Who: Seattle Sounders vs Real Salt Lake Where: CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA When: 7PM, Friday, 11/2 Watch: NBCSN, Root Sports, KONG 6/16 Listen: 97.3 KIRO FM, La Gran D 99.3 FM Referees: Not announced by PRO yet Well, if you can't watch this one, you don't have cable and you don't know how to use the internet. It looks like this one is on practically every station there is. We'll just call it the Presidential Debate of soccer. Heh. After losing to the Galaxy and finishing third in the West the Sounders are hosting the first game of this, so expect RSL to go bunker ball on us as is normal for the first game of a two game series. On the other hand, RSL isn't exactly good at bunkerball, so what I just said may not come to fruition. However, we have yet to score against them this season going 0W-2D-1L with a -1GD. On top of that, it is sounding like we won't have EJ for this game, so there goes a good portion of our offense.. We will have Ochoa and, as we all know, all he does is score goals. As long as Ochoa doesn't have a repeat of the first quarterfinal game last season where he was beyond useless thanks to Borchers and Olave knocking him around every time the ball got in even close proximity, we'll hopefully be fine as the rest of the team, except Gonzalez, should be good to go.
A quick post on Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted Line-up: ------Ochoa------------Montero-------- Evans----Tiffert/Alonso----Rosales Burch----Hurtado/Parke----Johansson --------------Gspurning--------------
Looks about right the only changes I would see are if. a. Leo is healthy I would rather have him at LB b. I'm not sure about Ochoa RSL seems to get into trouble when you can stretch them out a little I understand that Ochoa is a better in the air and has a better shot but I think I would rather have Estrada running in behind and as an added plus his work rate allows a little better pressure on the back 4 of RSL.
Hmmm.. Perhaps, but we need some size up front to free up Montero. Going with the Lollipop Guild vs. RSL seems like a recipe for disaster to me. I did like the idea of Zakuani up top I saw on twitter though. Or maybe Rosales up top, Zakuani on the left, and Evans on the right?
small fast forward is better vs borchers and olave. ochoa will be a piece of cake to defend against for those two RSL stalwarts.
It seems to me in the past that we had the most success against RSL with Fucito running behind the defense. Based on that, I would think Estrada would have more success than Ochoa. It seems like RSL's CBs are very good in the air and runs behind them will work much better than crosses and headers, and Estrada is, I think, quicker than Ochoa and will be able to stretch the field more.
I think Sigi has been saving Super Mario for the playoffs...get him all antsy, with something to prove, not let any of the other MLS teams have any experience playing against him...it all adds up perfectly.
considering we traded you his rights, I'm not so sure we won't have an idea about him Side note: I'm really pissed, as an RSL fan, with that move and the one for Rose. Both were retarded moves from our GM. Well played on your end.
This is the lineup I'm expecting. But something with Martinez, Zakuani, or Estrada wouldn't be horrible.
i'd personally rather see Zak or Estrada up top than Ochoa. they have the speed to get around the D and ochoa doesn't
Two schools of thought: Start Ochoa, hopefully wear down the defense and then bring the speed guy in after 60 minutes when D is tired, so he can make biggest impact. Or do the opposite. Run D ragged with the speed guy then put in Ochoa (if needed) after 60 minutes so he's working against guys who are tired. Other school of thought. Forget Ochoa and just sub speed and work rate for speed and work rate...Like Estrada and Zak for instance. Personally, I lack confidence in Ochoa so I'd prefer to see us run them down if possible
that could be fun to watch too. let zak (or estrada) start out & run the D ragged, then let the other on to finish the job. i could support that
I think we will see Estrada for EJ but we could also see Rosales and bring in Mario for another playmaker to break them down. Zakuani at 60 for evans unless were up then leave it alone.
That does bring up a point. Isn't Martinez also a forward? That might be too many playmakers up front though. Heh.
IIRC, martinez has never played forward...but i'd love to see him on the wings with estrada & montero up front.
The same reason other US/Canadian leagues not called the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL have a more difficult time selling play-off tickets than regular season tickets. You don't have months in advance to sell tickets. Also, these leagues' games are, to many people in the stands, more of a family outing or evening out than anything. These folks aren't going to be especially concerned about whether they are watching post season or regular season, and you're going to certainly have a difficult time selling these folks tickets on just a few days' notice.
Yup. On top of that, and this fits in with the lack of time to sell tickets, you generally don't get nearly as many corporations etc who buy a ton of tickets at the group rate in playoff games.
It is just sad that even SoundersFC can't sell playoff game! http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/11/01/rsl-sounders-both-ready-lock-it-down-postseason http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2012/11/01/kreis-weve-earned-right-people-say-you-should-win http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2012/11/01/montero-parke-schmid-discuss-motivational-pressure
And yet, it will probably have the most people in attendance of any game in the playoffs... On a different note, there are going to be Seahawks logos on the field for the game and the sidelines may be NFL width... http://seattletimes.com/html/soundersfcblog/2019578209_seahawks_logo_other_football_m.html