What is your definition of success for RSL this season?

As far as I'm concerned the only thing that might be considered successful about our season is that we qualified for CCL. If RSL does anything in CCL, some people may look back on this season with some fondness.

And we won the RMC, but that is a given now.

I hope you knocked on some wood after you typed that.

Better than that, I put a great big smiley face.

Any one know how many games we lost to all of those? I wouldn't be surprised if we missed close to 100 games to our First XI.

I would much rather be an RSL fan the last 3 seasons than say... a sounders fan or LA fan(though both have plenty going for them right now)... Go down the list to lesser clubs and its even worse... We can still hold our heads high and call ourselves one of the elite clubs currently in MLS...

Y. Alvarez is looking like a good pickup... shuffle out some of the bench players and look for new prospects and we are good for another couple of seasons, which in turn should buy us time to find and start working on a new core group of players, whilst remaining near the top...

Every other league in the world a top of the table finish is considered a success... If we are constantly in the CCL and finishing in the top 4 with a chance to win the MLS cup and supporters sheild, I'll be happy...

counts based on being in the 18 - several games where beltran/wingert/russell rotated but were all in the 18, and several that andy subbed in - didnt count those as missed (coaches decision)

Games not in 18 for regular season(injury, suspension, call up)
Rimando -1
Borchers -3
Olave -10
Wingert -10
Beltran -8
Beckerman -5
Will -9
Andy -2
Javi -22
Fabi -6
Sabo -11

Total -87 (plus 2 for borchers, 1 olave, and 1 beltran in playoffs)

numbers inflated some from that early NE game that only tony and will started, kyle subbed in.

Interesting. Do the math and you find that, on average, there were 2.7 starters missing for each game. That means that, in an average game, there were 2-3 reserves starting and only 8-9 starters.

on a related note...wearing "victory" gold we had 1 win, 2 draws, and 2 losses in 2011. our only win came against wilmington in the open cup.

man work is slow today.

It's also a bit misleading as those 11 guys listed weren't considered our "first XI" for the whole season.
PJ was rightfully a starter at the beginning
Ned was in place of Andy for quite some time
etc

i dont think those numbers are misleading, and especially not for those reasons

pj was not a starter at the beginning. other than the b-team roster for the NE game he only started 1 other game - a game sabo was on intl duty.

ned was not in place of andy for quite some time. prior to the chivas/morales injury game, and also not counting the NE game, ned only started 1 game that andy did not.

many teams dont have a set "best XI' for every single game. sometimes you want a more defensive posture, sometimes more attacking depending on situation, home or away, match-up, etc. I'd say andy was in our best XI roster, but because of his age it is unrealistic to think he would start every game. thats why for the count i noted that games andy was used as a sub i did not count as a miss.

I will always maintain that this season was not a failure. It certainly was many things, disappointing, frustrating, unfulfilled, title less, and mostly one of the most grinding, grist mill of a season any incarnations of RSL has ever had to date.

Calling this season a failure though, is a harsh and unfair assessment in the least.

It certainly didn't live up to any of the expectations, grandiose or grounded in reality, that's for sure.

As a season filled with what seemed only to be lemons, JK and the crew nearly turned it all into what ever kind of lemonade you find most delicious. After losing more games to injury, suspensions and call ups than all of the previous seasons combined to make it to one game away from the MLS cup deserves much more credit than most seem willing to give right now.

The most painful and legitimate complaint is the loss in the CCL final by a team that if they had stayed healthy looked like the best team in MLS by far. If that team had stayed healthy and not won the USOC or MLS Cup then I believe you really could call this season a failure. That RSL team is a truly special team. Too bad it only played about 5 or 6 games together this year.

This RSL team, injuries, suspensions and every other lemon that fell in their way, in the end, with 5 games to go was still in the SS race. That is an amazing feat in and of itself.

I would be willing to wager that if you polled the team and anyone that has been around this franchise for any number of years that this season was with out a doubt the most challenging in RSL history.

None of this takes away from the fact that RSL did not live up to expectations. I get that.

To not win anything of real value with the players on this roster was not what was expected. But to not see the season for the success it was, lemons and all, is to disrespect how well RSL battled through every challenge placed in front of them. Never quitting. This team could have folded up like a cheap tent but they didn't. Other teams may think their seasons were filled with obstacles but we know better. Hell FCDallas just rolled up into the fetal position there at the end.

RSL may not have any hardware to show for the season and if the lemons are all you see, so be it. You're only making it worse. For myself, I'll enjoy a little lemonade.

Thanks RSL for every ounce of effort, grit and will it took to get as far as you did.

must spread rep. I agree 100%.

This is what you picked back in April:Winning the MLS Cup, the others are just gravy

That's what I'm sayin'!!!

I guess you are suggesting I am a hypocrite or that I had much more realistic expectations for RSL this season.

I did say this:

"The most painful and legitimate complaint is the loss in the CCL final by a team that if they had stayed healthy looked like the best team in MLS by far. If that team had stayed healthy and not won the USOC or MLS Cup then I believe you really could call this season a failure. That RSL team is a truly special team. Too bad it only played about 5 or 6 games together this year."

The RSL team that beat LA like a drum and took Monterrey to the brink was a great team. Better than great.

That team should be in the MLS Cup final and hoisting the cup.

I wonder how fans would have rated their expectations for the season AFTER Javi was assaulted? Maybe then expectations could have been tempered and the truly amazing accomplishments of RSL after Javi would now be appreciated.

It's all hindsight now and I know you were just giving me a hard time. Well deserved.

Great thoughts and I agree!