Four claret shirts surround one creamsicle and BAM! Shows over. Brilliant strike. Time to crack open another beer and chill in the back yard. No use losing sleep over this one. One more thing: Thank God(s) for Nick Rimando. How many times have those very words traversed my scattered mind? How many synapses have fired in the name of? We sing these praises, oh Lord, and glory in His name.
yeah, Rimando had some great saves. and of course Dixon had to be a douche and score with the last touch. (I don't really think he's a douche... that was a great goal.) What a great first MLS goal to have. seriously. Entertaining game. In the end, Houston wanted the win more, and deserved to get it. Other than some very soft giveaways... I think RSL held up pretty well.
What a naibiter till the end there. Mini Hugo Chavez was a beast in the posts. He's one of those guys that unless he plays for you, you hate his guts for stopping such potentially great goals by your team.
I wouldn't call him a "starter". But, he's definitely high in the depth charts and tends to start now that he fills Morales's roll reasonably. When Javi comes back we'll see if he moves to another position or to the bench. I'm betting bench to come in for Javi at the half to 60th. He's played outstandingly, I think. He did make some unfortunate errors last night, as did others.
Stating to feel a little bit like a Rapids fan getting sucker punched in the last seconds of matches against RSL. Espindola was the man of the match and Real Salt Lake died when he was subbed out. Now instead of having a team challange for Shields, Cups, we can cheer our teams efforts of at least making the play-offs. With such a road heavy schedule and the teams current form it may prove to be a real challange. Hard to believe how far this team has fallen since our subs distroyed New England early this season.
I think the fallen is the drive from within the team to be the best. Last night after we'd go up one goal it seemed like the team took it's foot off the pedal thinking that a one goal lead was "ok". After being equalized twice on them, the rush to grab another goal failed them. In the dying minutes of the match RSL seemed utterly content with a tie. Which great we'd get a point, but when we outright attacked we owned the game, when we started to bunker we lost momentum and Houston turned the tide. Something to start worrying about as RSL fans, we are creeping further and further from the playoffs. As it sits now, we're in a playin game not a seed. This team can't be satisfied with a tie anymore, it can't afford to let off the gas, and it can't keep pining for Javi to come back and save us.
Yes he does. Espy works so hard most of the time but saborio doesn't. Garth however should of seen this and continue to bring forwards this year on loan or a trade. Alvarez, junior, and worthless reserve forwards are all we have now.
So frustrating. I thought a few of the team showed some real spirit but there was some real panic on the pitch in the last part of the match. Man, I really thought RSL would pull this one off.
I worry about this too, but I'm not in the locker room. From a purely objective standpoint we're not as athletic or as fast as most teams, especially with Olave and Johnson out, and that's complicated when we lose so many starters and aren't possessing as well (which is our counter).
Another angle from Alex Dixon's goal and the Dynamo postgame reaction [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X36l4HI3zgc"]Keeper Notes Ep 15 - Dynamo vs Real Salt Lake - 08/20/2011 - YouTube[/ame]
Espy was genius too bad everyone else decided when he left the pitch they could too - mentally. If the sub was for any other reason than injury (which looked to be the case) then Kreis should shoulder quite a bit of blame for this loss. Espy was simply destroying them in the space between their CB and outside backs. Apparently Paulo has lost ALL chemistry with this team. Sabo flicks a ball on with his head and PJ, instead of being 8ish yards away to anticipate it and run onto it is only 3 yards away and watches as the ball goes over his head and out of his reach. This team can be really painful to watch. Lastly, Rimando did make some incredible saves, but he had a wonderful assist on their second goal. If he has better awareness (which doesn't make sense why he didn't in that case) then the corner never happens. Oh, and Robbie Russell still sucks major ass at defending.
Farewell to the past, leave this one in the rear view. We can go through life with a lot of weight on the cross, or carefree. The stewing after this loss is the heaviest I've seen, so i suggested an emotional/narrative enema of thought diarrhea. To 15's point - Espy was genius. Between he and Rimando we had a shot at points.
Espy seemed to come back quite a bit for defense as well. He was all over the field. Reminded me a bit of the way Rooney played last year, dangerous up top but was frequently coming back and playing some solid defense.
I put that one on the defense. Rimando can't know who is behind him; his defenders have to let him know he's under no pressure and can let that ball go. It was a particularly galling goal, though, since the corner was entirely unnecessary.
his defenders have to know who is behind him and yell it to him? Thats like saying a forward should know who is behind his midfielders... the keeper should always be aware of his surroundings. Nicky had been doing great all night on knowing when to come grab a ball and when not to. That time, for whatever reason, he simply fell asleep and didn't check over his shoulder before the cross came in. You can't blame Russell - or anybody - for that one. Nicky should have checked. His error. We paid for it (no thanks to Russell's marking)
Absolutely on that one. He was out to the side of the goal - he has to get it because of the way the play developed - cross over to the far side of the goal, sailing over Rimando's head. He can't look behind himself while eying the cross, but on the play you can see Schuler and Borchers watching the ball and facing Nick - they can see whose behind Nick (or not). Easy enough to call out in that situation - communication goes both ways.
Both parties are at fault on that corner. The defense gets some of the blame for not communicating better...all you've got to do is shout "leave it!" Rimando gets some of the blame for not knowing the lay of the land. The fact that he was eyeing a cross is irrelevant -- the GK should be checking the back post every few seconds anyway. If he had done that, he would have known that nobody was there.
This Yeah, the CB's could have yelled back at him. But they trust Nicky knows what he is doing (wasn't it just moments before that he let a cross go from the other side?). Rimando's at fault for giving up the corner. Not sure how you could blame anyone else. Russell is at fault for the guy winning the header. He lost his mark almost instantly.
