Thursday, June 9, 2011

A Downright Ugly Performance

Following their 2-0 victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps, RSL began a 2 game road trip with stops in Columbus on Wednesday night and Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon. With many players gone due to Gold Cup assignments (Sabo, Alvarez, Johnson) and still some players out with injury (Paolo Jr, Morales), this trip seemed to be a good time for RSL to prove they have the depth that is necessary to succeed in this league.

Wednesday marked a rematch of the CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinals that took place earlier this year. In that matchup, the game in Columbus was very cold and snowy, and both teams fought with the elements, as well as a frozen pitch, and battled to a 0-0 draw. This time around, the temperature was about 85 degrees, with a humidity level of 80% (at kickoff). There was much talk about how RSL would deal with the heat, having only had 3 days of full rest since their last game. Whether it was the weather, or the short week, or likely a combination of both, RSL didn't seem up to it for the 90 minutes.


Salt Lake came out firing in the first 15 minutes, and was able to get an early goal from Jamison Olave, off a corner. It was a bit of a sloppy goal, but they all count the same. I would have like to see RSL push forward at this point and get another goal before halftime, in order to have that chance to close up shop in the second half and get the points. However, after the goal, RSL couldn't seem to play with the tenacity and precision that they normally do so. Our midfielders were making careless passes, which led to a few chances on the break for the Crew, none of which they could capitalize from. Our forwards were not getting much support from the midfield behind them, and ended up trying to take on a few Columbus players on their own, which usually ended in long shots or lost possession up front. Although we didn't play our best in the first half, luckily Columbus didn't either and the half ended 1-0 to the good.


The second half was just as bad as the last 30 minutes of the first half. RSL could not keep possession of the ball, and the Crew looked to press on for the equalizing goal. After another giveaway in the midfield, the Crew broke into the box, yet Olave seemed to make a good tackle to stop the attack. The ball was not cleared, and Josh Meram took a touch past Olave, only to draw a foul and a penalty. There was a bit of a debate on the penalty, but in my honest opinion, I didn't see anything wrong with the call. While Olave didn't get much of Meram, he got plenty to constitute a foul. After a little bit of a debate between Chad Marshall, Jeff Cunningham and Andres Mendoza about who was going to take the kick, Mendoza drilled it in the top corner. At this point, I had a bad feeling about the rest of the game, and as it would show, the Crew would later get the winner on a deflected shot by Josh Gardner.


The loss is the obvious talking point of this game, but one thing I found very interesting were the substitutions by RSL in the second half. Although we were not playing our greatest football in the second half, as I have previously mentioned, I found it interesting that we brought on Gil in the 60th minute. I know we have this big game on Saturday as well, and maybe Kreis wanted to preserve some of the guys, as much as he could, for the game against the Union. We weren't playing great, but we also seemed to be comfortable on the defensive side of the ball. Pulling out Nelson Gonzalez, and then only 6 minutes later taking out Colleen Warner, for Luis Gil and Andy Williams seemed like a big miss to me. Had the scoreline been 1-1 or even 1-0 down, I think those subs would have been productive, but those two players aren't great defensive players, and that is maybe what we needed on the pitch. Then, having brought on Robbie Russell for Jean Alexandre at 1-1, there were no subs to be made after the Crew scored the winner.

Overall, we didn't deserve the 3 points and I don't think we even deserved 1 point based on our performance. Some of the small things seem to be catching up with us with our depleted squad. However, I will always stick by our team and our manager so hopefully this will give us a little kick for Saturday's game against the Union. I'm Salt Lake 'til I die...

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