I think not subbing Plata to give Baird a go by about the 70-75 minute would have been nice. The second half was crying for some on field leadership and I thought giving the captain band to Krielach would have been a good choice and not Rimando. Where to place blame is a tough onewith plenty to go round. RSL fell back into bad habits where they take their foot off the gas when the get up a goal. When RSL shares the ball and finds team mates unselfishly they have the ability to really put it on teams and when they forget that and play like they did last night with Plata a main culprit this is the result. I think last night was on both coach and player.
I think the coaching staff will be kicking itself for this one. They completely mismanaged the 2 week break. Rather than ramping up conditioning and focusing on what has made RSL good, they gave the players days off. The players lost their edge completely, especially the younger ones. Kreilach noticed the problem early on and tried to fire the team up, but to no avail. Rusnak and Sava played with heavy legs. Plata looked like he, yet again, allowed his conditioning to go away. So, of the front 4, only 1 was playing worth a darn. That caused a lack of movement offensively and left the rest of the team to dink around waiting for ANYONE to make an effort to get open or dangerous. The staff forgot that they still have a LOT of young players who aren't truly professional yet, and got BURNED. I've heard some say that, at least they didn't lose; but the truth is that 1 point or 0 really won't matter where they desperately needed 3.
Oh, and Besler's replacement needs to get fit immediately. I appreciate Nick's effort, but his lack of positioning and speed causes issues every single game.
so much this The break was at a terrible time for the team and really horribly managed by the staff. I get giving players time off for heavy legs, but this team was finding an identity in the games leading up to this one. To not jump on that and say "screw it" to the small possibility of injuries was a really big mistake. We won't be hosting a playoff game (see the chase thread) and this game is a really big reason why.
More than the break, though, this game was yet another example of how Petke really struggles to prepare his team for games in which they should win at home against a team that isn't awful but that RSL is better than. We had that 3 game stretch last year against the bottom teams in the league where we drew every game. This year we've had home draws with the cRapids, Minnesota, and San Jose. For a team that is really good at home, we're not really good in games we should flaunt it. It's bizarre. I mean, we got 3 points over NYRB but only 2 (in 2 games) against San Jose. How is that possible?!
This is now 8 points dropped at home from 4 of the worst teams in the league, SJ, Montreal, CO, and now MN. That would have RSL sitting in first in the West at 53 points, with one extra game over the Wiz (51), Dallas (50)
Was looking at standings. Here is something to make this game sting even more: Minnesota's Road Record 1-12-2. This is with the draw against us. Jesus Christ
Sting?! That's rubbing salt in an open flesh wound. Sad to say that that game was the first game I have ever left early. I was by myself anyway but after that second goal went in, ruled offside, I couldn't stand to watch another second of them standing around and passing the ball backwards. I left knowing I might get the "games not over chant" even but it was better than spewing incoherent expletives. I was pretty disgusted. But, it's just a game. That second half was truly atrocious considering how they were playing previously before the break.
Hey, it's Wednesday and 15 to 32 still hasn't posted his 15 thoughts of the game. Or did he already post it and I missed it? Argh!!! Senior Moment!! These new computer thing-a-bobs are so confusing!!!
Challenge for @15 to 32 , do 15 thoughts that could apply to both. I'll start. 1- The offense on this team needs to fix something or it will be a long season. 2- The choice of who to play/substitute from the coaches was suspect. 3- Short players on the offensive side of the ball need to be protected or they are almost sure to get injured.
Oh duh. I forgot that the Utes were playing also at the same time. Still, 15 thoughts about the Utes would be rather entertaining. I've already had to put up with my BYU supporting brother's "Neener, neener, neener. Loser Utes lost. Neener, neener, neener." Hearing a more intelligent analysis would be different.
If we had a player thrown from the game, we could say 4 - Players getting thrown from the game for dubious officiating. Hey, this is fun. Are we sure that the Utes and RSL aren't the same team?
You are the only one who does a bullet list of 15 items after each game highlighting the god/bad/ugly of the aforementioned contest. If it was me, I'd just write, "RSL won! Yay!" or "RSL lost! We suck!" or "RSL tied! Meh."