We play all our games at home and just maybe we take the supporter's shield.....We play all our games away and just maybe we take the wooden spoon.....We play all our games against RSL and we go to the World Cup.....
Calling this a B+ team is being too kind. RSL had 6 players out with injuries: Chad Barrett, David Horst, Jordan Allen, Tony Beltran, Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman And had 5 players who were in the projected starting lineup, yet started the game on the bench: Chris Schuler, Albert Rusnák, Luke Mulholland, Jefferson Savarino, Yura Movsisyan. This has "punt and rest players for Wednesday's game" written all over it.
I know Caldwell was playing on the right side of the diamond, not centrally - but that late run into the box on his goal was reminiscent of Andy Dorman. I'm claiming an assist on the second goal. I was seated at the corner flag, and yelled, "Lee, where's Kai?" prior to his corner kick.
Well, I figured Hispanic Heritage Night was such a big hit with the Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans who showed up for Nachos than reminded them of home, so why not have Pho and Kim-Chee at the concession stands (not to mention "Strange Flavor Chicken," which I've seen on more than one menu) for Japanese Heritage Night? Did the Fort sing "Everybody Was Kung-fu Fighting?"
Regarding substitutions: 66' Kobayashi replaces Caldwell - I'm still puzzled by how often Caldwell is subbed, but he had a yellow card, so this made sense to me. 67' Femi replaces Kamara - Kai missed a couple of matches (and presumably some training), so this made sense. Would like to see Brian Wright the next time we are killing off a match. 81' Watson replaces Rowe - 81st minute seems about the right time to insert Watson, compared to recent history. I also liked that he was in midfield, rather than in the back 4. Is this how Heaps will introduce Koffie? Nothing like having a 4 goal lead, but I will say Heaps' substitutions pissed me off less than in the past several weeks.
A result against a team that was missing a ton of starters -- and if they benched other starters, obviously didn't really give a shi**te. Great result kudos--- Splash of reality -- all the teams below us in the Eastern Conference are within 3 points and have a game in hand on us (as does the team that is ahead of us.) A loooongg way to go.
As I said pre-game, we've lost games in this situation before, so it was nice to get the three points. Not much else to be taken out of a game when the opponent had 14 field players.
DF14 makes MLS Team of the Week: 2017 Team of the Week (Wk 11): Fire, Union feature after statement wins May 15, 2017, 2:02PM EDT Charles Boehm
Looks like RSL's plan worked, as they beat NYC 2-1 last night. Schuler, Rusnak (goal), Mulholland, Savarino and Movsisyan, as well as Rimando and Beckerman, all returned to the starting lineup.
I've got no problem with teams punting their games against us, so they can put the full team on the field for another game later in the week. I wish everyone would do that!