Friday morning thoughts

So I have a couple minutes before I head off to work this morning and thought I would post a couple things that have come up in the last couple days.

First up is DC United’s president Kevin Payne, who made some comments about the style of play of teams having a negative impact on DC United’s season. In other words he was looking for someone to blame for the fact that DCU didn’t make the playoffs for the second straight year, was bounced out of the CONCACAF Champions League, and lost the final of the US Open Cup to Seattle. Of course once his comments about Colorado, New England, and even RSL playing this horrible style of soccer that was 10 men behind the ball and blah, blah, blah were made public the censors of MLS decided to issue a nice fine and he then made an apology for his comments. The reality is that almost every team in MLS plays defensive on the road and if your team isn’t good enough at home to break them down you will lose or tie, which is something DC United did both at home and on the road. For United they were 7-3-5 at home with 19 for and 14 against, and just 2-5-8 on the road with 24 for and 30 against, when you only score 19 goals at home but are one of the leagues best home defenses, maybe just maybe it isn’t the other sides fault for playing defensive.

While RSL’s road performances often were more defensive in nature, I would say the impressive 34 goals scored at home with just 11 allowed could never be classified as a team that bunkers all the time and looks for draws, our 9-1-5 MLS best home record speaks volumes about how to break down teams who try to play defensively and taking advantage of the home field advantage. RSL will look to do that again on Saturday when Columbus comes to town, talk about a team that will likely play a whole lot of defense, I expect Columbus to pack it in and only come out of a shell after RSL takes a lead. Columbus knows they can likely get a two goal win at home, unless RSL can pull off a miracle, so there goal will be to lose by one or less here and hope to seal the deal at home.

I have to admit I was impressed with a couple things in the Seattle vs. Houston match last night, top of the list was a gutsy performance by Nate Jaqua who despite getting a nasty cut above his eye in the first half played and played hard the rest of the match. He had to head off a couple times to get new jerseys and bandages but it is that type of grit and determination that fans love to see from their players. As much as I bag on the “fans” of SSFC, they did show up in numbers for a midweek match and did their best to stay active in the match, to the point of actually interfering with the match on a couple occasions by being so loud that their team as well as Houston couldn’t hear the whistle during fouls. I did love their constant booing of Pat “ice ice” Onstad after his bumping into Freddy “I didn’t have sexual relations with that girl” Montero, but overall I thought they were loud, hopefully next year they will learn something more than their city and team name. It was a tough ugly physical match with neither team playing particularly well, it was funny to hear Seattle, a team with two players in the top 10 of fouls committed (to their credit they have the top two fouled players as well) and both teams have two players in the top 10 of players ejected, complain so much about the officials not calling the match their way.

So while I will be doing a match preview later tonight, along with a quick report from practice today, I wanted to address those of you who read my blog on a regular basis about the match tomorrow. I understand that the U is playing their famous “Blackout Match” against powerhouse Wyoming at 6pm on Saturday, I understand that many of you have kids who you want to take “trick or treating” before it gets too dark or two cold on Saturday, but really after the up (home) and down (road) season RSL has had this season are you going to miss our only home playoff match of 2009? Really, I get that we have been there before and that many of the critics and cynics are saying we have no chance (like they said last year, and for the last couple months of the regular season) but after posting the best home record in MLS, and tying the league record for largest positive goal differential in MLS history are you going to bail on your team now? I sat in a town hall meeting this week and listened as fan after fan talked about wanting to create a better atmosphere at Rio Tinto, and then I read the boards and comments on some blogs and I see a lot of people making excuses to not go out and support our team and I just don’t get it.

I know that many of you will be there, but I am asking all of you to make sure that the people you know who regularly attend also show up, heck with the discounts for season ticket holders you should be inviting others to the match in order to ensure we can fill the stadium up as much as possible and do what the team expects of us, to give them a boost and provide them with the edge they need to run the score up on Columbus. I honestly believe we need at least a two goal lead heading into the away match next week, I do believe that we can protect a lead in the series in Columbus, the reasons will be noted in my match preview, but the team has to go in with an edge. Once you make it past the first round, well anything can happen just ask the New York fans about last year. I for one would love a road trip to Seattle just a few days before Thanksgiving but I know this much without the fans showing up in numbers behind them, the team will not be as productive as they can be. So please don’t use the holiday as an excuse, show up and then go home and celebrate with your kids afterwards, heck bring your kids with RSL will be doing trick or treating, a costume contest, and even letting 250 kids in costume on the field before the match. I for one will be brining a few bags of candy along with tomorrow night so I can throw some to kids in the stands as a reward for coming out and supporting the team.

Call or email your ticket rep now, if you don’t know your rep then just call (801) 727-2700 or -2702.

OK, off to practice.

OFF MY SOAPBOX
RSL will bring on the treats for the fans, and tricks for Columbus on Halloween afternoon

This entry was posted on October 30, 2009 at 12:15 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.