I'm not able to go during the week, but if I was going into the store, I'd get there no later than 60 mins before the kick. Even with the expansion it's super crowded and still pretty slow. As for the stadium being empty at kick, it would be regardless. I'm sure the people that are always late would just adjust by 10 mins and be around the same amount of late. I'm one of those weird people that showing up to something on time makes me feel like I'm late. I'm usually a good 5-10 mins early to things, and about 30 to a game so I know I'll be in my seat on time. I just can't imagine paying for something and showing up 20+ minutes late.
First, congrats on the win. 3 pts is 3 pts, but not an impressive win by RSL who definitely is struggling with 4-3-3. This was a TFC back 4 that hardly played together, with an useless LB who can't defend (but surpringly had a decent game attacking), a RB with a habit of a bulldog (and got yanked early) and a 2nd year CB and another guy who just signed his pro contract. RSL should have taken full advantage of an inexperienced TFC backline. Though when Morales did get the ball, he did manage to create, evident by 2 RSL goals. As a neutral looking at RSL, I'd ask questions where the goals will come if Sabo becomes available and Plata doesn't return 100%, and will midfield keep getting slower as Morales and Beckerman get older. Finally, some replays from Simon Borg (I know...) TFC - RSL segment starts at 6:30 mark. Suggest first RSL goal could have been ruled offside on Sandoval on initial play, and pretty conclusive that Schuler slipped on Hagglund's no goal. http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2015...oal-and-potential-penalty-seattle-instant-rep
I feel like the better Attinella is playing the more likely it is he won't get a shutout. Poor guy, I really don't think you could've asked any more of him.
Sorry, what I saw was a player waiting for the match to come to him.not a player wanting to be part of the match. What exactly did you see that Jaime did well?
I thought he was doing pretty good in the first half. He was getting hacked down left and right. The second half wasn't as good, but it's hard to say if his knee was acting up by then or not. He did take a pretty good hit to the knee in the first half. Could say that about Olmes as well. Sorry that not everyone hits every shot perfectly. We could also talk about Olmes taking plenty of shots into the top rows as well, when a pass would've been far better.
Since he had zero shots, this is true. Another awful performance, after an okay performance against PHI. He had zero shots, 2 awful crosses, a poor passing percentage and zero contributions to any buildup or on the defensive end. Really haven't seen anything special from Jaime at all since his arrival. Afraid he may be our first DP bust (or maybe he's not a DP - but whatever). Can't wait for Plata's return. When he's back I'm expecting Jaime will be on the bench. Between Jaime and Garcia, I prefer Garcia. At least his faults are an act of commission - he's very active, just needs to improve decision making in final third. Jaime's sins are an act of omission - he's nearly invisible out there.
For some reason I thought Jaime had a shot at the keeper in the first half. That's what I get for being on the opposite end of the field, I guess.
Yeeeah not sure where all this positive criticism of Jaime is coming from. Hope perhaps? He is playing WELL under the standard of what you would expect of a DP. A DP striker with 0 goals and 0 assists? Are you kidding me? Not to mention he just disappears for large stretches of the game. He would have scored a nice goal if he wasn't offside therefore we should pay him more than 26 other players on the roster. If we hadn't spent so much money on him, and if the FO had never touted him as a phenomenal player we would all be begging to see him on the bench. I would, of course, love to someday eat crow, but until he proves us wrong he is a total bust.
Pot meet Dempsey. Dempsey meet pot. There's been a number of DP's that have come into the league and didn't do all that much before having it all come together. If he's not producing by the end of the year, I'm fine giving him the boot. I thought his play has been slowly improving. The offsides wasn't as bad as I thought it was in real time. His shot does show what he's capable of though. Time will tell whether he's a bust or not, but I thought he's been looking a little better each game so far.
How long do we get to use the Dempsey excuse before we realize that Jaime simply isn't as good or as vital of a player as Dempsey is? I'm glad Prime brought it up. I originally planned to mention Jordan Allen scoring before Jaime, but forgot. His shot shows what he's capable of? Trap a ball and shoot it? Yeah I did that several times in high school. (Now before you all go bigsoccer on me, I'm not saying I was better than Jaime when I was in high school, but rather what Jaime did when he was offside should be expected of just about every pro player, and does not warrant DP money). Maybe he'll turn out to be a decent player, but he's going to have to do a lot more than that to deserve a DP spot.
