making a trade for his rights (see the SL Trib article ).
Not sure if this was a clever move by the FO or not, Russell has suffered a number of injuries that have limited his action over the last couple seasons. Thank goodness there are only 3 more matches on the crap RES calls a surface, and if the reports of Robbie R beating Robbie F’s 40 time, then RSL just picked up a great speedster that will be able to add to our attack.
Other News
Evaluating RSL’s playoff chances James Edwards blog at deseretnews.com
With a 6-6-6 record and 12 games remaining for Real Salt Lake this season, let’s look into a crystal ball and predict the future. How many points does RSL need its remaining 12 games to not only make the playoffs, but to perhaps win the Western Conference.
(well I think this one is simple but requires RSL to perform better on the road with 12 matches remaining a 4-4-4 record in those matches would provide RSL with 16 more points to end with 40 points. I think 40 points is good enough to end in 3 place in the West and that would secure a playoff spot this year. Teams that you would normally worry about like Dallas have some huge issues, and with the impending departure of Kenny Cooper and Juan Toja, they will struggle for the rest of the season. Chivas is a mystery and with their very busy schedule of SuperLiga, Concacaf Champions League, and MLS matches will they have the depth to move up the standings, without Guzan, I don’t think so. Houston is a team that can always surprise people, but the rumors of DeRo heading to Europe would be a blow that the Dynamo would not be able to survive. Colorado could be the dark horse in the west, and have shown they can beat anyone, but they also struggle away from their home pitch. San Jose, well nevermind it isn’t worth the effort. The Galaxy will probably end up winning the West simply because they have so many offensive weapons, the question is will they score 60 goals this season, I don’t think they can equal the MLS record of 85 which was set by LA in 1998, not with the 30 game season. I am going to say the West ends up like this:
LA Galaxy-49 points
Houston- 43 points
RSL-42 points
Colorado- 39 points
Chivas- 39 points
FC Dallas-33 points
San Jose- 26 points
It sure is going to be a long rest of the season for RSL fans, with only 3 home matches in the next 73 days, but hopefully the result will be the soccer gods smiling on us as we play our first playoff game in team history and we do so at our new stadium.)
OFF MY SOAPBOX