Chance for Revival

RSL heads up to expansion side Vancouver Whitecaps FC tomorrow afternoon in what should be a good chance for RSL to gain some valuable road points. Vancouver is considered by many to be one of the worst, if not the worst team in the league this year. Back in June, RSL showed just how much better they were than this side with a very dominant performance at the RioT. This truly is a wonderful chance for RSL to gain 3 massive road points.
On paper, this match is incredibly one sided. RSL has more skilled players in every position compared to Vancouver, even when you take into consideration that RSL will likely rotate a few players. With the game being shortly after a very hot game in Dallas, and on turf, Kreis would do well to give some first team guys a break and send out a mixed lineup to get the win. There is no excuse in this one why they shouldn't be able to pull it off.

This is not to say that the task will be easy. For starters, the game is in the middle of the day. For whatever reason, RSL tends to struggle with these games when it comes to effort, energy, and intensity. Also, this will be a first time for this team playing at Empire Field. While it is by no means a place where the Whitecaps dominate their opponents, it is an unknown place for almost all the RSL players. The fans in Vancouver show up in large numbers, even with their side struggling, and tend to make it another difficult place to play much like Seattle and Portland. RSL will have to show its maturity and class to overcome these obstacles and gain the full three points. Anything less, honestly, would be a disappointment.

For RSL to win, I see these three keys as the deciding factors:

1st: Play with heart and energy from the opening whistle
- When you look back at previous road games, there seems to be a reoccurring theme; RSL struggles to play with energy. Whether it's right from the opening whistle or for really long stretches in either half, RSL simply hasn't put together a game with high energy on the road at all this year. I'm not expecting them to be sprinting the entire 90, but it would be nice to see RSL take it to their opponent early, continue to do that, and not have gigantic lapses that burn them.

2nd: Defense on dead ball situations.
- The last 5 goals that have been scored on RSL have all come from dead ball situations. 3 of them have come directly from set pieces around the box, the other two have come from goal kicks. This is good in that RSL has not given up a goal in the run of play for the past three games, however it screams that they are not focused enough when the ball stops and the restarts again. Set pieces typically determine tight games, we have to be on the winning side of this, not losing.

3rd: Quicker ball movement
- Since the loss of Javi, this has been one area RSL has really struggled with. We tend to hold onto the ball too long or make what should be a single pass into two passes. To break down opponents, we rely on our ball movement. We don't have the speed, wing play, or size to really break down opponents in another fashion. If our beautiful passing style is to work, the tempo of the passing (and the movement off the ball) has to increase.

Player to watch for RSL: Alvaro SaborioAfter sitting out a match for a small dispute with coach Kreis, Sabo is back for RSL. If he wants to silence those saying he is losing form (which he is not) and that he isn't a good fit for the team (which he really is) then what better time to do it then now. We've seen that when Sabo gets mad, he can be a true beast and impossible to defend. Please, Sabo, get mad and prove these haters wrong.

Prediction: RSL 2 - Vancouver 1
- Sabo and Espy with the goals

FORZA REAL

Cheers,

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