This is an excellent observation. This was not a Championship team. Its really that simple. They were very good...superb at times. But few, if any, of us predicted them to make the finals of either tournament. Some of us even felt making the MLS Cup Playoffs would be a challenge. Overall I'm happy with the result. Disappointed that we aren't champions, but happy nonetheless.
Yesterday on Bill and Hans Garth said that the ice is what kept Javi's shot from going in. He said that normally a ball that hits the inside of the post with that spin will go into the goal 100 of the time.
This the ball never checked on the grass despite having loads of spin on it. It was like watching a car hit black ice on the freeway and donut. The funniest part of that near goal was that Neilsen gave up, watched it go ALL THE WAY across his goal, and then grab it and nearly stumble out for a corner.
I'll go one further than that. I did a good bit of research on ball spin, including playing with NASA's soccer ball spin app (which takes into account air temperature, rpm, speed, angles, humidity, elevation, etc.) Long story short, my "strong belief" is that if the air temperature were 20+ degrees F warmer (say, the average 44F degrees in KC, and not the historical coldest Dec 7th ever recorded - it dropped to 5F that day), Morales' shot would have never hit the post, and would have instead went into the side netting for a goal, or at the very least bounced off further into the post and directly into the goal. Physics: The colder air has more density, thus it impacts two effects on Javi's shot. 1) The shot does not cut through (or "shear") through cold the air as easily, thus it is a tad slower to reach target. Since the curve of the shot was most pronounced near the end, the ball reaching the goal line earlier (under warmer conditions) would have meant slightly less time for the curve to take effect. 2) The denser air creates more drag on the ball, thus making it curve slightly more in the cold. So on an "average" Dec day in KC, that shot would have had less time to curve (towards the inside of the post), and would have had a 'slightly' more gentle curve throughout it's flight, and especially at time of arrival at the goal mouth. The combination of those two factors in a warmer atmosphere should have added enough to make the ball fly a bit "straighter", hit the post at least an inch deeper - enough to bounce directly in (regardless of the field surface) or miss the post entirely and hit the inside side netting for a goal. Morales, (who afterwards publicly said he thought the Final should be played in warmer weather), being a superb athlete with muscle memory borne from 1,000s of repetitions, would have nailed that shot if you kept the exact same shot physics in "normal" temperature conditions - and it would have been a beauty. That's the shot Javi took. Sure, RSL trained in the cold in KC, and in SLC the week before the game, but after 70 minutes in the stress of "battle" I can imagine it's easy to forget the nuances of last week's training effect of cold on your shots, and revert back to muscle memory borne from years of practice. (P.S. I thought it was 2-0 RSL, Game/Cup over for SKC when Morales took that shot, and I was incredulous that it bent so far and missed so closely). Soccer is a game of inches....
Geek. But seriously, good research. Glad some people have energy and desire to do that while I get to reap the benefits. I don't know how I feel about opposing fans coming in here and making smart/logical/good posts. But good on ya KC96.
Thank you for the compliment. I try to be respectful of other club's forums, but I don't feel like (and certainly try not to act like) a typical "opposing fan" except during the 90 mins of game time when our teams are facing off I figure we all LOVE soccer in general and MLS in particular (without which there would be no clubs to root for/against), we are both "small market" supporters, both club's fans almost all support the USMNT, of which both our clubs have key players on, so we have at least 3-5 big things in common and only 1 thing not....I like to talk about things in common. We soccer supporters in the USA still need to stick together. Team rivalries, etc. are great for the league - but one still has to see the bigger picture of the growth of the sport in our country, and band/ally together with others of like interest. My version of "country before club." Maybe in some future when soccer/MLS in the US is as strong as the NFL, or as EPL is in England, then RSL and SKC fans can blindly hate each other like Chiefs/Raiders, Man U/Man C, or whatever. Or maybe even then the shared culture of struggling to gain acceptance over decades will forever make MLS fans a bit more respectful to each other than other mainstream pro leagues. That would actually be an awesome legacy, by the way - the "American" contribution to the world of pro soccer. Weirdly enough, MLS single entity structure may end up contributing significantly to this.... Anyways in my lifetime, I'm thinking all MLS fans, even of other clubs, are A-OK by me. Cheers! (I won't post much more in your forums - it's just that Kreis and "hitting the posts" are such strong and interesting topics, maybe a once in a year or couple years thing. Plus the RSL forum is filled with many good posters that are insightful to read - no easy task in today's modern internet forums. Thanks for being so kind and open in my visits here.)
