RSL Offseason News Thread 2011-12

http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2012/03/fernando-clavijo-named-technical-director
Clavijo is at Dallas

so...
how can we get Brek Shea or Fabian Castillo off of them?

surely a guy like Johnny Steele (no offense to the guy) is worthy of a trade for one if not both.

Seems like with Ellinger AND Clavijo now there we should be able to get a deal done.

Maybe they could hire Pastorino and we could get some International Slots back...

Break Shea + Ferreira + Castillo + 3 international spots for Steele, a roll of duct tape and some pocket lint. get er done Garson.

******** that
we need that duct tape. have you seen Wingert's eye!?
we'll trade them Xango field for 3 million dollars and all of the above players/international slots

Must spread rep, which is funny because I rarely use the feature.

I really did LOL at this.

Maybe we can acquire Ballouchy instead of sending duct tape, and ship him w/ Steele for those three? 15 seems to be adamant about the duct tape...

Great article in the trib: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/53660668-77/rsl-season-released-team.html.csp

Love to see the honesty from Garth.
It's results that matter. No more moral victories, no more playing better soccer but losing, no more toothless possession.

Win or start over

Mark Rogondino is a moron:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2012/03/08/2012-mls-season-preview-built-home-depot-power-players
go to the 4:00 mark. His answer makes zero sense to me

Not to play the role of Debbie Downer, but in that same article you've got this quote from Jason:

This bothers me on a couple of levels. But the most concerning is that his statement stands in direct contrast to what Garth said. Garth says "we gotta win", JK says it's "not about results".

In my organization I'm like Kreis: My boss is the general manager of our company, and my direct reports are the ones who get the real work done...similar to players. The biggest thing I've learned in this job is that my boss (the GM) and I need to be on the same page with regard to our vision and our expectations. If we're not, the "players" who report to me are screwed because they don't know what matters most.

The fact that there is a fundamental disconnect at the highest levels of the team worries me because I've made this mistake before and it never ends well.

wow, facepalm. i'm sorry, but when you have a case study proving his exact point COMPLETELY wrong, just last year, then you are a complete idiot. yeaaaa, RSL is so dependent on their big guns that they missed pretty much every single big gun last year for various stretches of the season and still finished 3rd.

FAIL.

maybe (probably) I'm reading into this too much, but he is the spokesperson for LA. They are rather open (video interviews with players) about their fear of RSL and our style. Maybe this was more of a "I sure as hell hope they are dependent on their big guns" rather than "oh, for sure they are"

I think those quotes were asked with different contexts.
Garth was asked what is the expectation for the season.
Jason was asked what is the expectation for right now (Saturday).
Wingert's comments, at the end, go back to the view point of Garth. I'm pretty sure Rimando was saying the same thing.

I'm fine with Kreis not worrying heavily on results at this very moment. He is worried about getting healthy. That makes sense. He has to know, though, that the big picture is wins.

I think Kreis has been consistent on this topic over the years. He feels like the best way to get results is to focus on the little things. It's kind of along the lines of the best way to swallow an elephant is in small bites. It's too overwhelming to try to tackle it any other way. I think this has been a big part of the success that Kreis has built.

I think this is congruous with what Garth is saying, but it's reflective of the different roles that they have. If Garth is the manager on a big residential housing development and Kreis is the construction foreman, Garth might say "We need to have these 200 houses built by the end of the year." However, Kreis wouldn't necessarily be focused on this with his team (although they would all know that's the ultimate goal). Instead he'd focus on pouring the foundation, doing the framing, getting the roof in place, getting the electrical and plumbing done, having all the fixtures and finishing work done, etc.

The other part of this is that he has veteran leadership among his players. He doesn't need to warn them that they must win or else, they all know that. He needs them to focus on how they mark their opponent as a team, how they build out of the back, what kind of passing he wants to see, etc.

I've got a question for Rogondino: how have you still not figured out who scored for RSL in the 2009 MLS Cup final?

I'd follow up with: how are you still employed?

Ives posted his RSL preview. You can read it here. I thought this was funny:

When did Wagner become a key player? I only remember seeing him take the field in a season game once.

Not only do they list him in the "key losses" section. They also list him later on as a proven midfielder that we lost and are replacing with unproven talent. Funny, I would have listed Andy Williams there before Blake Wagner...

we got picked to win the SS...
http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2012/03/09/2012-mls-season-preview-built-home-depot-predictions

Seeing Wagner as a 'key loss' I laughed like hell.

It also saved me the time I would have spent reading the rest of the article, or any further previews.

Ghost Writer Scrub: "Ives, how many readers do we have in Utah?"
Ives: "Two words: Auto Pilot"