I'm not saying that Allen starts, but I question the other wingers inclusion at this point. Do we have no other options? Can Phillips start on the left and Allen on the right? Just saying...
How dare I compare Jaime to someone who is arguably a better player, who didn't actually do anything for quite some time when he came back to the league. Someone who was in a far better league than Jaime was, and had none of those pesky things to deal with like moving to a foreign country that you don't know the language of. By and large Dempsey should've come back to the MLS and made an immediate impact. How long was it before he did anything of note? Everyone knew what he was capable of, and yet he couldn't deliver. I just thing it's funny that by and large he gets a pass, but someone who is clearly not as good, has to be held to a higher standard. I just point out Dempsey, because he's the type of player that you'd think wouldn't need an adjustment period, but he did. I get that we all would prefer Jaime hit the ground running. But he played barely 3 minutes worth of game time last year, and we're working on a new formation this year. Add in all the personal things he's had to deal with. It's entirely possible that he won't make it, but I'm not going to write him off 3 games into the season. The funny thing is, the one guy that actually did make an impact from the get go, is the guy everyone seems to love to hate: Sabo.
Yeah it's a new formation. Growing pains are expected, though I'm not entirely sold on the 4-3-3. As terrible as everyone wants to believe this 4-3-3 is RSL is still one of four teams undefeated so far this season. Is that not what RSL did? They won the game. Soooo we're to ask where the goals are going to come from if our two best goalscorers don't show up this season? Yeah good question. I'd like to ask every other team in the league that question too. People worry so much about Morales and Beckerman. Beckerman is only 32 and Morales already has 1 goal and 3 assists in 3 games. I'm not too worried about either of them yet. The call is not as black and white as Borg would have you believe. While I personally would be furious if this had happened to RSL the ref said post game that he had warned the player several times about holding. His arm was indeed extended into Schuler as Schuler was falling. It sucks that he possibility had to pay for his previous transgressions, but when it's persistent like that you leave the ref with little choice. Anyway good game. Hopefully we see each other in the final!
I feel like the bold text proves my point. Every player is a gamble, but what you stated is why Dempsey is worth the gamble, and a player like Jaime should have to prove he is (ie Plata, Morales Beckerman). No matter what excuse you wish to throw out, and you gave plenty, the fact remains that Jaime has done nothing for us in the half season he has been here. The burden of proof is on him.
So Dempsey had a worse start before he scored (so far) but it's ok to make excuse after excuse for him, but we're supposed to hold a player that isn't on the same level, at a higher level? That logic makes no sense at all. If we used that as a benchmark, we wouldn't have Plata, or Morales for starters. I really would like to understand how someone in Jaime's situation should be held to a higher standard than Dempsey. Jaime moved to a new country, with a pregnant wife, to a country he doesn't know the language to, and the league he came from isn't EPL level. That's a whole lot of stuff to go through, on top of having to learn a new system + a new team. And then when the offseason hits, we decide we're going with a new formation. Meanwhile Dempsey had to: move back to the states, and adjust to Seattle's team/tactics. Dempsey is easily a better player than Jaime, and came from a far better league on top of it. If we're going to use some logic, Dempsey should've been lighting it up from the start. But he didn't, and his adjustment period should've been far shorter/easier. But hey, let's hold our guy to a higher standard for some reason. If we used those same high standards, then we would've ditched Morales before he settled, and Plata for sure would've been gone. From what I gathered, the DP tag is only due to the transfer fee involved, and not what we're paying him. IIRC, he's not even listed as a DP this year, but I guess we should still hold him to that standard as well, right? I'll fully agree that it's frustrating he's not scoring/assisting just yet. But you can clearly look at many DP level players in the league, and quite a few of them took a solid chunk of time before settling in and producing. I've felt he's improved a little each game. If he continues then I would think he'll start to provide soon. If he's still done nothing by the end of the season, by all means get rid of him.
