I posted my 15 thoughts on my blog thingy some points I want to bring up in this discussion: Nick Rimando is God... but he sure as hell struggles in owning his box. His punch on the last goal was weak as shit. Maybe it's a foul, but I seriously doubt you'll see a ref anywhere call that. Nicky doesn't own his box and it reallly kills this team when we try to lock down Shea Salinas was pulling Arjen Robbens all night and Tony Beltran was stupid enough to bite on it. HE ISN"T GOING TO GO LEFT TONY!!! STOP GIVING HIM THE MIDDLE OF THE ********ING FIELD!!! Remember how I said we wouldn't win this game without Schuler. This is why. We have no idea how to close out a game on a team that can cross/head well. Cassar's subs sucked, but his hands got tied, too. Grossman made sense to an extent but it just made us more narrow. Allen was a miss. And Salcedo came in to a situation he was never going to do well in. Honestly, nobody in the offensive aspect of RSL had a good second half. Gil, Grabavoy, Mulhollan, Allen, Grossman, Plata, Saborio all were shit to close the game. Lastly, the headers sucked, but the pressure on the crosses to get there was horrendous. PRESS THE BALL
Not to mention that on the last goal, there are more Hosers in the box than RSL people. If you don't press it, at least clog the crap out of it.
The crappy thing about dropping this game the way we did is that even though Wondo was likely offside on the first goal, it's been forgotten because it was overshadowed by our inability to hold a two goal lead at the end.
True...but a very difficult call to make. Very hard for the AR to both see the flick, and know the flick was from an offensive player, all while watching the runs through the box.
San Jose was going to score in the early going one way or another. That it came on an offside goal sucks, but the amount of space we were giving up around our own box was baffling.
I know it feels like a loss and you guys are upset, but look at it this way: We gave up two points in the dying seconds of the match. An extra two points last year would have put us in the CCL. Wait, that made you feel worse?
In terms of RSL's development as a team I could care less about Wondo being offside on his goal. What does concern me is that he was so ********ing wide open. The book has been written on Wondo, everyone and their dead grandma knows what needs to be done, it includes ONE bullet point: "MAINTAIN A TIGHT MARK." That's it, you give the guy space and he'll find a way to bury it. His entire goal scoring game is dependent on being in the right place at the right time and finishing around goal when lazy defenders give him too much space. In the replay it's Wingert who absolutely blows his mark on Wondo, he freaking lines up against Wondo on the wrong side and then lets Wondo get even more free as the free kick is taken. Sabo ends up getting shielded by Borcher's while marking Bernardez who flicks on towards goal and Wondo is wide open to redirect off his thigh.
Looking at the positives. Rsl id in the lad for the west. 2 points back on the supporters shield. The west is ours to lose! I'm really nervous about the la game on Saturday. I don't think our defense is ready for the attack of la.
They are going to be all butt hurt for giving up 2 goals at the end of the game and won't be able to bounce back. This is my opinion. I'm a pessimist.
Hmmmm…Maund, Morales, Allen and perhaps even Rimando all hurt now besides the people that missed the first two games (Schuler)
Meh, for some reason Lenhart just doesn't get me all that worked up. Obviously the reds/pks wouldn't go away with Lenhart, but he can do something most of our players can't and that is to pull cards and pks. I don't understand why we get so many reds/pks compared to other teams for what seem like less fouling by our side. Maybe other teams actually practice dives and drawing reds on the opponent where its against our philosophy-I sure don't know
The problem is it shouldn't have come down to Nick owning his box. The two clearances before the goal barely made it past the 18. If you can't clear the ball, just put it out of bounds. I blame that goal on the failed clearances more than I do Nick's failed punch. Our defenders have to do better at clearing the ball.
This is true, but it doesn't free Nick of blame. It was a team meltdown late. There wasn't a single RSL player that had a good game after the 70th minute in this game. Everyone and everything went to shit