I called the groin injury on Wingert as he was getting subbed off. Pat me on the back. You could see him favoring his right. (Insert "fanboy staring at wingert's groin" joke here) TFC came out with a solid game plan. They really pushed Borchers and Schuler, not allowing them the time to pick out Javi and Kyle for a solid build-up. It was going quite well for them until the PK. I thought their DM Hall was doing a really good job of disrupting a lot of plays and possession for RSL in the beginning. However, that was in place of Osorio, whom I think would have served them much better. I hate Jackson, and glad he didn't play. Bradley is really good. Believe the hype in him. He gave great service all night, anticipated passes and flow very well. On a better night he scores a couple of his chances (off the post and another just wide of the top right corner in the 2nd half). He is definitely individually better than Kyle IMO, but he doesn't have a solid and consistent team around him. If TFC can find the right role players and get Henry off his roid-rage idiocy (or scrap him altogether), they would look pretty damn good. That said, RSL looked fantastic. Schuler really locked down everything that came near him, and very calmly played the ball out of the back under pressure. He was AMAZING. I know Javi played lights out, Sabo did very well, Gil was all over the place etc... Schuler was my MotM. Toledo is a baffling ref. Seems to call everything one way for 10 minutes, a timer goes off, and then calls it all the other way. Weird. It would have been much more aggravating had the game gone the other way. My favorites tonight were in about the 43rd when Defoe traps the ball by cradling it in his lap with his arms, and then Beltran gets called for fouling him. the yellow on Schuler for completely winning position and possession before Gilberto screams in there, who then writhes in dramatic pain on the pitch for a couple of minutes (Javi was pretty bad about this tonight too). Very fun game tonight. The over-rated cheer was brilliant. TFC will be pretty damn good next year if they can keep their players healthy.
Just got back. Looks okay except for the middle, which is practically dirt. Maybe it's the better lighting, but it looks worse than last week. Noticed these two games there's been a groundskeeper carefully watering one of the corners. This game was fun. Polar opposite of the LA game. Less people but more chants and louder too. Not being a midday game is probably why. Hope Klinsmann had fun. I don't know how he'll defend not putting Beckerman in the starting 11 after tonight. I fully acknowledge my homer shades are 100% on while I say this, but him and Bradley would be the perfect CM combo for the USMNT. Beltran had a nice game too, defensively at least. That needs to be recognized. I think I'll hold off on posting until I get over the 3-0 high
Wow - fun game to watch! TFC was putting some pressure on in the first stretch, but the PK goal blew it wide open. There were stretches where RSL played so well that TFC just looked lost. The one touch passing was on point tonight. Schuler was indeed a beast, Wingert and Beltran handled things well. Rimando had one or two brief lapses, but got lucky.
One of our best performances in a while, maybe Luis Gil's best of all time...one of Schuler's best. TFCs D is weak and it showed. They had to foul & hack a lot to stop the attack. We were in their box all day...and dangerously so. Some good situational experiences for the young forwards. As for the half-empty glass - we had Defoe behind us a couple of times, and unmarked headers on crosses (Wow on Bradley's rockets, he just SCORCHES the ball) that missed...despite the shut out I still see our D as shaky. We had some awful give-aways (again). We gave up a lot of shots (again). They had a ton of dangerous crosses and corners - some quite lightly conceded and frankly we're lucky they didn't smash one in the net of some of those great Michael Bradley set pieces - at least the ones that aren't still rising into orbit. Henry fortunately skied his after knocking Schuler down. Thought their sub #22 was quite skilled. The highlight for me was just the domination of the midfield. Bradley had his moments in the first 30 where he read a lot of plays by Javi and Kyle and was disruptive. But as time went on Toronto retreated more and more to the Center, and even then they couldn't own it....Gil and Beltran and Morales were as good together on a wing as I remember...just eviscerating the defense and turning them left and right. Favorite goal for me was the amazing Beckerman/Morales/Saborio sequence. Precise, lovely. But hell, who DIDN'T play well? The subs were great. Coach Cassar made a nice tactical shift to use Garcia as a target to let Sabo play off him and get Olmes involved, and it worked. Give him credit. He seemed really happy/relieved with the win. Sitting midfield on the West you can really hear the East. It's much louder than in the North where little faces you directly. I have to say, I couldn't afford them, but the 100 Lions seats were a really really fun experience...especially for a match in which we played this well.
