I've never been a fan of Simon, but also never felt any hatred towards him until this moment. I wanted to reach through my computer screen and punch him in the tooth (and i'm not a violent person) That was seriously painful to watch.
Morales and Sabo both receive green cards: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsRSL/53707368-49/green-morales-roster-saborio.html.csp and so closes the saga of having too many internationals.
we need another player to receive one before the summer window. That would make any potential moves so much easier to accomplish.
None of SLC goals made the Goal-of-the-Week competition. Awww! I thought we had two really good chances. Of course, Rimando should make the Save-of-the-Week for one of his saves. the LA defense and goalie should also be nominated for the Sieve-of-the-Week.
Here's an RSL candidate for what is apparently a weekly MLS award, albeit something of a creepy one: Quien el el Latino de la Jornada?
Le Toux's goal was very similar to Espindola's including the build up. I thought Espindola's was a better finish with more power than Le Toux's. Not sure why Vancouver has 2 in the running...
Join the Royal Army and it pretty well pays for itself http://www.rslroyalarmy.com/sign-up/?_s2member_seeking out of towners should be able to join, as well.
even the guardian had some very nice things to say about our young Tian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/12/mls-5-things-david-beckham-sebastian-velasquez god, can you imagine being that kid right now? just a few months ago you are playing juco soccer, future up in the air, battling through moving around between countries and not getting through tryouts with club teams. now you are starting for a top 5 team in MLS, battling head to head and being compared with david freaking beckham and exchanging jerseys with landon donovan. unbelievable stuff.
Terrific bit indeed about Velasquez, and this cool line from the first segment: "New York are to goalkeepers what Spinal Tap are to drummers" Hillarious!
Ridge Mahoney of SoccerAmerica with his power ratings: 1. REAL SALT LAKE (1-0-0) -- A late rally knocked out the defending champ, 3-1, in a rematch of last year’s Western Conference final. . . it’s hard to top beating the top dogs at their place.
of all the writers/bloggers/etc I thought for certain mlssoccer.com would buy into the "we'll give LA a bye this week" mentality but no http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/14/mls-power-rankings-week-1
What?!?!? The birthplace of modern "futbal" lowering it's journalistic standards and actually talking about the MLS in the same tones as those reserved for other "real" soccer leagues around the world? I am shocked! I thought that the MLS was some soccer backwater where aged European soccer stars went to ply their trade in the twilight of their careers among plebes who didn't know the difference between catenaccio, liberos and 4-4-2 formations. After all, we're all just rebel colonists who can't even play "pointy" ball football the right way, put ketchup on our "chips" and drive on the wrong side of the road, vero?
OK, RSLers, time to start stuffing the ballot box. Rimando is in the Save of the Week competition for denying Keane's shot. The rest of the competition is pretty good, nothing that I would think was better than Rimando's (I thought it would have been when he stopped the bicycle kick by ?) but I think the winner with be Chivas' stop on a Houston breakaway. He really didn't have to do anything though since the Houston player shot the ball right at him. A fence post could have made that save.
Ives, MLS, and ESPN all have RSL #1 in their new rankings. And all of them have 8 western teams (plus Houston, who should be a western team) in the top 10.
Listening to "Extra Time Radio". Jason Kreis just called Simon Borg "Bill" at about the 10:40 mark. I laughed. For all the crap we've given Simon, he sees the game more objectively than Greg "LA should have won 3-0" Lalas. He compares it to last year's WCFinals, which there is a lot of merit to.
Greg Lalas is a complete and utter moron when it comes to the game. It seems he wants to be an Eric Wynalda or Simon Borg and really get under people's skin, but he lacks the mental capacity to do so. Which is really sad if you think about it. He is less mentally capable than Simon Borg... wow
Well, it is The Guardian, after all. That's a notorious rag in the UK. I think they've had a weekly MLS column for several years.
Is my sarcasm meter broken? They opened a North American sports office last fall. They had pretty good coverage of the playoffs, and I expect it will continue.
Rimando wins save of the week for week 1! http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/16/rsls-rimando-takes-seasons-first-save-week
oh man, its so funny how LA have absolutely ********ed the beginning of their season up. one thing could have absolutely changed the landscape of where we are sitting right now. one week ago LA was coming off a relatively positive 2-2 draw in toronto. ya, they gave up a couple goals and had to scrap back in for the tie, but they were sitting pretty only needing a 1-1 draw or better at home to advance. they were set up for bruce ball effectiveness as a minimum benchmark for making the CCL semi's. then bruce trots out his first string lineup to play RSL, he failed to make the right decision that cost him big time. if bruce trots out a b-squad lineup (like RSL did against NE last year), his team might have lost 3-1 still. but who cares, you chalk that up to a b-squad loss to a good RSL team. no harm no foul, its the season opener for a lonnngggg season. you have a built in excuse for losing to RSL which will keep their fans shut up. you rest your main guys for the CCL showdown with TFC next week, who will be rested but have to travel across the country. with a rested full squad ready for TFC, you probably win since you dont have "fatigued" legs and a rampant case of the wrong-final-touch'ies. all of a sudden LA is sitting in the CCL semi's, would still be considered the cream of the crop in MLS by a wide margin since it was the b-squad that lost to RSL (and hence wouldnt have counted at all). bruce is an idiot, where he failed miserably it was Kreis succeeding masterfully, finding the right balance of player time between CCL and MLS.
At least in terms of prioritizing, saying what is important and putting out line ups that back up your talk, and being humble about your opponents "The Jason" > "The Bruce". I think it was "The Bruce's" arrogance that cost them. They were already looking past Toronto. He figured they could try and get a result against RSL then sleepwalk through the Toronto game. I thought about halfway through the season people would realize they aren't head and shoulders better than the rest of the league (though still one of the best). I didn't dream it would be only 2 CCL games and one league game before crashing to earth (and having given up 7 goals).