Luke's goal came off his hand, didn't it? Can't link the replay from Facebook for some reason, but it looks like it was deflected off his knee to his hand and in.
I've seen that same video on Facebook and the angle does make it look like it could have hit his hand. I really don't think it was the case though and if you look at other angles. Replays here with a few different shows don't indicate anything obvious: http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/ma...vs-vancouver-whitecaps-fc/details/video/99931 The other fun thing about the link above of replays is to scroll from top to bottom of the replay list and notice two things. First, that RSL dominates the highlights. Second, it's a great progression of the increasingly insane weather.
Last night was great. I was frozen from the start. Not from the cold, but from the sheer enjoyment I was experiencing. I was on the edge of my seat with eyes glued to the flurry of action on the field, seeing things I hadn't seen in too long of a time. I needed this. RSL Nation needed this. Three points at home, Spring in Utah style.
Doesn't look like hand from this view. Not conclusive, but it's a great slow-mo view. Majestic pic.twitter.com/fcrjyfsKK9— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) April 9, 2017
I dunno. I kind of looks like it hit his knee and ricocheted off his arm. I don't recall anyone from Vancouver crying about the goal, so maybe it didn't hit his hand and ricocheted off his other leg.
Silva slinging snowballs! Obviously this was playful but it will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. The DisCo can be very black and white.
I'm not so sure, I've looked over the Laws of the Game again, and I still can't find any references to snowballs.
I haven't posted on here in forever - mainly because it has been a really depressing last 2 seasons. Anyway, it was very refreshing to watch a game that I didn't want to abandon to go do something more productive. I had zero expectations of any marked improvement in this game but was pleasantly surprised. Before this game I had made up my mind not to go to the Sporting / RSL game here in KC on 4/29 but now I'm on the fence of wanting to go. I'll have to squish it between two of my daughter's soccer games that day if I did. I still don't have high expectations for this season but I didn't have high expectations for the team in 09 either and so I hope that there is an actual upward trend - instead of expecting the continued downward spiral.
I'm with you on this. I'm suddenly thinking of making the trip to Colorado next weekend, even though I was in San Francisco a week ago and I'll be in Florida in two weeks, and Idaho the week after that.
One or two plays aside - Acosta was a bloody revelation. ZOMG Petke articulated a tactical idea or two and they worked. Lennon and Rusnak and Plata served beauties....and the snow was our counter attacking defensive 12th man.
That is amazing. I would hope nothing comes of it, since it was clearly a playful thing and not anything serious. As for the Mulholland goal, I'm not seeing it hit his hand, but it does look close. Either way it didn't affect the outcome so it's not a huge deal in the end. Also, why does every RSL video have to have some kind of crappy music in it? It'd be nice to just watch a highlight without the extra.
Watch a little of the KMYU rebroadcast this afternoon (when did they start doing that?), and on second viewing Muholland was an effing beast. How do you find those heat maps? I bet his is insane. He was in the box more than Yura and breaking up plays more than Beckerman. Sorry Sunny you just lost your spot.
Uh... with the snow you had a literal heat map on the pitch. It was amazing at the end of the game to see what areas of the field hadn't been touched. The South-East corner of the field was unscathed.
The rain that came in during the national anthems was crazy cool looking from the west side. It was like sheets of rain. I'm sorry for those of you that sat on the east side of the stadium in this game. It looked miserable Is James Singer the only guy in Utah that knows the Canadian national anthem? That dude sings it every single time we host Montreal, TFC, or Vancouver. How the hell did Plata not score on any of his clear cut chances. Three stand out, especially, as just flat out whiffs. Happy he was in the right spots, but come on man. Vancouver looked gassed after the 30th minute. This has to be stated for anyone saying this game was a whole new team. It did look like it, but our opponent was heavy legged and wanted to be anywhere but in that storm. If this game can indicate anything, it's that Acosta offers more than Beltran. The question now becomes how to adjust accordingly. Acosta is naturally a left sided defender. Do you slide him to the left for the struggling Phillips and put Beltran back in? Chris Wingert shouldn't play CB ever again. Good god his positioning and touch have fallen. How do we have this supposed stable of CB's and he's still playing? ********ing get healthy. The snowflakes coming down at halftime were like the size of a 50 cent coin. It was nutso. Also, why does the bathroom have to always smell so badly of piss when you wanna use the heat in it? Albert "the Snowman" Rusnak looked really confident in this game. After his goal, he looked like everything we hoped he would be. Whoscored gave him a 9.4 rating. Nine point ********ing four. Granted, that site's rating system is wayyyyy skewed by goals and assists, but still. The kid looked legit. Reiteration: Vancouver stopped caring after the first 30 or so minutes. This game looked promising, but is hard to really take anything out of. The way the snow slowed the ball down was hilarious. In the latter parts of the second half, the snow actually clumped on the ball so bad that it stopped even rolling normally. I kept waiting for someone to hit the snow on the ball instead of the ball like every kid in Utah inevitably does when spring season starts too soon. Luis Silva sucked. Did the dude watch any of the game before coming in? He kept trying to settle the ball with the bottom of his foot or drag it on the dribble. He looked so lost in the game compared to the players out there. I still hate David Ousted. It was glorious watching him mistime the leap on the corner kick that Luke bungled in. Brooks Lennon is a beast. I'm curious how much Liverpool will want for him after the season is over. Currently he's the best player for this club. I wonder if he'd be interested in getting paid to stay here or if he was using this to get minutes for another suitor in Europe. I was livid, as well, with the lack of snow angels. At least Nicky whitewashed Luke after the game. Again, Vancouver was coming off a midweek CCL game and as soon as the weather went from bad to horrible looked like they had all of their thoughts on getting on the bus. I was shocked they came out of the halftime tunnel, if I'm being honest.
