I felt that the substitutions by Cassar were odd. I can find that he is trying to pump the new kids, but the language of Gil walking out of the feel didn't seem like the normal RSL vibe you get. Plus, knowing the enormity of the game and needing to close it out, you don't put an 18 year old kid out there.
The MLS Live color guy (Jones?) said it best. To paraphrase, LA was extremely lucky to get this call. Friend played the Ref on that one.
I thought that Mulholland made a quick impact on the game. Also when Allen got the ball, he did exactly what he was suppose to, by killing the ball in the corner. Even the Grossman sub I felt was a good one. I liked all three subs.
The question for me is if this was exclusively a Plata thing, or something in the tactics of Cassar/Dalglish that differs from what Kreis typically employed.
I feel that JK would've been so frustrated by the Mulholland goal being called back that he would've infected the players and they would've stopped playing for a bit. JC didn't throw a tantrum and moved on and so did the players.
In hindsight, they seem like good substitutions. I don't take that away. But for example, why Allen over Garcia? I am interested in knowing as well, who is our defensive mid when Kyle is not there anymore? Was that Grossman?
I liked the subs. I would have kept Gil on and subbed Grabavoy myself. LA created EVERYTHING on the counter and/or from the space in front of our back wall. What Mulholland and Grossman were clearly tasked with was closing out passers in those spaces, or taking away the outside-line-to-corner-of-the-box pass they so deliberately tried to create again and again. For my money, Cassar saw a hot spot in his head and threw bodies at it. I'm cool with that.
BAH, I just went over to LAs board cause its usually fun reading how awful life is for them. Aside from one post that said LA was clearly the better team (not sure how you can clearly be better when rules state one team is defined as being better by scoring more goals. The ref screwed us out of one and tried to gift LA one and they still lost. You can cite all the stats in the world, the better team won), everyone there was positive about their performance and credited Nick for a great game. General level headed-ness, some even saying the PK was weak and they are glad the ref didn't screw us out of 3 points. BORING. I want DOOM and GLOOM. To any LA fans that might be reading this, BigSoccer isn't a place for reasonable ideas typed up in a positive, well thought out way. Its to take one result and blow it out of proportion and assume the same outcomes the rest of the year. Part of the joy of winning is seeing the other fans suffer and you ruined it for me. Thanks a lot
Im proud of the team. It may have been 11 v 14 with the refs doing everything they could to give LA the game but RSL stuck to it and pulled out the win. Hail Cassar!
The two frustrations with the reffing: The Mulholland goal called back The yellows given to RSL vs. the hard tackles by LA that weren't given a yellow. I don't like the penalty call, but it honestly could have gone either way.
The main referee difference between last night and a PRO-officialed game is that the PRO linesman would have wrongly called Plata offsides on his goal.
The times I've gone to the LA boards, they generally seem level headed and not overly homer. If you want that, check out SJ.
Not going to bother commenting on the crap reffing decisions, what I am going to comment on is the utter lack of yellow cards on the LAG. How did Riley stay on the field? He had 2 or 3 yellow worthy tackles (on top of his yellow professional foul) in the first half alone. Several tackles on Morales with some not even called left me scratching my head. And seemingly every type of foul called on RSL was completely ignored on the other side. Having said that, the defending and midfield was a cluster******** at times, lots of cheaply given away turnovers. I thought Maund acquitted himself well given his lack of experience. But we gave up A LOT of chances to LA and without Nick's heroics we might have lost this one badly. Lots of work to do still, but about what I'd expect from a team with a new coach in their first game back. Beltran was really poor, his side got ABUSED in the first half and his passing/service was pretty terrible.
uh... what? The subs won the game. Like has been said, I maybe would have taken of Ned instead of Gil. But in the end, those guys won the game. Mulholland came on as the diamond needed some energy - he brought it Grossman came on as Javi's ankles couldn't take another Sarvas tackle that went without a card somehow. he settled the game in - check Jordan Allen came on to give us a player that could burst the ball forward, but also put in defensive work. Switching our lineup to a 4-5-1. - check Cassar's subs were spot on. They earned us the goal and didn't allow LA to win the midfield at the end like they wanted. Yeah, Gil looked pissed to be coming off, but that's what happens when you disappear from the game for so long like he does.
Was impressed with how intelligent Allen was with the ball. Most 18 year old kids would have taken a chance at goal in that situation. It was very smart of him to take it into the corner. The kid seems very mature for his age.
I liked the subs, and agree with what 15 said above. Just because they weren't the subs Kreis would've used doesn't mean they were poor or strange. I celebrate the differences!
Gil really wants to be the man out there, but disappears at times, and the 2nd half was a prime example. As mentioned, Mulholland saw more of the ball and was way more dangerous is his small amount of time than Gil showed the whole game. As a quick aside, just a pet peeve, I hate it when people say it SHOULD have been 2-0...if the first goal had counted, it is extremely unlikely RSL would have continued attacking, so the Plata goal wouldn't have happened. Congrats to RSL for just ignoring what may have been the worst offside / phantom foul call we may see this year and going out and getting the goal. Nice composure from Plata (something he was NOT known for last year).
Agreed, you could see him going through that thought process as well and he made the right choice taking it to the flag. He had some pretty good moves to get the ball and himself into space on the sideline to get to the flag as well. I was pretty impressed with the kid.