I'm not good enough at typing to try to keep up with all that happened. I thought Scarlett and Gregorio both did well. Looks like we've got a couple of good additions there. I am frustrated because it seems that when we get our defense clicking our offense dies and when our offense is working our defense is filled with holes. I hope Mathis does some serious soul searching because he may have made a difference here. Williams did well but he seems to do better on the wings. We still need some speed up top. I am glad we have Kreis--he's a solid leader for us. Nolly did a good job over all but according to Scholes he was out of position on the goal or it could have been 0-0. All in all a good game defensively but our offense sputtered.
Hey, it's much better in MLS to finish 5th and miss the playoffs than 4th and lose in the first round.
We need Watson back in the line up to give us the speed up front. The defense looked better and the new players seem to do well.
On the radio, it sounded like the RSL fans stayed in the match for the entire 90. Sounded pretty good.
I agree. Wished I coulda been there tonight, but it did sound good on the radio. Props to our RSL loyal! And for what it's worth, it was nice to have a match (finally) where we have some nice things to say about the defense. Even if we don't take any points from this one.
well unless the colorado rapids are on a flight that slams into the rockies, RSL can say buh bye to playoffs...but thats ok next year will be better
Hey, you're not out of it yet, but it would be tough at this point. Right now I think RSL needs to worry about staying out of last place. Chivas just added some serious depth. It will be interesting to see how the reinvented Goats do againts the Metroscum today...
Look... "a loss is a loss" but I think RSL was unlucky to take a point (or win) out of this game. RSL seemed to have the slight favor in shots and possession - they looked dangerous much more than the Quakes did (with a couple of exceptions) both before and after the goal in the 41st minute. The defense made some very good stops all night against the front 3 of San Jose - they had several good opportunities to score and I, for one, liked what I saw of both Gregorio and Scarlett. Both of these players are going to make a great contribution... Brown played very well in this game (both early in the game when he was playing offense AND when he stepped back to play on the back line - he stuffed DeRo 2-3 times that would have left many of our previous guys inc the dust. He also did a good job of moving the ball forward to attack... Akwari did well too - as did Pierce and Dunseth. There were a few counter attacks that they stopped as the "last man" (so-to-speak). Early in the game (first 20 min) the Quakes had their 2 best chances of the game - two break-aways for Moreno (I think) and Pierce/Nolly came up big each... The Chung goal simply caught Nolly out of position as he was anticipating the pass too much. Several good scoring opportunities for RSL either just missed or when straight at the keeper. Look, losses suck and time is very short for RSL to make the playoffs (9pts behind w/ 9 games) BUT if RSL would have had the team they did last night all season - I'm sure we'd be in a better spot now.
RSL played a pretty solid game throughout. Defense looked nice for a change. It seemed that the height factor with SJ's defenders really stifled our ability to put in crosses or play long balls; Scarlett can run fast but had a harder time getting around big defenders; Dante has some height but still couldn't quite get around the defense in the air. Maybe that means our passes are still a few yards off of where they need to be. With a little luck, or some better finishing, or both, we could have come out the winners. I don't think we were outplayed. At least it's great to see solid effort from everyone and the new guys looked good. I also thought Nolly played with more confidence and more physical strength than DJ has been of late. Nothing to be ashamed of, but no points either.
Is this the same Scarlett that played for Harbour View in Jamaica? We had a great time heckling him when they played us in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in March. Man, those Jamaicans were hating life, 'cause the temp was around 0, and the field was frozen solid.
I agree. I think that this is where being an expansion team is tough. Teams like New England have had time to find players like Joseph and Twellman. Players that when they were coming into the league, no one was sure how well they'd do. Just as importantly, they've had time to let players that weren't making the grade sift out. Over time, they have less sifting and less holes to fill. At least in theory. There's been a lot of players coming and going this year becuase some of them haven't been worth keeping around. I agree, that if the team had played like this more often, this year we'd have a couple more wins and a couple more ties and be in the mix for the playoffs. Also, it really hurts when you have to move the MLS's all-time leading goal scorer back into the midfield to fill that void.
Yep. I'm excited to see what 2-3 years of drafts/trades/discoveries will do... watching the team develop.
I think because of some of the name players I had high hopes of this team being more competetive. Looking at it realistically though, we are an expansion team and it is usually a longer process to build not only a good group of players but also to build a chemistry that works so we are a whole team. It has been tough because of a lack of consistency in the lineups and configurations as we have been working all this out. We will get a team personality that will bring us solid play and make us competetive but we're just not there yet. I still have high hopes for what's to come.
Here we go again, justifying another loss....... Seriously though, I think the aforementioned thoughts are very realistic.
How about the positive that we've already traded away all of next year's draft picks for guys we currently have?
Not really true. Here is a breakdown: RSL 2006 Draft info: -Fire get RSL 's 2006 2nd round (Whitfield) -Rapids get RSL's 2006 Supplemental 1st round plus a permanent YI spot from RSL.(Gregorio) -Rapids get RSL's 2006 Supplemental 4th round (Trembly) RSL has no additional draft picks from other teams. Did I miss anything?