Real Salt Lake comes up short in Houston shootout

If you watched just the first 10 minutes of the match, you would never know that it had been 18 days since their last match. In the end there were 28 combined shots (12 by RSL, 16 by Houston) and 16 of those on goal (7 by RSL, 9 by Houston), and 7 total goals (Houston 4-RSL 3), and the first half was as exciting and frustrating as any match I can remember in Real Salt Lake history. Exciting because it was clear at the start that Jason had the boys looking for a win, everyone knew this was a statement game for both teams, RSL trying to make the league and media take them as a serious contender, and Houston wanting to make sure that nobody forgot that they are the two time defending champions of MLS.

Well Houston made their point, despite giving up an early goal (they almost gave up two in the first 5 minutes), they fought back and tied the match, and then RSL made a statement they scored again to regain the lead just 9 minutes after Houston tied it. But the last 20 minutes of the first half were all Houston, it was as if some magic button was pushed and they went into another gear and RSL were simply unable to step up to that gear. The end result was the Dynamo sitting with a 4-2 lead at the half. Now RSL fans have been to quick to point out that it must have been the absence of Jamison Olave, who was serving a one game suspension for yellow card accumulation, that was the key to this breakdown. I think the problem is much deeper than that, but before I go too deep I want to watch the match one more time, so a more complete match summary and review will be coming tonight. It was clear that missing Ian Joy, Tony Beltran, and Dema Kovalenko in addition to Olave make a significant impact on the RSL defense would perform. Our defense say Robbie Russell make his first start, and rookie David Horst saw his first MLS action and with Kenny Cutler playing d-mid that those three simply were not up to the task on Saturday night.

I was very impressed with the effort of Robbie Findley, who got two assists on the night and put forth a performance worthy of the importance of the match, as did Yura Movsisyan, who scored his first MLS goal this season and looked like the player we expected when he came over from KC. I understand now why Jason had such faith in the four strikers on RSL’s roster, they showed Saturday night what they are capable of. I am very disappointed in the play of our midfield, who for the first 25 minutes controlled the match, but then gave the reins to Houston for the rest of the match. We have to learn how to control possession of the ball for the entire match, if we expect to pick up wins on the road.

OK, that is it for now, but I will do a more detailed summary as I rewatch the match this evening.

OFF MY SOAPBOX

This entry was posted on August 18, 2008 at 9:21 am 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.