Game of the Century . . . Decade . . . Week? RSL at SJE, 14 July 8:30 MDT

Quite frankly I can't believe the ref inserted himself into the situation in that manner, I can't recall ever seeing a ref straight up shove a player back like that and given the heat of the situation it's easy to understand why Kyle got pissed. Letter of the law says red card, but given what happened I was perplexed the ref gave him one. The ref put himself in that position and set Kyle up to get the red, if he just tries to settle the entire situation instead of going directly after Kyle there would have been no red card.

I don't know how the ref's conduct would be judged (if at all) under the LOTG, but as far as conflict management... really bad decision and might have made things worse than they would be otherwise.

I think Morrow's yellow was intended for Hernandez. The ref got so involved he couldn't tell who did what.

Which is very indicative of the quality of the ref, which is too bad. I don't know WTH MLS was thinking assigning a green ref to a pivotal showdown between teams #1 and #2 in the league. Super unintelligent move on MLS' part, especially knowing the history these two teams have had this year. But oh well, thems the breaks. At least a few members of the RSL org have noticed we should never have lost 5-0 going down just a man, especially considering we almost held you guys to a point at home going down 2.

I seem to remember an RSL team that dealt with Hack-a-Javi by winning a championship. What happened to that team?

Well, we laid an egg.
I have been saying this like a prophet of old. Our defense is not what it used to be. Either CJ Brown leaves, or we shake up our backline, or both. But what is happening cannot continue to happen.

A few thoughts from someone who attended the game:

• RSL deserved to lose from the first whistle. Played like crap the entire game. Should have been down multiple goals at half time. Every aspect of the game was wrong.
• The Beckerman red card was completely unjust. The ref is holding him while the SJ players are pushing him AND the ref. If Beckerman received a red for contact with the official, so should Hernandez and Beitashour for pushing Beckerman while he was being held by the ref. Beckerman was put in a mostly defenseless position when the ref grabbed him. That's dangerous.
• There is no one particular area that the team can improve on to start getting results. Every member of the team needs to recommit themselves to the team and working as a complete unit. Everything can improve.
• I'm sick of hearing "RSL plays the best style of soccer," "RSL plays the prettiest soccer," "RSL is the best representative of MLS in terms of style of play," blah blah blah. It's ********ing bullshit, but even if it's not, it appears to me that the players believe and act like their entitled to win.
• Finally, if my fourth point is not accurate, maybe the team has reached it's potential (as others have said). If so, y'all better embratsu.

Otherwise, the game atmosphere was pretty rocking. SJE has a vocal crowd. Buck Shaw sucks, but it is what it is until they get into their new digs. We sat next to some pretty cool SJE season ticket holders. They were relatively magnanimous, which probably wasn't *too* difficult as SJE was dominating from the opening kick.

Also:

• Ugh.

Glad to hear you were well-treated. Our bark on BigSoccer is generally far worse than our bite in person.

Oh, for sure. Us BS'ers are a small, small minority of the fans.

The dudes we sat by were old school cool. Like NASL San Jose Earthquakes cool. They'd been around the block, knew the league, knew the RSL team relatively well, and just wanted to see some kickass soccer.

It was a good experience overall, minus the soccer curb-stomping.

P.S. This doesn't mean I don't hate nearly everyone who posts on your board.

If you don't mind my asking, what section were you in? Were the folks you were talking to next to you, behind you or in front? I ask because it might have been me, I had a really nice time chatting with two RSL fans during the match.

My first ever MLS game was in San Jose back in ... uhhh ... 2003 or 2004 when Landycakes was still prancing around. It was a great intro to the league and we were also treated well.

...but I still think I might go burn my SJE t-shirt that is hanging in my closet. Just sayin'.

I echo his sentiment that Colorado has kind of slipped to our second-most-hated team lately. I hate San Douche. I mean, really, really, really hate them.

Can we close this thread, delete it from the forum and pretend that this game never happened please?

I second the motion. Let's take it to a vote.

What game?

Second this motion.

No, we need to keep it around to remind us how sucky we can be and to motivate us if we meet up with San Hose-Me in the playoffs. A good 6-0 shellacking would feel real good.