I have to agree with everyone here. The worst player was maybe Ned, but it's not like it was some kind of horrid game. Kind of like picking which supermodel is the ugliest. Schuler was in full on beast mode. I really love when we play the 1-2 touch game. It helps us flow, and keeps the defense moving and tiring out. By the mid point of the second half, you could just see space opening all over and TFC slowly moving around. They looked really tired. As far as the field, it seemed better than last week, but still has a ways to go. Thankfully the next home game is three weeks away, and I would assume the field will be miles better at that point. Before the game as we got to our seats, one of the RSL staff was talking to the people that sit in front of us. They were picking which minute we'd score in to win a framed jersey signed by the team. Their son picked the 5th minute, and they said it was too early and so he changed it to the 11th. That PK gets called and we score in the 11th. Pretty sweet deal. It was cool that the halftime contest was that guy picking Sabo to score next in the second half. Boom. Two free tickets + airfare to an away game. Pretty solid set of wins for those involved to cap off a great win.
Full value to RSL for the win. Congrats to you guys. Osorio was missed, and he's apparently out for couple of more weeks. Osorio and Bradley plays the double box to box CM role well enough, and lack of chemistry between Bradley and Hall was evident, plus the fact that Hall doesn't go forward, nor does he have Osorio's offensive talents. Made Bradley (who still had ok game) a bit more predictable to mark. Osorio would have made TFC's counter attack game so much more deadly. The kid can pass. And really, the only guy who can pass in TFC midfield was Bradley, and he end up resorting to over the top, direct passing to spring Defoe. Jackson may be a thug, but he puts in a lot of work defensively, and it showed. Mark Bloom is a RB, not RM. TFC doesn't have the depth that RSL, not yet. I'd imagine Issey Nakajima-Ferran would have started if he was signed last week, instead of just 2 days ago. A lot of TFC players had an off night, combined with Nelsen's naivety tactically, leaving RSL to dominate the midfield by not adjusting the formation. (flat 4-4-2 isn't going to win many games vs 4-4-2 diamond with overlapping FBs, esp when TFC lost the possession battle)
Well, I had bought into the hype and thought there was no way we keep Defoe from scoring. Our defense was a little shaky at times but the midfield did well. I just hope the team doesn't buy into their own hype. Yeah we played great, but the midfield was given all the time they wanted. We aren't going to have that much space often. I wish Javi would stop looking for fouls so much. I was surprised when Dunny said he didn't draw one foul against LA last week being one of the most fouled players in the league. Maybe if he didn't look for it all the time the refs would be more willing to call it. I am glad Toronto calmed down. Their 10 minute stretch of yellows (one that could have been a red) had me worried. I thought they were just going with "if we can't keep up with them talent wise, then lets try and injure them out of the game". But after the three cards they didn't seem to try to kill anyone anymore. And Schuler, the victim of the ref evening things out. Finally, this game in my opinion is why you can't always go by number of fouls to prove who hacks more. We got called for 15 vs Toronto's 9. By know means do I think Toronto is a thug team, but RSL didn't look like the hackier team either.
But he could go all Ballouchy on TFC too. I saw a lot of scramble/hustle and some good skill, but not a lot of positive outcomes for his efforts.
I liked the "YOU SPENT TOO MUCH" chant after we went up 3-0 even better. I know there has been talk of the field conditions in here, how long does it take to get it up to professional standards? Apparently it was covered all the way up till the Thursday before the LA game. We really haven't had any snow in the valley this year so why was it covered for so long? It's just embarrassing watching the highlights and knowing that 80+ million watched this game - of course I can't complain too much with the way we played but you think with the style that we play we would be working extra hard to get the field in a better condition. Obviously I know nothing on the subject so maybe they are doing everything they can. Also does anyone have a way to watch the entire game? If I didn't record I'm probably out of luck huh? Also, does anyone have a gif or video of when Borchers shutdown Defoe and then stood with his arms up to the crowd with a "Are you not entertained" expression? It was the most cocky thing I have ever seen and was waiting for it to bite him the ass later in the game. But I would love to see a video of that. Javi was really starting to frustrate me, he went over the top last night. It was flat out embarrassing* at one point. *I use this word a lot.
Yeah, Javi was as bad as anybody I've seen. Also, I know you question the grounds people. However, I trust that they know how to maintain that lawn much better than we do. Maybe expressing disdain that we play so early in the year is a better response than "what are they doing?" I guarantee that the guys in charge of the field do, in fact, know what they are doing.
