What a great game to watch! It's great that we won, but I would have enjoyed the game even had we lost. Tremendous ball movement on both ends. Two different styles and both of them working successfully. Three on the road! LAG currently losing 0-2 at half at home. Sounders lost at home. Just a nice day for the claret and cobalt.
Let's see if we can get a picture of Kyle Beckerman's goal in the dictionary as the definition of "steal".
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO, thanks SO MUCH to nsps for hooking me up with a ticket last minute, wasnt sure i'd be around for the game and he came up huge. soooo glad i made it to the game. way better than last year. i took about a million photos, i'll upload and share when i'm much more sober. maybe tomorrow.
I was so bummed during the later portions of this match, I wanted to slam Beckerman, and then Steele for making a couple bad passes and then, what the ********! we won!! Soccer is a funny sport. Not ready to buy a Steele jersey, and will not yet ready to sell my Beckerman jersey, but I cannot be upset with 3 somewhat lucky points.
and oh ya, im ********ing hammered drunk. WOOOOO!!!!! good showing by the RSL fans that made it up, even if they did stick us up about 15 rows higher than last year.
Is it just me or should that've been a red on the handball? It's one thing if it just hits the hand, but to swat it like that? I felt both team had some good stretches. I would've been happy with a draw and it felt like that was all that was going to happen. I'm soooooo glad Steele doesn't get his foot on that last cross or Beckerman likely whiffs it. I was screaming at the tv when it wasn't passed to an open Morales in the box then I'm still screaming when Beckerman hits the volley. Can't ask for a better finish to a game!
If Nat can get a red for kicking the ball off a player and over the endline. Definitely a red. But that's MLS officials. With a precision pass like it was, I thought it was Javi too. Great play by Espy. I give myself a little credit. In the 83 minute, I said to my wife, "They're going to win this." RSL could have settled for 1 point, but they kept pressuring. Awesome job.
From any neutral perspective, there were 4 amazing goals tonight. You've got 2 incredible volleys, but on the final 3 goals of the night there were some great passing sequences to make them happen. You've easily got 3 GOTW winners just off those last 3 goals tonight, and whoever wins it this week deserves it.
Agree on the props to Paulo - best he's looked in a long while. Sabo's due for a big night (please be against Colorado), he's getting awfully close. Good start to the 3 games in 8 days. The rotation of starters looks wise. It will be interesting to watch that theme. Anyone beat up after tonight or did we come out pretty healthy?
Everyone came out healthy, one dude freaken the eff out when RSL scored the equalizer right in font of the RSL section and had to be restrained by his friends, but otherwise was fine. I got pics of the guy.
Is that the guy you can hear freaking out on the highlights? Just cursing up a storm right by the corner where the players were celebrating?
Just got back to the hotel room. That was one of the craziest games I have been to. Our small section was loud and proud tonight at Jeld-Wen. Overall a great weekend. It was cool to see the Timbers Army in person. They have a great fanbase and many of them welcomed us to their city and thanked us for making the trip.
Cheers all! Glad to meet the folks that made it out. I'm hurt by the ending though. I can't believe it. You might have seen this on the TV, but when the Timbers scored, the people watching from the roof of the apartment popped off some flares:
What a game! The RSL team I hoped would show up did. One that keeps their head in the game and not let reffing, scores or anything else get in their way. Haven't seen the first half yet, but thsnks to mls live I will be enjoying it soon. Still so much room to improve but having Will, Javi, Sabo on the field made RSL look pretty sweet last night. Johnny 'hard as' Steele, still working on a nickname, came in and showed much better. That was one nifty piece of skill to dribble by two and shoot through another and past the keeper. This team is deep. Unlike, oh I don't know, LA? Still a long season to go but what a nice bounce back from chickens@#t chivas and come from behind in Portland. Nice for Kyle to make up for that first goal which was all on him. RSL needs to stomp on Montreal early and often. No jack potting around. Go RSL!
Has anyone noticed that in the last few games RSL is putting up some insane possession and passing stats? Last night and vs Chivas. Outpassed each by 200 passes in the game and possession was 62%-38%. These are some really lopsided numbers. Also pass completion % was well over 80%. The only thing that seems to be lacking is quality finishing. Sabo looks to be close to a breakout game as many posts and quality saves that have been made against him recently. RSL has had two defensive weaknesses this year. 1) counterattack. 2) the high ball. Gotta clean it up.
I believe there was a tweet prior to this game that the only two teams above 80% passing in each game during the season so far was RSL and NY. Rimando tweeted last night that the Timbers Army picked up their bar tab. That's some classy stuff right there.
The very partisan game announcers for Portland (that was the Direct Kick feed) said that they thought he was lucky to escape a red.
There are officials who will not show a red in that situation because its a triple whammy against the offending team: PK, player ejection and player not available for next game. Their reasoning is that the PK is sufficient reward. Regarding the incident last night, I have to agree with the reasoning. Does anyone here really believe that Grabs would have scored? I don't. The PK offered a MUCH better chance for a goal than Grabs attempting whatever shot he would have had.
So? He's clearly being denied a goal scoring opportunity. He's the last man. He's in the box. Like I said earlier, if his hand doesn't move, I would've been fine with the yellow as it's more incidental. He clearly swats it. I'll agree that the PK was a better scoring opportunity because we all know Grabavoy isn't the best goal scorer. In the end it doesn't matter much and as a whole I do like the Timbers organization. Overall I'd say the ref had a good game but I do feel he didn't make the right call there.
In the US it is an unsettled question. The USSF has published that a red card for handling is for when the ball would have gone in but for the handling. Under this standard it was not a red card. But it is a yellow card when a player handles to break up an attack so it is at least a yellow. There are many referees who feel that the standard is set too high. The offence is "denies a goal scoring opportunity," not "denies a goal." I agree with this. There have been signs that the USSF is softening their stance. So although I disagree with the call I am giving the ref a pass on this because he was following the USSF instructions.
There are two separate offenses you are mixing up. DG-F is the one that includes consideration of the number of defenders (commonly, but inaccurately called "last man"), along with distance to the ball, distance to goal, and direction of the play. DG-H applies to handling, and per USSF, the only consideration is whether a goal would have been scored but for the handling. As I said earlier, I think the call was wrong butthe fault is not on the ref or MLS, it is on the USSF.