Pioneers vs Natural Disaster

It's time for the annual 24th of July weekend game for RSL, lets all hope it goes much better than the game on the 4th of July. Real will play host to the San Jose Earthquakes, a team that has given RSL fits at the RioT for the past few years. Hopefully they can buck this trend and come out victors in a very important league match.RSL opened the 2011 season with a very rainy trip to San Jose in which they drew but were maybe a bit unlucky to not win. This time around, they are looking to get the full three points. After nearly 2 weeks of rest, RSL should be hungry to go out there in front of a decent sized crowd and win in a convincing manner. Not only will the altitude play a factor, but the comparative rest for each team should play in as well. San Jose played host to Vancouver last night in a match they tied 2-2. It seems everything is in favor of RSL getting a win; which scares me.
San Jose is comprised of some very interesting players that could be a great challenge to RSL if they are on. Starting from the back they have Jon Busch in goal. This guy always seems to have a career night against RSL. The midget, much like Rimando, gets to shots you wouldn't think possible when looking at his size.

In front of Busch is a decent defense with player such as veteran Chris Leitch, big man Bobby Burling, and Jason Hernandez. Those three alone present our forwards with a great test of getting in behind. Burling, in particular, will likely be marked up against Sabo because of his size.

In the middle RSL caught a huge break with midfielder Simon Dawkins - a former Hotspurs player - picking up a hamstring strain against Vancouver. He had to be subbed off and thus is very unlikely to play in this match. This does not mean, however, that Vancouver lost all of their midfield presence. Khari Stephenson, in particular, will most definitely give the RSL diamond midfield a test. The guy is a very talented player with the ability to shoot from range.Up top is where San Jose has the potential to be the most dangerous, though. Between former Crew man Steven Lenhart (the MLS Napoleon Dynamite) and last years Golden Boot winner Chris Wondolowski, the RSL defense will have to be on top form. Wondo, in particular, is the player to watch out for. He scored both of the goals for San Jose in their match against Vancouver and will hope to carry his form into the RioT.


Given the amount of rest and time until the next RSL match, Kreis should not hold back anyone in this game. The best XI guys should be put out there to get the win. The starting XI I would hope/like to see is as follows:

GK: Nick Rimando
- Nicky will likely be called on a couple times in this match. Wondolowski and Lenhart have the ability to create chances out of nothing. Hopefully he takes the slap of not being selected to the all-star game as a challenge and goes out ready to prove he is one of the best keepers... definitely better than Tally Hall

LB: Chris Wingert
- It's time for Chris to become a staple in the starting lineup again. When on, he can be one of the best left backs in the league.

CB: Jamison Olave
- After receiving the news that he was selected to be in the all-star game next week, hopefully Olave will go out there ready to prove that he is deserving.

CB: Nat Borchers
- Like Nicky, hopefully Borchers takes the slap of not being selected to the all-star squad as a challenge. We need our anchor to be solid. No 3rd minute red cards, Nat.

RB: Tony Beltran
- With how Tony has been playing lately, you can't kick him off the starting lineup. Sorry Russell, Tony is just better right now.

LM: Will Johnson
- The little energizer bunny should be fully charged and ready to run a tired San Jose side into the ground.

CDM: Kyle Beckerman
- Kyle will have to play a huge match in the middle to keep RSL in this one. With his selection to the all-star game (probably undeserved) hopefully he steps up and shows it was in fact deserved.

RM: Ned Grabavoy
- Grabs just has to do what he always does, be that role player who plays incredibly well but gets little acknowledgement or respect.

CAM: Andy Williams
- Bomma's legs should be fully rested after a pretty tough stretch. Andy can be magical when on, lets hope he is on Saturday.

FW: Alvaro Saborio
- After serving his "suspension", Sabo should be ready to come out to prove to the fans, media, and most importantly coaching staff and fellow players that he is focused. We need out big man up top to have a good game.

FW: Fabian Espindola
- Fabi has been, in my opinion, the best RSL player this season. Him not getting selected to the all-star game is just ridiculous. I hope this disrespect fuels Espy that much more to prove his worth. A focused yet fighting Espy is simply unstoppable.


Player to watch for RSL: Alvaro SaborioThere are going to be a lot of eyes looking at what Sabo does this game. After his last match at the RioT, it's likely deserved. He stormed off in frustration with being subbed. It has since been dealt with by the team and all confidence seems to be behind him. When Sabo is the team player we all know he can be, he is what makes our offense work - especially without Javi -. It's time for a big night from the big man.


