What’s wrong with Real Salt Lake III
So my final installment of the ventorama after the worst performance of the season last weekend against Columbus is a look at our forwards, who have struggled all season. In fact RSL had scored just 22 goals in MLS matches prior to the 18 day layoff and only half of them came from our forwards (Findley-5, Espindola-3, Deuchar-2, Nunez-1), but I have to believe that a healthy Espindola could have gotten more goals based on his 3 goals coming from under 500 minutes of playing time.
So all the preseason hype was around Kenny Deuchar, you know “Dr. Goals”, who came to us with a very impressive record of being a goal scoring machine in the SPL, and having shown himself to be able to score against the “big boys” of Scottish football, but the transition to MLS has been tough for Kenny. I have to say in recent weeks I have been impressed as he seems to have taken on more of a role of creating chances and working in tandem with Robbie Findley, they have made some nice plays together, and not many players work harder during a match than Kenny. He has shown to be a great asset on set pieces both offensively where he provides a great target player, and defensively he has been able to assist in marking other teams target players and done it well. He works hard getting back to assist the defense and attacks the ball in the midfield more than most forwards do. All of that is great, but the goals simply have not come at the pace that many of us, including Kenny expected. To his credit he came into the Houston match late and with us down 2 goals and got us right back into the match with his 3rd goal of the 2008 season, but we will need much more from him as make a push for a playoff spot.
Fabian Espindola, barring injuries he could have been the star of the team this year working with Javi Morales to create 2 thirds of the “three amigos”, and hopefully as we have seen Espindola return to the 18 man roster, we will see him get more and more playing time and increase his goal total before the end of the 2008 season. I am still holding out hope for a “Fabi and Kenny” show to challenge the “Javi and Kyle” show.
I don’t think many people expected much first team action to come from Tino Nunez this season, he was picked up in the second round of the 2008 Super Draft, but he has played well on the reserve squad and gotten a little time with the first team, he has only two starts and under 300 minutes of playing time, but he has one goal and has shown that he is a tough as nails player who when unleashed will attack every ball that is anywhere close to him.
Yura has jumped into the starting line up recently and while he only has one goal, his play in the Houston match was very impressive he worked hard and played well with Robbie Findley. He has seemed to struggle at RES, very often it appears that the turf is getting the best of him, his footwork looked horrible in the matches at RES and too often he has lost the ball or stumbled before getting off a shot. I imagine that Yura is one of the guys who is really looking forward to getting to the new stadium and being able to play on a nice grass surface. A healthy Yura is a real boost in the arm either off the bench or in a starting role, and it seems he has had his best matches when playing with Robbie Findley.
For the second straight season it appears that Robbie Findley will be the top scorer on the Real Salt Lake roster, his 5 goals leads the team and his 4 assists are second best on the team. Robbie is one of those players with great speed and a touch that is improving week to week, recently he has played really well with both Kenny Deuchar and Yura Movsisyan, and I am excited to see how he will play with a healthy Espindola. Robbie was a bit slow to get into the scoring groove this season, with just three goals in the first 16 matches of this season, but he has picked up the pace with two in the last five. Robbie probably should have been a part of the US Olympic team, he sure couldn’t have done any worse the Brian McBride, and I know he is a heck of a lot quicker.
One question that has to be dealt with is how will our current crop of forwards gel with their new teammate Will Johnson, and while Will is not the experienced proven goal scoring machine that Garth favored and many fans were hoping for, he is the young, talented, and hungry to prove himself kind of player that Jason was looking for to push not only our current forwards, but everyone on the current team to work harder and play better.
One thing is going to be important is that without at least a couple road wins, RSL will not make the playoffs. With 4 more home matches if RSL wins all 4 of them we get 12 more points and that would give us 39 and this year it will likely take 45 to ensure a spot in the 2008 playoffs, so road results have to happen. I for one believe are capable of doing it, but no unless our players act and play like they want it more than they did last week against Columbus.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on August 27, 2008 at 11:43 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.