Great research, and intelligent posts (even if I don't agree with the POV) are good to read. The sad part of all of this, is that on top of the gutting loss, I am once again slapped in the face with how stupid I am! Hats off to all of you, as the biggest reason I come here, aside from the unicorns, is that I learn. I am a fan, and have great passion for the club and game, but don't have the knowledge and experience of many posters here. I love the tactical and "scientifical" info y'all post. Plus, it's always great to get romance updates from Lizzie Bee and hate on the CRapids!
The whole thing was a joke. MLS cover a wide area and thus there will be climatic differences but why not adopt the European calendar with a mid-season break, at least the internationals could be synchronised and games postponed to allow players to be released without damaging team performance. It may also provide more scope for neutral venues and the avoidance of extreme conditions, Soccer is not a game to be endured in conditions the same for both sides. It is a game to be enjoyed in conditions conducive to the features of the game. The game would not have been played in the UK, even Scotland , under the climatic conditions prevailing at the MLS Cup Final. Access and conditions for fans would have been one consideration but over-riding would be the safety of the players. It must be a massive relief that no player suffered serious, perhaps career ending injury in circumstances that were completely avoidable. A ball which did not run true or bounce properly due to the freeing conditions is beyond belief and not worthy of comment And finally how did Sandoval get injured anyway and final finally Seba was very disappoimting and Sabo is a donkey
Sandoval apparently had been playing on a fractured foot, and it sounded like at some point it became worse. A 'European calendar' just wouldn't work. You'd either have to play all games in the winter in areas with warmer climates, or you'd have to have a 'midseason break' from about mid Nov-Feb, which would then make the season feel like we're playing a Mexican Apetura/Clausera, and the 'offseason' would wind up being something like.. July. I really don't get why people have this fanciful idea of a European calendar working in the states. It just won't unless we start playing in domed stadiums.
I bow to greater local knowledge - it was only an observation. Maybe the league should split north and south ... .. or domed stadia could well be the answer. They were for Cardiff and apparently are for that other ongoing FIFA piss take "the Qatar world cup"
Considering domed stadiums would cost an ENORMOUS amount of money to build and the maintenance of grass would be near impossible there is just no way MLS is moving to a Euro schedule any time soon. Quite frankly people just need to get the idea out of their heads, because it's not worth it, it's not necessary, and it's not going to happen. Over half the teams play in cities that make playing in the winter entirely impossible from a soccer standpoint. Salt Lake, Denver, Toronto, Chicago, NY, Boston, Montreal, KC, Columbus, and DC all can and do have horrible winters with regular freezing conditions and snow. Just because something works in Europe doesn't mean it is at all applicable to how it should be done in the US.
Someone needs to send The Don a map showing the Gulf Stream so he understands why soccer works in winter for much of Europe, but will not work in the USA.
ugg. Schedule change is as bad as saying there should be promotion and relegation here in the states. Neither are feasable in the US for at least 50 years, if ever. I personally never see promotion and relegation. i could see there being separate east and a west leagues however one day. For the schedule change you would have to have like a two month gap for December and January. which if you are going to do that why change it? its basically the schedule we have now but with two more months of cold games. The temperatures at the MLS cup are childs play to what it can get to, especially in the midwest.
A Chicago late November game played in single digits with 20 mph winds and drifting snow, therefore double-digit negative temps... That will be an awesome game to watch! NOT
Actually, that would be really entertaining if not for the reason that the refs would replace the normally white ball with an orange ball. Or at least they should. I guess The Don figures that the Europeans know more about soccer than he does, so if Sepp Dietrich thinks it can be done, then it can be done. I just wonder when the Swedes, Finns and Norwegians are going to start playing during the winter. What? You didn't know that they play during the summer, like the US? Well, that will have to change since everyone knows that soccer can only be played in the winter. I just feel sorry for the Norwegian team from Tromsoe, which is above the Arctic Circle. Every game for them is a night game.
Part of me hopes that The Don is just mouthing words in public to make Sepp Blatter shut up about it, but that there is no real intention behind the blather.
Part of me really hopes they do it. It'll be fun with all the cancelled and rescheduled matches, the maybe half filled stadiums. One season is all it'd take to show how bad the idea is.
It'd be pretty sad to see RSL get to the 10k or 12k season ticket threshold, then have it walked way back when the schedule changes completely.
Maybe good as those leagues may be, for soccer is such a great game anywhere anytime, maybe that's why they can't attract the money to attract the top players