RSL 2012 News Thread (Regular Season)

So, has the rest of MLS found the key to unlocking RSL's defense? Of our 8 goals allowed, 6 have come from crosses into the box, either via corner kick or in the run of play (the 2 Portland goals being the exceptions). In the past two games it seems the gameplan for our opponents has been "whip the ball into the agrea as many times as you can". Is this our Achilles' heel this season? Should we be doing a better job at defending these?

 

I wouldn't say crosses are our weakness, per say, but our lack of width is allowing an abundance of crosses to occur. If you give an offense enough chances at whipping a ball in, their going to eventually punish you.

The real issue here isn't the defending on the crosses, in my opinion, but allowing the crosses to happen so damn frequently.

Our defending on set pieces, on the other hand, has been rather poor. Team have started running picks on us knowing that only a few of our players are truly talented in the air. If you put a pick on olave and/or borchers you leave just a player like Sabo who is good in the air.

Ironically enough, I've felt our offensive side of set pieces has been shitty this year too. I've never felt that if we are given a corner or dead ball 30ish yards from goal we have a true chance at scoring. And it's not just lacking the service from Javi (though that would help) it's how predictable our runs on dead ball situations have become

 

As a team we give up the most corner kicks in the entire league. It hasnt helped that our marking in the last few games has been god awful as well. Combine the two and you get results like we have the last few weeks.

 

Don't forget to add 6 additional minutes and ignore most hard fouls by the opposing team and that should do it

 

that's my midget homeboy
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/04/24/vote-mls-save-week-week-7

 

RSL not going to challenge the red card to Olave. Not terribly surprising, but the info in the article made me raise my eyebrows a bit:

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_...process-rsl-not-disputing-olave-red-card.html

$25,000 bond you risk losing at the end for not winning your challenges? meh, ok, makes the process more serious. tacking on an extra game suspension for losing the appeal? that is complete and utter bullshit. so, you have set it up so that teams will actually use this option seriously and not just wildly appeal every red card handed to them. but you are going to actively punish the player beyond what the rules state is the proper punishment because a team loses the appeal? what in the ********ing hell?

god, this league never ceases to amaze me.

 

True, but can you imagine what would happen if the league didn't have this rule? The whinier teams would constantly be in front of the judge. Hell, they'd have to add an LA Galaxy wing to MLS HQ.

 

Wait...they don't already have one?

 

well...i mean, that's why they only get 2 unsuccessful appeals and those 2 unsuccessful appeals automatically means you lose $25k and you cant appeal again this year AND next year.

they already have built in measures clearly defined to prevent whiny teams from appealing every single red card. there is no need to punish the individual player beyond what is clearly defined as punishment for a red card by FIFA. why is he being punished on top of that for a team appeal? makes no sense.

 

I think RSL is just saving their powder for slam dunk reversals (like the Borchers one last year).

The League Office is capricious enough that this risk aversion is prudent.

 

can you call it a wing when it occupies more than half the building?

 

Touche

 

That series of saves from Tally Hall and then the defender off the line is tough to overcome.

 

when a keeper uses his face, from that range, its hard to not give him some sort of award...

 

Yeah, I had to vote for non-RSL guys this week. The Tally thing is insane and the goals are scorchers. Kyle dribbled well, but there were unstoppable shots out there.

 

I agree. This appeals process is far too draconian and puts too much burden on the teams and players. Having learned more about the appeals process, (thanks, Ives), the fact that RSL passes on the "opportunity" to contest the red card makes a lot of sense, unfortunately.

I would think that a balanced/fair appeals process could go a long way toward helping reduce cheating in the game. MLS's appeals process is not going to help much, IMO. Baby steps...

 

The motto over the appeals office entrance

NO SOUP FOR YOU

 

Has anyone heard or read anything from the FO about viewership for RSL's local broadcasts?

On one of the On Frame shows, Trey (I think) said that RSL had great local viewership, but he didn't offer a number. Anyone heard anything concrete?

 

The only thing I have seen was this little bit, about one specific match, from the Trib:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/53862292-77/games-rsl-jacquint-soccer.html.csp

I've wondered the same, so if anyone else has any additional info, that would be awesome.

 

This is great. Exactly what I was looking for.

2.5 average share on 4 (for two games) and a 1.6 for a delayed home game on 30.

 

Well, here we are, the graph. This is the last game after which I will post it in the News thread. I think it more properly belongs in the Tracking the Points thread. It will appear in both places this time. Next time only over there.

The game was weird, IMO. What I saw was when Grabavoy came on the field for Gil the game changed dramatically in favor of RSL. RSL did not have the run of the field, but they at least seemed to have the space to pass, that the compression of the midfield that Dallas was doing no longer was working. Then Bonfigli came on and he was an unknown that nobody marked, from what I could tell and he took proper advantage before Dallas figured out that he mattered. The criticism of Sabo on not scoring on his breakaway is, IMO, misplaced. As someone said, where was the support from another RSL player? He should have had someone following the play because of the myriad things that could happen (and one did).

Anyway, a point seemed fair to me.

We now have as many points after 9 games as we did after 9 games in the best season in history, 2010. Still, it is not our highest number of points for 9 games, that was 2011. Enjoy!

 

Did I totally miss when Diogo was waived? I assume it happened shortly before or after we traded for Estridge. But I missed it.

 

The tweets for both were during the same day iirc.

 

That's one of our draft picks this year, was he not?
Talk about a whiff on that one.

Speaking of which, anybody know how Enzo is coming along?
Pretty random that our last pick in the draft is proving to be the best one...