well done boys. And it will be difficult to give Sabo the start over Devo. Findley, however, has made his mark the last several games and I hope he can keep it up through the final. So excited.
Start Sabo if he's 100%. Beckerman's going to play in a big game. What a miracle. As Cher once said.... do you believe in embratsu after embratsu? I do.
I know most people are secretly excited about us winning the MLS cup, but if we look at this honestly, we just faced two teams that in a way are tailor made for us. Both the Galaxy and Timbers are good attacking teams and weren't going to get pulled out of their attack mentality when they played us. Wide open games are the types we excel at. KC on the hand plays the kind of physical game that tends to take us out of our game. I figure we have a 20% chance of winning, It's that high in my mind since KC likely won't bunker the hell out of the game and play relatively open since they are at home. A repeat KC 2- RSL 1
Sorry but there's no way Sandoval starts if Sabo is healthy. Findley has been showing up to big matches, and we know Sabo shows up as well. Is it Dec 7th yet?
The thing that made me most nervous about both KC and Houston, is that they're both pretty physical teams, and in the playoffs they let a lot of that go. I think our best bet is going to be playing quick one time passes with a lot of movement off the ball. Give and go before we can be hacked down.
..... But Sabo won"t show. Having revisited the eastern final I saw nothing that, would worry me unduly. Yes they are a fair team and have to be respected but nothing we haven't seen before. Although I don't think dealing with a high pressure play is our strong point but fortunately most teams can only truly sustain this for thee or four ten minute spells in any one game. It will also be interesting to see how we deal with their favoured tactic of running straight at you in the hope of a direct shot at goal or getting the foul ( run at four bunched defenders and one of them will bring you down ) Still a fortnight to worry about that more important is Devon stays and the Valasquez / Grabs start. I favour the more adventurous approach but I doubt that's a surprise
SKC is a type of kryptonite for RSL, high line, pack the midfield, and hack away at the legs with their high pressure. They are missing some key components that were very successful against us in past years - Roger Espinoza and Kei Kamara. Without those two players they are not nearly as dangerous as they have been in past years. Oddly enough, Portland had a good game plan for coming here and getting a win and RSL's coaching staff should really look at that game to see how SKC's high pressure can back fire. SKC went up 2 goals to nil very quickly on two goals by Chance Meyers (I think his first goals ever in MLS regular seasons) and then Portland exposed SKC's d-mid / high line and created turnovers in SKC's half to go to goal multiple times and ended up winning it 3-2. RSL's style of passing the other team to death doesn't work with SKC - they're too good defensively and it's too easy for SKC to keep their shape. They need to adapt a bit to SKC by pressuring them in their half with a lot of speed and then being a bit more direct to goal with the final third being the place that they put on the passing clinic. Jimmy Nielsen does not have good feet and if you spin him a bit he will fall on the ground and throw a tantrum. It's pretty funny to watch when that happens. KC has turned EMBRATSU into a fine art - they stick with their sucky teams no matter what and they rarely expect their team to win, it seems. They are happy to see their team succeed but if they don't win it all, it's another day at the office. My company is a SKC sponsor and I had the opportunity to listen to Robb Heineman speak about how he and his partners bought the Wiz and did the rebranding, etc. At the end when he was taking questions I was really tempted to be that annoying guy and ask how he would feel when SKC lost to RSL in MLS Cup - but I didn't and I don't expect RSL to win this game, EMBRATSU!!
Well, I'll be up at 2:30 am to watch this one. That will be one very very long Saturday. I do worry about how we match up with KC but I'm excited about how things are clicking right now. I wonder how Jason prepares for this one? It's hard to not dwell on two losses to DC that could really change things around right now but given expectations at the beginning of the season (ie. rebuilding year) it pretty amazing that we are headed to the MLS Cup. Sometimes EMBRATSU feels so good!
That's the beauty of Embratsu - if the team fails to embrace suckiness and they actually win, then it's (at least) twice as good.
This is such a tough question to answer. I am a huge Big Dev fan. And he has been playing so good with Findley. But it is hard to say that you don't start a healthy Sabo. What I don't want to see is a Sabo/Findley combo. Sabo plays better without Findley. And Findley plays better without Sabo. They play horribly together. I want either Sabo/Plata or Findley/Sandoval.
I wonder if it wasn't so much the combo, but the fact that Findley wasn't playing as good as he has been in the playoffs. At this point Findley certainly deserves the the start. I'm sure we'll see the standard starting 11 for the final, assuming everyone is healthy.
The thing about the regular season game played at Rio Tinto is that it was the worst officiated game that I have ever seen. Its the one that forces PRO to revisit how they assign referees and almost caused me to give up on MLS as a product. My concern about the Cup final against SKC is that they are more physical than RSL. Given the officials' apparent reluctance to call fouls thus far in the playoffs, I think we'll see hack-a-Javi taken to new levels by SKC. They play a thug brand of ball anyway. I think they are much more capable of taking advantage of lightly called games than is RSL.
I think that's why we'll have to somewhat abandon the possession soccer, and play at a high tempo. Quick 1-2 touch plays and keep moving. Make it so if they want to hack us down, they're going to have to chase us down to do it. Make sure the ball is already being passed to the next player so that when we're knocked down, it's much more obvious, and harder to ignore. It feels like one of those games where we need to play like we did early in the season. Where are possession hovered around 50%, but when we had it we were quickly moving down field and putting in chances on goal.
Peter Vermes happy with response after going a man up: "We put it to them" That's what I would have on the wall in training every day. It rubbed me the wrong way when I heard it and thought it might come back to bite him as soon as I heard it. Of course he will probably get to say it again considering how bad they are going to "put it to" RSL again for the cup. EMBRATSU mofo's
I think we start Findley/Sandoval. Then, if Sandoval seems to not be handling it and we need goals, bring in Sabo. He seems more motivated when he comes in as a substitute. He's not going to be 90 minutes fit, anyway and the game may go to ET and PKs. I'd rather Sabo than Sandoval for PKs. Not that it matters. Embratsu!