Nick definitely wasn't right after he went down in the first half. You could see it as he went for stops to his left. He was guarded and worried about that side, and avoided landing on it if at all possible First goal, he gets beat to his left. Not a lot he was going to do about that, but he absolutely should have put a man on the post knowing he was favoring that side. Second goal, he gets beat to the same post. This time he dove to save it going across his body with his right arm... I think fully healthy that is a big left palm like he did against Blanco against Portland. Different shot shape, but the extra time it takes him to reach across his body and up was the difference in that one going in and being parried away.
This is my biggest fear going into the off season. My first thought after finding out we lost, I don't have cable and didn't want to go out so I watched a really good team, BYU women's soccer team not play great but still pull out a win, is that if they hire Freddy I might cancel my season tickets I just renewed. I have been a fan from the very beginning, I thought Salt Lake was a great option for MLS even before Dave brought us a team. I've had season tickets since '08 and had flex passes for '07 & '06 and attended every game in '05 cooking hot dogs in one of the concession stands for my daughters drill team. I'M. A. FAN. This season though. Damn. It's sucked the joy right out of me. Mostly because it all feels like a mirage. Yes there is some, quite a bit actually, talent on this team, and yes the "team" pulled things together to make a run, but for crying out loud they have been under and ineffectively coached for at least 5 seasons!? This team, franchise, has disaster written all over. I believe that 15 is hitting the nail right on the head with his post. Definitely need a good GM. Will Dear Leader actually hire a GM and let them do their job? Hopefully. Doubtful? Absolutely need a coach with experience. If Freddy is the hire this team will rocket to the bottom and come flying apart like a late playoff game tackle by Luiz. My prediction anyway. The pyramid definitely needs to be addressed but can say much about that really. New GM, new Head Coach, new vision. Fingers crossed.
Seattle is well coached and has significantly more talented and higher paid players. RSL over achieved all year it looks like. victory over the timbers was a good one. New coach or this coach doesn’t matter to me but they need a better attacking mid better wing play and a new GK.
I think we have AM covered with Rusnak. GK is a must. LB jumps high on the list for me. As does DMid. Oh, and like a broken record, an actual forward
I hope you guys get a coach with vision and a tactical pedigree. You can't have Almeyda though, we need his coaching desperately. Sorry on your loss, I like your team and its fans.
Solid observation. Just watched a recap of the game and I think a healthy-shouldered Rimando saves at least one of the two goals.
i recon all of those are more important that a coach who took down Savarese with an inferior team. Seattle was not ever going to lose at home to this RSL team without a miracle: red card, penalties, etc.
Seattle just played LAFC the way we should have played Seattle. But we don't have a Lodeiro and a Ruidiaz - or a coach like Brian Schmetzer, who had a perfect game plan that was executed flawlessly.
you do have a coach who took out a timbers team that beat Schmetzer last year though. Sometimes you really just need to look at the roster. Seattle payed $14mm in roster costs, what was SLC?
And Schmetzer really went into the game with a chip on his shoulder. Won the game and then threw some shade at Bob and Warshaw during the post game interview. I’d like to know what was said that fired him up.
You are new here. Just a heads-up. Posters who suggest that RSL ownership will not spend for a quality roster tend to get beaten up.
Of course they did. LAFC is a Bill Bradley coached team. Just like last year when LAFC lost to RSL in the first round of the playoffs, LAFC lost to Seattle. I didn't expect anything less from LAFC. Unfortuantely, with RSL out of the playoffs , I don't know who I want to win the MLS Cup. I really don't want Seattle to win again since, like the last time they won, they park the bus and wait to try to win the game in penalties. But, I don't really want either Atlanta or Toronto to win, soooooo, I dunno. Toronto I guess. Give the Canucks something else to be happy about after beating the US in soccer this year.
And could have paid significantly more but some deals fell through. The league is getting to the point where you have to spend at key positions and on your academy to really challenge for cups every year.
