August 31, 2009 by f4denz.

So wanted to make sure those of you who read the 2010 season ticket posts understand that next year will be 20 tickets, the actual number of matches could vary depending on if a match would count as two tickets. Similar to the All Star match this year or the visit of Real Madrid in year two of the franchise. Still with that in mind it would likely mean at least one more match than what we had this year, who knows if that will be US Open Cup, International Friendly, or CONCACAF Champions League?

I have also heard some rumors that people are claiming that some of the moves and changes to pricing are due to RSL giving tickets away, and while many of us know there were a lot of promotions in the RES days, those days are gone and people have to remember that often people receive tickets from sponsors or corporations that they don’t pay for but those tickets are paid for by someone.

I would like to thank all of you for visiting this weekend, well over 800 people visited the blog on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the number of page views was over 4,500 for those 3 days as well, so thanks for stopping by and the many comments both positive and negative about the content.

Well most of the USMNT is up at Park City, with a few players still to arrive due to Sunday matches and hopefully there will be a full squad in camp soon. I know there are very limited tickets still available for the match, so if you don’t have tickets yet, you will want to jump online or call the RSL ticket office (801-727-2700).

I am hoping that I will be able to get you some pictures of today’s practice session sometime in the next day or so.

For RSL the time off will be handy as they work on a game plan to beat Chicago on the 12^th of September without Kyle Beckerman or Will Johnson. Hopefully Javier Morales will be back from his injury and ready to go, but the match in KC proved that we have a number of players ready to step into big matches and perform like professionals. Getting the 3 points at KC may have eased some of the pressure but since many of the teams RSL is neck and neck with in the playoff race also won this weekend it will be critical for RSL to capture all the available points at home in their final 3 home matches of the season.

So I just got done reading an article on espnsoccernet.com in which US Soccer blames the location as the reason there are still some tickets left, not the outrageous prices US Soccer wants for front row seats in crappy sections, not the fact that US Soccer basically shutout the local online media (a powerful force in Salt Lake) or that they treated mainstream media like crap only allowing that last 15 minutes of practices to be open. Perhaps the fact that there is no open practice for fans to attend, no autograph sessions for fans, and the big perk of joining the US Soccer Official Supporters Club is that you can go on the pitch, 20-30 minutes after the match to take pictures of what will be an empty stadium. Sorry, I am one of those local online media people who was denied press/photo credentials because a blog with almost a thousand people a day reading it, and most of them coming back twice a day doesn’t qualify as “online media”. It is funny that the author wants to blame the fans, US Soccer wants to blame the fans and location, but nobody is willing to lay blame where it belongs and that is at the feet of US Soccer who do little to nothing to promote the sport or the game, heck MLS puts them to shame with the All Star week activities, and if you read my blog often you know I was no fan of MLS’s handling of the event. Fans will show up and the stadium will sell out and US Soccer will put a smiley face on because they got paid, fans will shell out money for tickets, merchandise and have a great time and all the while people will wonder what could have been.

Someday US Soccer will understand sports marketing in the US, but it is clear that today they don’t and it is a shame because of the partnership with Nike, you know great things could have happened this week in Salt Lake to build up the event. Something other than fans having to organize their own parties the night before the match, something other than closed practices, oh what could have been.

OFF MY SOAPBOX
“Audentis Fortuna Juvat” (Stay bold Jason)

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August 31, 2009 by f4denz.

Well going into last week, it was my thought that RSL needed to come out of their 3 games in 7 days with 5-6 points and after the very disappointing effort in New England there were a lot of doubts. Then came a solid effort on Wednesday that saw Real beat Chivas 4-0, leaving the week and perhaps the season hanging on a trip to KC. Now RSL’s road struggles are very, very well known 1-8-2 so far on the road and when I was told there would be some changes made, well nobody would have predicted the lineup of:
Seitz
Russell – Olave – Borchers – Wingert
Beckerman – Williams – Grabavoy
Mathis – Campos – Cox

Well after attacking early and often RSL was able to find the back of the net as Pablo Campos got his second goal since joining RSL in the 16^th minute and despite a lot of crazy calls and going a man down RSL did everything they could in order to secure their second road win of the year. It was the second straight start for Andy Williams and he has looked very good in creating and controlling the ball but the most impressive thing is the fact that he was playing huge defense. Perhaps the best comment I have heard about Andy’s play recently was “He looks like he is 25 again”, I just know it has been fun getting to watch him play more minutes and being very productive for the team. After a rough match in New England it was nice to see Robbie Russell have a match in which he played well, still not sure how he and Olave collided with such violence late in the match but neither of them are small guys and both were able to get back up eventually and continue on. Olave was for lack of a better term Olaveish, he was quick, strong, and solid in defense as were Borchers and Wingert, I know playing with a new keeper can be hard on players as the communication style changes but I thought the effort was top notch from not only the back line but the entire team provided defensive support. It had to be a bit nerve racking for Chris Seitz to at the last minute get the call to fill in for Nick Rimando who was out with a finger injury, but add the pressure of a new lineup in front of him and it being perhaps the biggest road match of the year. Chris was not only up to the task but for most of the night excelled in goal earning his first MLS clean sheet. In fact the defensive play, which was so important to the run towards the playoffs last season, is showing how important it is again this year as RSL played 6 matches in August and had clean sheets in 4 of them and only gave up 4 goals on the month.

Strange how MLS schedules, 6 games in August and now just 6 games in the next two months, 3 in one week and now just 3 in September with two on the road and just the match on the 12^th at home. I did like the adventures of Raphael Cox in this match as he was a travelling man who was all over the pitch attacking the ball for the 72 minutes he played, it is that type of energy and pace that will get him more playing time in the future. RSL’s other 2009 draft pick saw his first significant minutes of the MLS season coming on at halftime for Andy, and he was very solid in the midfield and made a number of quality defensive plays to breakup the KC attack as they tried to take advantage of the man advantage they had the entire second half. To play down a man on the road is no easy task, to do so while trying to protect a 1-0 lead is even more difficult but RSL was able to do so and improved to 7-0-3 when scoring first in matches.

RSL now has some time to get rested and get some injured players back into the fold before their next match, but with the red card ejection of Ned Grabavoy and Kyle picking up a yellow card neither of them will be available for the matchup against the Fire at Rio Tinto. Strange thing about the Chicago Fire they are just 4-4-4 at home but on the road they are an impressive 6-2-4 with a plus 7 goal differential. RSL get a little time to enjoy the fact that if the playoff started today they would be in but with 4 teams stacked up with 33 points that position could be fleeting, holding tiebreaker advantage over Chivas, New England, DC United, and so far Toronto could be huge factors as the season winds down and the fight for playoff spots gets tighten. RSL will still need at least 3 wins to secure a playoff position but I will go out on a limb and predict that RSL will actually win 4 of their remaining 6 matches and finish with a club high 13 wins and secure themselves a spot in the MLS post season for a second year.

OFF MY SOAPBOX
“Audentis Fortuna Juvat” (Stay bold Jason)

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