Hopefully scoring 10 goals on RSL gives LA the confidence to take down the sounders and deny them the treble
Was late coming back from half to the TV. I give up. When they replace that cRapids team on the field in red with the real RSL, please let me know...
This way out stinks, but somehow I don't feel quite so gutted as MLS Cup or USOC or playoff series when we played well. We got absolutely destroyed, and deserved it, and that's it.
This was like a sick animal being put down. Disgusting effort from every angle by RSL. From the coaches on down, not one single person made an effort.
RSL's going away gift dwarfed every other teams'. Take that MLS. Now do we get dibs when Landon decides to come back?
It's not all RSL sucking. LA was in tip top form. Bruce knows what he's doing with passers and space and had pocket passers in all the gaps we don't defend.
Even though this was an uncharacteristically horrible game from RSL I think one of the differences between RSL and LA is that RSL is a good team hoping for a hot streak while LA is just a great team.
Pretty ********ing sad! My biggest question is: why would RSL stick with the same basic formation and line-up that barely squeaked into the play-offs? Our midfield tonight flat out sucked, I cannot help but think the combo of Gil and Velasques would have at the very least created some chances and forced L.A. to play with some respect for our attack. Cannot blame Sabo and or Plata tonight but thank god this season is over. Hope Ceasar learns to coach and RSL dumps some older players. Borchers, Grabavoy, Findley, to name a few, goodbye and thanks for your time but time to reload.
I have no ********ing clue, I'm just too pissed off to even think about that crap right now. It's been a while since I really have been embarrassed by the way RSL carried themselves as a team on the field, but tonight I was embarrassed. Not one single player, not the coach, not anyone on the staff looked like they gave a ********. Nobody. There was no hustle, no crispness, no movement to the ball, no field awareness, no effort, nothing. And when the coach had the opportunity to make a BADLY needed change to give some life to the team, he sat on his ass and did nothing. Beltran and Luke had NO BUSINESS being on the field after half time, both were getting so badly burned it was like I-5 extended from downtown LA straight down our right side to goal. How on earth did Cassar not recognize this and make an adjustment? Mind-boggling. I'm glad this season is over, need a break from the crapfest that this team has been over the last month.
I hate to be a told-ya-so... but I called this, more or less (I didn't expect us to end the season in 3rd, so I thought it would happen in the play-in game). Any team that can't show up against the teams it is supposed to beat is not of a championship calibre and we would lose in the first round of the playoffs. Losing to Chivas twice told us the story of this team's lack of a championship heart weeks ago. My posts to that point back then: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...day-10-5-5pm-mdt.2011918/page-3#post-31220247 http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/2014-point-tracker.2001989/page-8#post-31303081 So, now to get ready for the dispersal draft, the expansion draft, the regular draft, the superduperreallyexciting draft, etc. Oh, and a new labor agreement with players... who the eff knows what's gonna happen in this offseason. Heck, they may announce a transition to a winter schedule and play a shortened season in 2015... it's MLS! Anything can happen!
While RSL got completely spanked and deserved to lose today, it's worth keeping in mind that if Penedo didn't stand on his head in the first game this would have been a very different 2nd leg. We played a really great 1st leg and fully dominated LA in that game. Then, we completely came apart at the seams tonight. If we had entered this game with a 2-goal lead? Who knows what would have happened. Hats off to Penedo for an amazing 1st leg, and hats off to the whole LA team tonight. And my hat's over my heart for RSL tonight. Adios RSL as we have known it . . . it's time for some serious changes this off season.
Boy how wrong he was. We managed to get even worse as the game went on. I don't really get the subs at all. Gil coming on was good, but why take out Morales for Findley? So our answer to getting slaughtered through the midfield was to weaken that area even more? Great plan! Nobody seemed to care at all tonight. Our passing was straight up terrible. We had amazing passes like 10 feet short, 10 feet behind the player, or just straight up passing it back to LA. I felt like LA didn't even have to put much pressure on us, because we were just giving it away cheaply regardless. As for who I want to win the cup? I'm leaning towards LA. Not so we can get into the CCL, but it'd make for a pretty good ending to LD's career. If it's not LA, then I think NE is a good choice. An LA/NE final has the makings of being pretty great if both teams keep playing like they have been. Anyone except for Seattle. The last thing I want to hear about until I die is them winning a treble.
Watched Cassar's post-game interview. No big insights, but he wasn't his usual upbeat self. Good to see he has some grasp on reality - now hopefully they'll get out the knife and clean up a bit. What I did notice on the highlights is that Rimando is just as guilty as everyone else on the second goal by Keane. Rimando starts to follow the ball across as it moves to Keane, but he pulls up, plays the ref, and expects the offsides call. No play on the ball, which he should have easily been able to snuff.