Down to 4 and RSL is still in the thick of it all

Well coming out of the weekend only one lower seeded team came out on top in their playoff series and that was RSL as the overall #8 beat the overall #1 Columbus in the most convincing fashion of any of the matchups. Real Salt Lake won the first leg 1-0 on Halloween afternoon but the biggest trick would come on Thursday night when Columbus would jump out to a 2-0 lead and looked like they would live on to defend their 2008 Championship, but then something happened. Kyle Beckerman’s pass found Javi inside the box and from there it was right onto the back of the net and all of a sudden RSL was back into the match. Then a clear foul (sorry Crew fans, Frankie did the crime and had to do the time) in the box lead to Robbie Findley taking a PK and beating Hesmer to even the score as the teams went in at the half. The second half saw a huge shot from Andy Williams bouncing past players of both teams and right past the keeper and into the net to give RSL a 3-2 lead in the match and with grit and determination they protected not only the lead in the match but a decisive lead in the series to win both matches against the former champions and the team with the best record in the regular season. Impressive is the only thing that comes to mind, for the first time in team history RSL came back from two down on the road to win a match and they did it against the best team in MLS and in the playoffs.

So the match to determine who they would face was the only playoff match on Saturday (how strange that only one of four matches was actually played on Saturday) as Chicago tired to overcome the 2-1 lead that New England had from their first match. In an ugly and physical match that saw New England commit 16 fouls and end up with 3 yellow cards, the Rev’s simply were not up to the task. It looked like the match was headed to extra time as John Thorrington’s 35^th minute goal had tied up the overall series 2-2, and with just 7 minutes left the New England defense made a huge mistake, they allowed Blanco to get the ball in the box and that was all it took as he found the back of the net and gave the Fire a 3-2 series victory. Chicago will also be the home team when RSL comes to town on Saturday looking to get their second straight playoff road win and their 3^rd straight playoff win. More on that match will be coming later this week.

Sunday saw the West determine what teams would be competing for their spot in Seattle, first up was Seattle making the journey to Houston. While I feel bad for any team having to play on turf, the grass at Robertson stadium looked more like a dirt field than a soccer pitch. It looked early on like Seattle might just be getting some help from the soccer gods as twice Houston defenders played the ball dangerously back towards their own goal and forced two great saves by Pat Onstad, funny thing is that Seattle themselves would only get 3 shots on goal and none were as dangerous as the two played back by the Houston defense. This match saw a total of 32 fouls (16 each) and 5 cards including a straight red for James Riley on a horrible tackle. But I get ahead of myself, after 90 minutes this match was tied at 0-0 just like the first match, but it only took 6 minutes for Houston’s Brian Ching to get the only goal of the series and while Seattle tried to get an equalized it ended with Houston moving on 1-0 after 210 total minutes of very defensive and very physical soccer.

The evening matchup featured the two teams that call the Home Depot Center home, and after a sloppy 2-2 draw in the first matchup between Chivas and the Galaxy I don’t think anyone knew what to expect. I am sure the guys in the MLS headquarters were panicked as their dream matchup of Columbus vs. Seattle for the Cup was dead and now their poster children were on the verge of being gone as well. Beckham and Landycakes played well but the Chivas defense was up to the task most of the night and none of the 17 Galaxy shots could find the back of the net, it took of all things a PK (wow have we heard this story before) to give the Galaxy the only goal of the match and the win of the series. How many matches this year did a PK lead to the Galaxy either getting a win or a draw? Too many, but to be honest Chivas had their chances but couldn’t convert and even if they had won with the 5 yellow cards they earned in the match they would have been put in a rough spot had it gone to extra time.

So this sets up the Conference finals:

So this will be a very busy week, I am going to head out to RSL practice tomorrow to take some pictures and check in with some of the players to see what their thoughts are about once again being a match away from the MLS Cup match. I will try to post that early in the afternoon and then on Tuesday I will do a look back at RSL’s 4^th quarter report card (not including the playoffs), Wednesday will see me take a look at the history between RSL and Chicago, and the history between Houston and the Galaxy, Thursday I am going to do a preview of the Western Conference Final, Friday I am going to do my RSL vs Chicago prematch preview, and Saturday I am sure I will be yelling and screaming at a TV somewhere.

I want to thank all of you for a very successful start of the month as far as visitors to the blog:

Consider that a year ago the average number of visitors was about 450 and right now we have an average for the month of just under 1000 unique visitors a day, and many of you come back multiple times a day because that average is over 1650 a day. Hopefully the content this week will keep you coming back often.

I am still waiting to hear something/anything from the RSL front office about the involvement of the new owner Dell Loy Hansen.

There is also going to be a big moment coming up for RSL as the 2009 Expansion Draft is coming up soon, in fact just 3 days after the MLS Cup. What 11 players (8 US and 3 international) will we protect? What do we do if Tony Beltran and Chris Seitz graduate from the Generation Adidas program and have to be protected this time? We are one of just a few MLS teams to have 3 keepers on their roster, do we make a big trade for either Nick Rimando or Chris Seitz? Can we protect both of them in the expansion draft, would we risk losing one of them without getting anything in return? If the pressure of the playoffs weren’t enough for Jason and the staff having to deal with the expansion draft has to something they are thinking about.

OK that is it for now.

OFF MY SOAPBOX
one win earns a trip to Seattle, two wins and make history

This entry was posted on November 9, 2009 at 1:15 am 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.