You forgot to mention that the ref for the game, Baldomero Toledo, wanted to get out of the weather so bad that he blew the whistle at 90 minutes and didn't add any stoppage time.
I considered doing an in depth analysis of the tactical differences, but the snow and time may prevent that... How about some obvious ones: - defending in an organized manner with numbers is more effective than just saying push up; - teams that get bodies in the box tend to create more goal-scoring opportunities; - coaches that DEMAND effort tend to be rewarded; - players listen...just like fans do...we all listened to Cassar's interviews and questioned whether he had even the first clue, so why would we expect anything different from the players? Every time i hear Petke talk, I think, "Dude gets it!" The players played like they trusted his messaging. Color me impressed. Time will tell whether RSL actually has the horses to compete (I love Luke's effort and offensive nose for goal, but he is still completely sub-standard athletically), but early returns suggest RSL has the coach.
was any needed? This was a perfect example of a ref honoring the spirit of the game (out of reach for one team and the other team not pushing anymore) instead of living strictly by the law of the game. I applauded it. That should happen a lot more, regardless of the weather.
All of this. Someone earlier mentioned the idea of moving Allen to RB and it makes sense. Replace Demar with Acosta on the left and suddenly the wing backs tandem looks promising. For now Luke's a better option than Sunny at mid. This doesn't bode well since he shouldn't be a regular starter in this league. What do we do about Plata? His season thus far has been very disappointing.
On paper, the idea of moving Allen to RB and Acosta to LB is nice. It allows Lennon to stay at RW and gets more of the kids on the pitch. In fact, with that lineup (and a healthy Glad) you'd suddenly have 4 academy kids on the pitch with Bofo the first sub for Plata. However, Allen's best position isn't RB. At least not with how this team is setup to currently play. Maybe Petke makes some adjustments to make the position more of a fit to Allen, but as is it just doesn't work, IMO. Still, I'm hard pressed to fight for Tony to start. How bad is this back thing of his, btw? He picked it up last year, right? Never recovered? Oh, and I'll give a few more games to Plata. His movement and vision was really good in this game, he just couldn't finish. If we're still seeing this kind of performance from him in May then it's a concern. The ball he plays on Rusnak's goal was perfect - it was also some of the worst CB play I've seen in a long while. As for the Sunny/Luke portion, it's going to be a weakness of ours if Sunny can't figure his shit out. Luke is serviceable and will have a performance or two that people hold onto to justify his playing time (i.e this game). However, he just isn't the starting mid of a team that wins anything significant. It's the honest truth. Waibel needs to pull his head out of his ass about wingers and realize the middle of his team (CB and CM) are what needs immediate attention.
I'm curious, did anyone else have a hard time seeing the Vancouver players in this game? I don't mean this as a jab in that they looked like mobile cones, but literally couldn't see them. Their white kits, during the heavy parts of the flurries, blended in with the pitch. There would be times I'd yell to make a pass just to be like "oh shit, there is a Vancouver guy there" moments later. If it was bad from the top of partly covered section 14, I can only imagine how bad it was on the pitch
I told my wife at one point that they should have been told to put on some yellow or orange mesh training tops over thier shirts. I'm sure it was as annoying for RSL as it was for Vancouvers own team trying to see where they were.