Academy kids are apparently a go: Lalo Balchan/Maund/Salcedo/Guy Fleegman Grossman/Glad/Velazquez Jaime/Sandoval/Findley EDIT: Not Guy Fleegman, just Mansally. Couldn't remember . . . Only starters on the bench are Wingert, Grabavoy, Schuler, and Gil. Attinella, Lopez, and Olmes round them out.
So everyone is healthy except Jordan Allen and John Stertzer, no? All of the other people who don't normally start are in the game or on the bench tonight.
Bonus Rain Game B. What's with the non-MLS games being mostly rainy the last couple years? Sadly kept most of the crowd away - only ~40-50% full despite being a [POAP][final STH trade-in] game. Decent game. Mostly second team lineup that looked pretty good for some stretches, with some nice tikka takka passing for a while. SRFC had a lot of corners, but not much dangerous play - few real worries for Lalo. Not sure if they were using their usual lineup, but they made a good number of subs in the game. Justin Glad looked good until he went down hard and hit his head on the ground - got pulled right after that due to past history of concussion. Seba played relatively well, usual dribbling too much, but better on D and had a nice goal near the end of the game. Defense was generally solid, with Mansally looking very good. Forwards were active and decent pressure and defense, but not a lot of dangerous threats.
Should have skipped this one to be honest. I've seen training skirmishes more entertaining than this game. Some random thoughts: Balchan had a lot of swagger for someone who hasn't really played in a long time Already been said, but Glad is seriously the real deal. He made a lot more mistakes today but I think that just came with the position he was is this time. I'd love to see him get some time with the first team. I don't think I've ever seen such a narrow 4-3-3 in my entire life What was the point of passing the ball to Sandoval? Pure give away machine tonight. Maybe you can blame it on the rain, but his hold up play was really weak. Not to mention he's so slow if his first touch knocked the ball more than a step ahead of him he would be beat to it by some guy from a couple yards away Give the ball to Jaime damn it. Why were we so stingy with the subs? BENJI SIGHTING I'm glad Velasquez got rid of the crazy hair, but it makes it a lot harder to tell who he is That's all I got, Goodnight.
It cracked me up, because there was a few times when we'd have Sandoval and another forward making runs, and they'd try and send a through ball to Sandoval, who immediately would get beat by the defender. You'd think in all the training sessions and live play, if you have two great options for a through ball, Sandoval is at best the 3rd option. The first choice is play the other player, second choice is to just try and dribble through yourself.
Thanks for the reviews. I watched this one on and off from home. Somehow I found the release of Shadow of Mordor MUCH more entertaining... I happened to catch Seba's goal at the end just as I tuned in to see what the result was. Hope there's a replay available for that one. Recap: RSL 2-0 Sac
How is that game anyway? I've heard it's good, but I honestly didn't know anything about it until about a week ago. It will probably go on the list of things to buy when its 50% off or more on a various Steam sale.
Thoroughly amazing... I pre-ordered it in August and it was well worth the wait. I don't want to derail this thread so I'll just say that.
I'm sure it was more entertaining than the game was. The game overall was ok for what it was. It was just hard to watch because you have a team on 3 days rest after winning the league, and you had us playing a bunch of people that don't normally get minutes. It was fun seeing some of them like Glad, but overall it was a pretty meh game.
10 Thoughts as I peaced out 2/3 of the way through this one It was really weird to not have LBR banging non-stop on their drums. It's too bad the weather kept a lot of fans away as this really could have been a fun night of singing/chanting. you could actually hear the guys in the south end from the north. That was nice What a boring ass game. After the Tijuana one I was hoping that there would be a similar amount of pride. Neither team seemed to really give a shit. You can understand given SacRep just played in their championship game, but I didn't think the drop off would be THAT much. Justin Braun still sucks. All speed but no true soccer talent. Don't get me wrong, the guy deserves to be a professional at the level he is, but that's it. Seeing him get subbed off with a minute left in the first half was bizarre. Did Preki think he would get a standing o or something? I gave the kid the proper "REJECT!!!" yell he deserved. Why play a 4-3-3 if you're going to just go more narrow? Like was said earlier, that was the most narrow formation I've ever seen this team play. And we play the ********ing diamond! Really was not a fan of the way it played out. If it is something this team explores, they need to be creative with it. Better/faster midfielders with forwards wanting to get into the channels on the wings. Big Dev looked lost. Having him at the top of the formation just pretty much summed up the way the game was going to go. We couldn't string anything together and it largely had to do with his complete inability to hold the ball up for us. The left back for SacRep couldn't cross a street. I've never seen a professional player beat a guy so much on the wing just to completely shank the subsequent cross. In general, this SacRep team couldn't cross the ball to save their lives. Their only dangerous options were when they would cut in and cross a shorter distance on the floor. SacRep did have talent in the middle of the park, though. Lopez, in particular, looked like a guy who could possibly play as a role player at the MLS level. SHOOT THE GOD DAMN BALL!!! The pair of academy products (Salcedo and Glad) looked really good. I particularly like the style of play from Glad. He keeps things simple but is always looking for a dangerous option. I don't think midfield is his calling, but was excited to see the versatility. Sebastian Jaime looked completely lost with this group of players. Zero chemistry. Really, that whole unit lacked chemistry. It was what you could expect from a friendly 3 days after a real game. Nobody was really going into tackles and nobody was making big runs. Please make champions league or USOC next season, RSL. I don't much care about the season ticket holder perspective. I just want to go to a game on a Tue/Wed at the RioT and have it mean something.
Dunny mentioned that he had spoken with Braun before the match and was saying that he was feeling really tight and cramping up a bit and new he wouldn't play much. Apparently he wasn't feeling so great in their championship match a few days before as well.
I was pretty impressed by Sacramento Republic. I was more impressed that they apparently got their socks from a Sheer Energy Leggs egg.
More importantly, was there a Justin's Mom sighting? We were sitting at the top of section 26 for this one and it seemed like there was a big group of family/friends for Braun. All I kept hearing whenever the ball got close to him was, "Go, Justin. C'mon, Justin." etc. Seemed to be an all male group, though, so I missed a chance to meet the most famous family member.
Hey, if it works for Joe Namath! Wow, how old does that comment make me? For you young 'uns, here's the background:
"Joe Namath swaggering off the field. His sideburns are an apogee of sculpted sartorium the foppish follicles pioneered by Ambrose Burnside, Appomattox 1865."