Stuff like our team was old/slow,tired, not exciting and our club was unambitious, MLS 2.5 and surpassed by Atlanta and LAFC etc. All of that kind of nonsense narrative that gets bandied among themselves so much that they actually begun believing it. People also never give Schmetzer the kind of praise they would other coaches. He's not an MLS/US Soccer insider. Despite his long successful association with the Sounders which goes back to his playing days in the 1980s no one ever talked about him and what he means for this city. Despite him being a longtime ECS member, no one ever looks at how deep his love for this club goes. He s always been an outsider despite all of this. He's not part of the East Coast or SoCal US Soccer establishment. He's not a name from abroad either. So he has been underestimated. He's not some washed up ex-MLS player, a longtime coach from the US Soccer ranks or a foreign name who had success elsewhere. He's just solidly Seattle. He's home grown, a legend in Seattle but unknown elsewhere because MLS/USSoccer ignored Cascadia until MLS teams existed here. He's a direct link between the 1980s NASL and MLS and they don't know how to deal with that. Our success under him has been treated as some sort of anomaly, a fluke and ignored. Compared to Giovanni Saverese who MLSSoccer.com pundits can't stop saying nice things about they treat Schmetzer like he's still "just an understudy of the great Sigi Schmid", not looking at the fact that in the USL days he won multiple championships before this town even knew who Sigi was. Most people up here initially were disappointed that Schmetzer wasn't automatically given the head coach position when we entered MLS. But there was a lot of pressure by MLS for us to hire an MLS insider so we went after the one which won MLS Cup the previous year and got Sigi. From that moment until now Schmetzer has been in Sigi's shadow. Even after the MLS Cup win no one in MLS circles gave him much credit or really knew who he was. Well, maybe they know who he is now. I'm good with Schmetzer becoming the Jose Mourinho of MLS. More please. I never could stand Bobby "washed up nobody" Washaw and most of MLSSoccer.com's "analysis" so seeing that interview with Schmetzer trolling them and doing a mic drop and watching the post-game on MLSSoccer with all of them in shock eating crow was priceless. Almost better than getting to another MLS Cup final. That's right MLS, keep underestimating us. Keep ignoring Brian Schmetzer because he is kinda geeky and takes a lot of notes. We'll just keep winning.
Good points. Thanks for sharing. I remember when Sigi was let go and the commentary was Schmetzer just needed to salvage the season and what big name Seattle would bring in to coach the next season. Instead, Schmetzer completely turned the team around and won MLS Cup. He's seemed like a solid coach who gets results. I'm surprised the media hasn't queued in on how good he is yet. Good luck in the final!
If Toronto wins the game tonight then MLS Cup is in Seattle for the first time since you guys won it. I guarantee you Brian Schmetzer is not a "park the bus" coach. The only reason we did that in Toronto were due to injuries and the fact that it was freezing. This now is a different team than we had then. We don't park the bus, home or away but especially at home. So if it helps, remember when you all came to Seattle in 2009 and we all rooted for you to beat the LA Galaxy? Remember the parties afterwards with RSL and Seattle fans celebrating together late into the night? I do.
Thanks. Yeah, they were all kinda shocked when we didn't go after a big name. Sometimes the best coach is right under your nose. We long time fans all knew that and thankfully so did the ownership.
That's kind of funny because that was not me saying that, that was actually someone at the organization mentioning the small / mid market vs. the rosters of the big clubs. You guys are spoiled! You had so many quality players with leadership in so many spots over the years. From front to back RSL had a leader and difference maker on each line. Nothing gave the casual viewer more pleasure than watching Kreis rub Fat Arena's face in the dirt. That is just incredibly difficult to duplicate. And my last note, I bloody hate Bob Bradley for being an arrogant ass, but mostly because he criminally neglected Beckerman at DM and instead played his no-leadership, no character, and no defense son. Think how good Donovan and Dempsey would have been with a central midfield that could defend? Just like tonight, that empty bucket gave up 3 goals, right down the middle.
any idea what schmetz and bob were talking about post game? Schmetz: I told you that stupid empty bucket is stupid. Bob: Get lost Schmetz: I told you vela gets punked in big games Bob: get lost Schmetz: you should have learned from the beating RSL gave you. Bob: get lost Schmetz: No, Bob, YOU LOST!
The fans in Seattle were very hospitable and fun. Most that I ran into were just happy to have the marquee game at their stadium, though, and getting to see David Beckham and Lanodon Donovan again didn't hurt. I'm not sure what final I want. I'm sad that it'll be played on turf, honestly. I find it funny that, once again, LAFC showed they aren't a tournament team.
After last night's game, I predict that LAFC will be the first MLS team forced to install large fences at the edge of the stands like every Argentine stadium has to. Terribly unsportsmanlike fans, IMO.
It was fun, but we were really there to see Nick Rimando. I remember there was an LA guy next to me who was asking why the whole stadium of Sounders fans seemed to be cheering for RSL and I turned to him and said, because its not LA and we like good goalkeeping I remember we partied with you guys late into the night and you were all surprised the pub stayed open so late haha
hey man, its still kinda new that you don't have to have a membership for those kind of places for us.
It brought me great joy to see both LA and Atlanta get beat. LA because of the fans, Atlanta because it is Atlanta.