Real Salt Lake 1 - San Jose 1 (thoughts and pictures)
There was little doubt that taking two of our starters out our lineup would have an impact, but I have to admit some level of confusion over the lineup. Knowing that a lot of our offensive opportunities have been created using Clint in an attacking role and letting him primarily play on the outside but with freedom to move around and having Yura punishing opposing central defenders by working the middle of the pitch, I am left scratching my head. I understand Olave has made mental mistakes over the last few weeks but he is still a solid, rock solid defender and hopefully he now understands the impact he has on the team when he makes those mental mistakes, so I was shocked (sorta) when he wasn’t in the starting 11. We didn’t have the depth to punish him, and based on how he played when coming in late in the match it doesn’t look like he was injured.
Having a player like Robbie Russell is supposed to give you freedom with your lineup, but last night Jason and staff allowed his good performance against TFC in the central defender role to cloud what should have been an easy decision. It seemed that the obvious move was to bring Robbie up to fill in the central defender role, and put Olave back in his normal role, while Ned filled in for Will as he did so well last week. Instead Olave was on the bench, Clint was back in a defensive midfield role and Andy was supposed to be the middle of the top 3 while Yura was out on a wing and nothing flowed, so instead of making minimal changes to the formation and lineup that worked so well a much more disruptive series of changes was made. It didn’t work, that was the worst performance I have seen from RSL since moving to the 4-3-3.
You know there is something wrong with RSL and our formation when Robbie Russell takes as many shots as Yura, both had one. It was clear that Yura wasn’t as comfortable or effective playing on the outside of the formation as he is playing in the middle, and whoever was supposed to the middle player (Andy-I think) was way too far back in a defensive position all match. The cool thing about RSL’s version of the 4-3-3 is that we tend to control possession when playing that formation but that wasn’t the case last night as possession was controlled by San Jose in the first half by probably a 60-40 edge and while RSL did a better job in the second half, once again a mental breakdown put the team at a distinct disadvantage.
So I can appreciate hard working players, and I think last night for 75 minutes Espindola was one of the hardest working players on the pitch as almost every RSL attack went through him. I mentioned that I thought RSL should take advantage of some of SJ’s less experienced defenders but we instead attacked Chris Leitch, who was supported very well by the best player on the pitch last night Arturo Alvarez. Fabi was just a bit off last night, passes were just a bit off, his positioning was just a bit off and you could see the frustration building as only one of his 6 shots was on goal and several times he was in a position to shoot but simply failed to pull the trigger or waited too long for the shot to be effective. When a player is frustrated they tend to over react to things, and when Sj’s McDonald got a yellow card in the 76th minute and got into a pushing match with Fabi, it was clear that calmer heads were not prevailing. When Fabi was fouled just a minute later by said Brandon McDonald instead of letting the official give him his second yellow card for the foul (a real likelihood), Espindola kicked the player from behind when he was on the ground and he got himself a straight red card.
I can understand the passion of a tight match at home, I can understand the pressures that must haunt players to perform on the pitch, but I simply don’t understand letting yourself lose control and making decisions that you know will hurt you and your team. I don’t understand the incredible selfish nature of a foul like this, Robbie Russell made two hard plays against Colorado and got sent off but both were made in the run of play and not after a play. Olave picking up a second yellow for getting in the face of Brian Ching, is a clear example of passion and wanting to do the right thing, be it a very stupid one for a player with a yellow card already, and even the Olave red in Colorado was in the run of play, but to kick at another player to try and hurt them after a play, that leaves me more baffled than our formation.
I know that Clint can play a more defensive style, he did so last night and was effective at it, but it hurt the team and why an adjustment wasn’t made at halftime is beyond me. I can understand bringing in Findley for Williams, who played OK but really wasn’t his usual creative self, rather he played a more defensive style last night. I think bringing Olave in to move Russell to a position where he can move up and create chances was brilliant, but it should have been a move to take a very bland Chris Wingert and not Beltran. Wingert actually had a decent match, but I have been far from impressed with his ability to both move forward to support the attack, while maintaining the ability to get back in good defensive positioning. Tony seems to be much better at being able to help create chances and help with controlling possession, while being able to quickly and effectively get back into defensive position.
We simply failed to control the ball, the pace of the match and the result was a ugly draw, all of which would be fine on the road but not at Rio Tinto, gone is the fortress and this time I lay as much blame on the coaches and staff as I do on the players. I think the formation was wrong, I think attacking the stronger defender was wrong, I think not making major adjustments to the lineup and positioning at the half was wrong, and all of those are decisions made by the staff. In the past two months RSL players have made mistakes that have left 6 points on the pitch, last night we left 2 points on the pitch and were lucky it wasn’t all three but this time blame lies with the staff and the actions of one frustrated player. Bad decisions and a bad result.
Pictures
Last night was frustrating for me if you couldn’t tell from the rant above, so much that for the first time I took under 1,000 pictures, so much that if not for the fireworks I would have taken less than 500 pictures. Anyhow here are some of the better ones from last night:
So Nat was upset that too many pictures don’t reflect his real “fashion”, in this case he is right
Maybe this one is closer
Andy playing how wide of a stance can I take
Ian explaining he could go much wider than Andy but doesn’t want to risk injury
Hero’s one and all
Trying to get 11 guys to smile at the same time impossible
The ball was just out of his reach but Yura proves he can stretch out further than Andy or Ian
One of Tony’s many throw in on the night
I thought Ned was one of the solid players last night
Javi made a couple nice runs but with so many people back in defensive postures not much came of them
San Jose made a Yura sandwich
Some SJ players spent as much time on their backs as they did on their feet
Despite the word that water breaks are a no-no in MLS, Michael “short man complex” Kennedy called for two in the match. Just one of many very strange decisions by an official who wanted to make sure his name got mentioned more than doing his job well
Alvarez was the best player on the pitch last night, one has to wonder why Dallas let him go and why we didn’t pick him up
A smaller than usual RCB but dang the drums were loud all night
OK, I now understand what Nat meant
Is that a tribute to Michael Jordan or Jackson?
Robbie got his head to this one but it went high over the bar
This wasn’t going to end well for RSL
Robbie gets his head to another but this one was off target as well
Robbie had very productive minutes, can’t wait to get him back in the 11. I was also impressed by the minutes that Cox put in, great energy
I was way too close to this one, but does anyone remember what color Joe Cannon was wearing? that jersey has a brown streak now
The best fireworks of the night.
Since it is the 4th of July today I thought I would use my new toy (http://www.theflip.com/store/UltraHD.aspx) to capture a little bit of the fireworks from last night (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUEgRsFJe-A)
Happy 4th
OFF MY SOAPBOX
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