Last home game of the season. Must win situation to have any playoff hopes. Things are very much stacked against the home side. We will for sure be missing KB and Sunny through yellow card accumulation. We also will likely not have Plata, Rusnak, and Savarino as starters. They all get back from their respective national teams on Wednesday. The day before this game. We might not have Nicky if the disciplinary committee goes back and watches the Portland game. So, yeah. This has disaster written all over it. So we'll naturally win 2-1 or something like that. I will be out of town (damn in-laws) and missing what will be the last home game of 2018. XI I think we'll see: Baird Bofo Kreilach Lennon Besler Ruiz** Acosta Glad Onuoha Herrera Nicky* Bench: Putna*, Barry, Mulholland**, Plata, Rusnak, Savarino, Silva
So not to much interest in this one on this site. Still thinking about making the trip up with my son. 15 if you have 2 tics I will buy them.
Yup. I think RSL has done a great job these last few games sucking the life right out of the fan base. Not making the playoffs just seems apropos and inevitable. EMBRATSU
family snatched them up there are loads of promos out there for $20 tickets, if not cheaper. I expect the crowd to be less than stellar for (hopefully) quite a few people's last appearance at the RioT. Not just players, but staff.
Savarino AND Plata are both starting today. Awesome for both of them (I think it's Savarino's first start for his country) but I'd say it's unlikely either plays any minutes on Thursday.
it's an international window, can the club reject it? Also, that's not something the club should be interjecting on, IMO. If the player feels confident enough with their national team to miss a friendly (when experiments can be made) then sure, stay home. But we don't have players like that. All of these players need these chances to prove to their national teams that they should be part of the qualifying squads. Every players dream is to play in the world cup, you don't just end up there. If you want to grind an ax, grind it with RSL and MLS. Why RSL? Because we opted out of the Sunday playing as much as possible. Which gave MLS, a league with an odd number of teams, a really easy out on who to not have play on "decision day".
That's my feeling. YNTs are one thing, but asking a player to sit out a senior game during an international window? You can't do that. Especially not to someone like Plata, who has made it such a huge priority to get back with his national team. The onus should be on us to make sure we don't play in international breaks, which is a choice that MLS has given clubs as far as I know. We just prioritized avoiding Sunday games. It sucks but the screw-up is ours, and these are the consequences.
With the number of starters missing this match I am not holding out much hope. RSL will need plenty of help if they want to stay above the playoff line this season.
It gives chances to other players. Though you would hope that players would get chances in different circumstances (like the manager rewarding training). Only one of the five players missing is one I've felt deserves to be rotated out - KB. The other four are the identity of this team. Missing them will make this team completely different.
It's a great opportunity for the backups to make a case for why they should get more playing time. I'd expect the temperatures to be in the mid-to-lower 50s during the game, which is about the best we could hope for in mid-October. From the players' perspective, it's probably close to ideal - warm enough so that ball doesn't sting when it hits you but cool enough to keep from overheating. With the way our roster will be decimated, it seems like our chances to get three points are about zip.
Just a guess, but I'm guessing this is especially true for Mulholland. He's 30, played 1 game all year, and had a long-term injury - that's 3 factors that bode ill for his chances of getting a contract for next season. If he gets the start tomorrow, I would guess he'll play as hard as he ever has.
That article is from May 21st, so I think he'll be available tomorrow. I for one would like to see Luke get another chance. I think he has been underrated on this club for a while. He's not a world-beater, by any means, but a more than capable backup. I tend to think this season would have been better if Luke had been playing instead of KB for a lot of the games.
I think he deserves the chance too. However, there’s no way Petke was going to or will play him instead of KB.
good catch What is weird with the Luke situation is that he hasn't been getting minutes while being in the 18 for the last few games. Even more weird is that he hasn't been with the Monarchs since his return to health AT ALL. Why? This club is so dumb sometimes... Word on twitter is that RSL will likely have to call in players from the Monarchs to makeup the game day 18. It was also said that there will be "interesting possible lineups" from the new Tribune writer. When asked to divulge, he said that Petke gets pissed if media posts any of that kind of stuff. Which... ok? Our media is so ********ing soft with him
I can;t find the meme, but I'm thinking of the beginning of Major League: "Who are there f*ing guys?"