What’s wrong with Real Salt Lake II
August 26, 2008 by f4denz.
Nobody really thought I was done did they, sorry the poor performance this weekend has plenty of blame to go around, and yesterday I tackled the largest issue that I see, which was the play of the midfield. Some people were quick to jump on Rimando in the past couple weeks, but honestly there isn’t a keeper in the league that could have stopped all the quality shots that Real has allowed in the past two weekends. Many people believed the loss in Houston was due to the absence of Jamison Olave, but he was back and played well against Columbus, but still RSL lost, so what exactly is happening to the once stellar defense?
I believe that defense starts in the midfield, if you control the ball, you control the match and that is what been Real Salt Lake’s problem on the road, and even on occasion at home. You simply can not expect the back four and keeper to be the only ones playing defense, in fact if we expect our outside backs to move forward in attack then everyone has to be able to get back when the opposition counters and too often in the last two weeks not only have the outside defenders not been able to get back in time to stop or slow counters, the midfield has been lacking the pace or effort to get back and add their support to the defense.
Robbie Russell has played up to expectations of a new player, who is trying to figure out his role with each different position he is being asked to fill in at. His speed and energy will serve RSL well, and I think he would be perfect at the D-mid slot for RSL. He is a physical guy with size and speed and I believe could handle almost any number 10 in the league. Jamison Olave is a rock in the midfield, a true diamond in the rough that each week shows signs of getting better and is causing offensive players around the league to pay attention to him; I really hope we can secure his services beyond the current loan period. Nat Borchers has found himself left out to hang in recent weeks, by having to cover for rookie Horst in the Houston match, and by Wingert’s failure to get back on defense quickly enough to slow or stop Columbus counter attacks. Chris Wingert is a great player, for the first time all year I have to question his play. I am not sure what happened in Columbus, but it seemed that Chris was slow to move forward and even slower to react and get back into defensive position. Some of that comes from the lack of defensive support from the midfield.
Injuries have really hampered the efforts of the defense; Ian Joy was finding his form and really beginning to be a major part of the defensive wall that was shutting down offenses around the league. Ian has also found his way forward and is proving to be good at playing balls into the area; he also has a rocket of a shot that forces other teams to cover him tightly when he moves forward. Tony Beltran was a early season surprise who jumped in when Ian was out a few matches, and Tony showed real character for a rookie in his battle to keep is starting spot. I expect that we will see more of Tony when he is fully fit; he has got great speed to get forward and then recover quickly enough to make people wonder if he really was that far up the pitch on the attack. I questioned picking Tony as high as we did in the draft, he was projected much lower, but Jason and Garth appear to have been right in jumping at the chance to add Tony to our lineup.
Oh what to say about Nick Rimando? He is too short, we should find a better keeper, or play Chris Seitz, all things heard all around the blogosphere and in the stands recently. Wait, Nick Rimando, the clear MVP of last years team, the goal keeper with 7 clean sheets and until the last two matches was a top 3 keeper in the league. Are those people really going to question Nick Rimando? Well he is still in the top half of all keepers when it comes to GAA at 1.29, despite the fact that the team has allowed 7 goals in their last two matches, only two keepers in the league have more clean sheets, and how many keepers in the league can do this?
Nobody else works this hard, and even if he were a foot taller, this ball was going to get by anyone. When you give Nick a fair shot at a ball he has proven over the last two years that he makes not just the normal expected saves, but very often he makes saves that are unbelievable and has kept is many matches. The problem isn’t Nick.
So we have looked at the midfield and defense, so that means that tomorrow will have to be our forwards.
OFF MY SOAPBOX