I will not say that Javi is above going down easily to try to get a well placed free kick or earn an opponent a card, but you gotta give the guy a break if he doesn't jump up after a hard tackle. He has been playing professional soccer for an astounding 16 years, has had a handful of serious injuries in that time that I bet still bother him off and on, and is currently carrying some sort of back injury. If you want to accuse him of going down easier than he should, I will give you that he does that once or twice a game, but if he goes down legitimately I say we can give him the benefit of the doubt that he is actually in some sort of pain or is trying to protect himself from another injury and let him stay down a little longer than some of our other guys. Maybe this is a little biased on my part as well, but when he goes down (at least last night) it does not appear that he rolls around acting, or starts chirping at the ref. When he goes down he stays down, collects himself, then brushes himself off and get back into the game.
This is one of the things that struck me that I failed to mention earlier, but my wife was sure sick of it by the time we went to bed. Not only did it get Olmes involved, but it allowed Sabo to run a bit more. Every game Sabo wrestles with large CD's for 90', which is damn exhausting. By giving the young guy with tons of energy the task to contend with them, Sabo made a lot more runs and played a lot more defense (which is sometimes not that great of a thing). It was a genious move to give the youngster experience and keep the old guy fresh and less frustrated. It was a better use of Olmes' energy rather than have him just sprint around the opposition's backline alone trying to force them to play the ball out hastily. It was obvious that we missed Plata. There were lots of passes to Olmes that I think Plata would have anticipated, but Olmes was not on the same page. God, I miss that little guy. BTW, Javi is well-regarded as one of the worst in the league at drawing slight contact and going down easily. He doesn't roll around in anguish as ridiculously as Gilberto did, but he goes down often enough. He's playing the ref and getting into the heads of the opposing team, making them want to give Javi a legitimate reason for being on the ground, which leads to cards. We have rose-colored glasses on for sure.
I was really impressed with sabo's work rate. He was all over the place. Usually he just kinda stays in the middle and waits for the ball to come to him. i thought the whole team was moving around better than usual. It was a great thing to watch.
While I didn't buy into the hype, it's pretty clear this season that you guys have seemed to finally be on the right track. Who knows if you'll make a solid playoff push this year, but it looks like you guys finally have the pieces that it could happen. Assuming you guys keep making solid moves in the transfer market, I could se you guys having solid runs over the next couple years. It seems evident so far that your depth is lacking, so a couple injuries could derail the season, but if your starters stay mostly healthy I can see you guys making the playoffs. Hopefully your FO is able to identify your weaknesses and makes the right moves during the summer and offseason and I can see you guys being a bigger power over the next couple years.
About the field. This is about as good as you're going to see it this early in the year. The grounds crew knows what to do, but there's only so much you can do in this unpredictable weather. It's snowing up here in Ogden, after a fairly warm day yesterday. Last week I remember it going from 70 one day, raining the next, and snowing the third. That's just the joys of spring in Utah. Thankfully we have three weeks until the next match, so I would assume the field will be quite a bit better looking. I'm always a little torn with Javi. He does seem to go down a little easier as of late, but at the same time, he's usually getting fouled without call. It feels like a hard situation to be in, because if he just pops up, then the ref seems fine not calling the fouls. If he stays down, it at least shows the ref that there was a foul there, even if it wasn't that rough. You see it called against our team all the time, soft fouls left and right, yet we don't always get the benefit of those same calls. I don't know what the reason is, but I can see why he does embellish a little, because if he doesn't, then the ref possibly doesn't make the calls for him. It feels almost lose/lose in a way. I don't really like when he goes down soft, but it's also frustrating seeing a foul not called, yet the ref calls a foul for nearly the same thing that happened vs Javi.
ONE. A pretty average sort of performance did the job and that's good enough. No need to go raking and criticising when the job is done. It's results that count not how attractive the football is
TWO. What has happened to the rising star Velasquez ? I thought he was a tremendous prospect bring something a bit different in flair and imagination to a team that is becoming more and more predictable. Has he failed to develop, gone on a bender, got an attitude problem, waiting for the moment?
THREE & FOUR Why is the pitch so poor? Watch Liverpool if you get chance and look at all the different places Suarez and even Sturridge pop up. Then close your eyes and imagine......