How do you figure Dempsey had a worse start? Dempsey scored about 3 months into his tenure if I remember correctly (given he did play more minutes than Jaime). I'm not really sure why Dempsey's start was worse, though. Nobody is holding Jaime to a higher level. You're the one who keeps bringing Dempsey up. Those two weren't DP's. They earned their DP tag. Sorry, but expensive DP players need to live up to their expensive DP contract. There is wiggle room when a player is making $70,000 a year (Plata). Jaime is taking up way too much cap space to be contributing virtually nothing to our attack. Anyway this was the premise of my argument. Not that Jaime is awful, but that he just isn't worth what he's making. Again you're the one constantly bringing up Dempsey, and accusing us of holding Jaime to a higher standard. The only standard I'm holding Jaime to is his pay grade, and DP status. As of now he isn't living up to it. That's not Dempsey's fault. Whether that is the fault of his circumstances or not doesn't change the fact that he is contributing very little to this team. He should absolutely be held to a higher standard than Morales and Plata were. Again the difference is how much they are getting paid. If you're paying $70,000 for Plata then you don't expect as much output. Plata eventually earned his DP status and now will be held to a higher standard than he was before, and one similar to Jaime. That's just how it works in sports, and especially for a small market team such as ourselves because we won't be bringing in big names, globally proven talent. As far as his status I don't know the details, but he is still a DP: http://pressbox.mlssoccer.com/content/designated-players Again the burden of proof is on him. Once he starts performing to the standard of his contract I'll be pleased. Until then I'm not going to make excuses for him or pretend he's showing potential that he really isn't. Has he really improved each game? This last game I recall him sending in two absolutely atrocious crosses (we already have Beltran for that...and Jaime's were somehow worse than Beltran's), and offside goal, and drew a couple fouls. His best game was still last season against Colorado, and he has shown almost no improvement since then. If he doesn't start performing I hope the coaches don't take an entire season to realize it. Our team struggles enough in this new formation as it is. As I've said from the beginning, no matter how much you want to use adjusting as an excuse he has lacked the fundamental skills you expect of a high paid player. Do you think those horrible crosses he put in a couple days ago against TFC are because his wife was pregnant when they came to Utah?
So is Jaime now the super controversial striker we have to pick a side on now? Has that mantle been lifted from Sabo?
You act like outside influences won't affect performance. That's a lot of stuff to go through all at once. Don't act like you can just switch everything off during game time. I'd think the pregnancy would be pretty huge, considering you're now in a new country, you can't speak the language, you don't know the laws, and you're having a baby soon. While I'm sure he had help, there's got to be a ton of stress involved with all of that. I'm willing to mostly write off last season, because of the sheer number of things going on. The entire reason I even bring up Dempsey, is that he's a guy that's clearly better, and was moving back to his home country, and would have a lot less outside pressures. If it took him that many minutes to score, then why are we holding Jaime to an even higher standard? You keep saying Jaime a DP. He's really not. The only reason he's considered a DP, is due to the buyout clause. He's not paid at a DP level, so don't treat him like he is. It was the same thing with Sabo, DP due to buyout, not what RSL was paying him. IIRC Jaime prefers to play centrally, so I would expect him to not be the greatest crosser. Not even the best players in the world are great at everything. Players always have positives and negatives to their games. As a winger he'll certainly need to get better at crossing, or work his game to where he's cutting inside and relying on it less. Either way he's looked a little better each game, imo, and I'm willing to give him the season before writing him off. Edit: I'll drop it though. I've said my piece and probably took this for far too long.
This is a great point, and you left out that he also just had twins last season. Dempsey also had played in this league before, knows the players and the style of play. I'm not ready to give up on him just yet and more importantly RSL is not getting rid of him anytime soon. I think the bigger issue here is the 4-3-3 and specifically the fact that key players have publicly said they don't agree with the switch.
One thing that continues to frustrate me with Jaime is that Cassar will not give him 90. It's hard because he is the obvious choice for a sub. However, when you're trying to get a guy integrated into a system, pulling him out for a third of the match isn't exactly helpful.