Prediction: RSL 3 - San Jose 0
Goals from Sabo, Espy, and Olave
- We should be able to wear this team out with our passing, altitude, and much longer rest. If we get them chasing early, it'll all be roses at the end.

FORZA REAL

Cheers,

15 to 32

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,

15 to 32

Same Sad Story

RSL goes to Dallas and loses, yet again. There wasn't much there that was out of the ordinary for an RSL trip to Dallas.After a very promising performance on Saturday, RSL looked it's bad self again in Dallas this past Tuesday. The question is why did RSL look so bad shortly after having possibly one of its best games of the year? This was never going to be an easy match for the guys, but things got especially bad for RSL in three key ways:

1st: The game was in Dallas.- RSL is 0-9-1 in Dallas in league play. As in we simply don't know how to win there. Allowing the game to be played in Dallas sucked and was a task that RSL simply couldn't overcome. While blame can't be put squarely on the RSL Front Office, some blame is surely deserved. It was made public knowledge that Kreis and the staff were placing this tournament high on the list of priorities. This was, in their opinion, the easiest route back to Champions League Soccer.
The process is, I will acknowledge, completely absurd as to who gets to host these games. Teams submit a blind bid to USSF and thus (one can assume) the higher bid wins out. There is no time to make a response, no time to negotiate, it's a one and done type thing. Thus, RSL had to bid a price and simply hope Dallas didn't place a higher one. Obviously, this tactic didn't work. As my friend who writes the blog asthegameends.blogspot.com pointed out a little while ago, this is one area that could really be improved upon in the tournament. However, I don't see where their incentive to change is as I'm sure they receive a lot more money via this blind bid than any other fashion. USSF is all about the money, we all should know that.

2nd: Poor Lineup Choices from Kreis
While I am very happy we won the match on Saturday, it played a huge factor in us not winning on the following Tuesday. By forcing first team players to play in both matches (save a couple changes) Kreis put out a very tired and lethargic squad. His post match comments called out the guys for having a lack of effort and fight, he might need to acknowledge he is partly to blame. While these are professional athletes, they aren't machines. Forcing them to play two highly contested games of soccer this close together, with all the other elements combined, was a bad decision.
Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman, on the other hand, showed just how much he trusted some of his players by rotating out key guys in place of younger and more fresh legs. This was what gave them such an edge in the midfield. If we lose in the midfield, especially against a team like Dallas, our chances of wining are slim to none. Kreis got out-coached in this one, it's as simple as that.

3rd: Team SpeedThis deals more with RSL in general than this game in particular. However, this game did show just how much team speed we lack. While it is true we have a few players on the team with some wheels on them (Olave, Paulo Junior, Beltran, etc) the team overall lacks speed. This is especially true of our midfield and current healthy forwards. We simply don't scare teams in the offensive end with a speedy guy. Teams continue to clog up the midfield on us by bringing up their defensive line and adding more guys to the middle of the pitch. Until we find a player who can be consistently healthy and has speed on the offensive end of the ball, this trend will continue. Dallas exposed this weakness on us in both games, we were just lucky to find a goal first in the MLS match on Saturday.

In the end, Dallas very much deserved to win this game. It wasn't a case of RSL playing below its standards (though they did a bit) but much more of a Dallas side simply being better on the night. There is no shame in admitting they were the better team.

Man of the Match: Ugo IhemeluMany of the FCD players are deserving of this award but I felt it necessary to give it to Ugo. The former cRapid held down the back-line for Dallas very well and was constantly there whenever RSL looked to be building an attack. I've never been a big fan of Ugo's, but on Tuesday he played a very solid match.

Wanker of the Match: Dallas FansIt is somewhat rude to do this, but it must be said. The Dallas fans are rather pathetic. There was an announced attendance of 3,189 to this game. A quarter final match in any tournament deserves better, especially when you consider how much time they had to move tickets and how big of a match this actually was. This was not out of the norm, however, for Dallas home matches. They struggle to get people out there no matter the opponent. It's truly sad to see when they have such a good team to showcase. Hopefully things will change, but I seriously doubt it.


Moving On: One Focus - Supporters ShieldNow that we have unceremoniously crashed out of the Open Cup, there are only two more big trophies left to obtain for RSL. First, and the one that should now take their entire focus, is the Supporters Shield. I have talked recently that they need to find their form if they want to win this; what better place to start than these weekend against Vancouver. I'll have a pre-match post on this tomorrow or Saturday morning.

FORZA REAL

Cheers,

15 to 32