wondering if following RSL is worth it. But then if I was after glory I would have given up on St Johnstone and followed the Glasgow bigots, Celtic & Rangers. I shall leave it to you proper followers to decide over Kries. Poor marking in midfield resulted in to 2 of the goals, a unlucky but correct pen, with the other pen still undecided.
Want to be a fan of RSL? Fair warning... ...only the truly apathetic will survive because if you give your heart to this team it will get 'Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom' treatment.
We played really well in the midfield and on the defence during the first 3 games. Since then we have given up too many shots, made too many mistakes, and been outplayed in the midfield. Our forwards have yet to produce, but at least we were keepin ourselves in the games before.
I think you are being way too hard on your team. You came up against a team that had to, absolutely had to win. Contrast how your team has looked this year against last year. I have, and RSL is much more dangerous. That ball goes in and doesn't hit the post and there would be a different tone to this thread. Have hope for RSL. I do.
Game is available to vote at The Fan's Scorecard: http://fans-scorecard.tapocol.com/2008/04/26/dc-united-real-salt-lake
I lied. I have one more thing to say: Real Salt Lake D.C. United Total Shots: 13 16 Shots on Goal: 4 11 Total Saves: 7 3 Fouls: 17 12 Offsides: 1 0 Corner Kicks: 6 4
I don't understand all the calls for Kreis' head. There is not enough talent on the roster for RSL to be anything more than a borderline playoff team. The ceiling for this group of players is probably the 6th spot, if they play out of their minds and get most of the breaks. This was obvious from the beginning of the season. If you weren't calling for Kreis to be fired then for not bringing in more talent (or for that matter trading away our most talented player), I don't understand how anyone can want him to be fired now. He has taken a group of role players and has them playing organized with good possession, good team defending (some individual defending such as Ian Joy are suspect, but as a team they defend well), they play hard, and their set plays are much improved. Here's the thing; they have no bite. The only thing Kreis can do about that is go out and find some. He deserves to be strongly criticized for the failure to bring even one highly talented attacking player. But I don't think he deserves much criticism for the way he has handled this group of players. There are naturally a few minor issues that we can easily look at in hindsight, such as playing Talley too much and the failure of the Deuchar/Findley combo. Those are mistakes, but not worth the man's job, especially since it seems like injuries have forced him at times to choose between something he knows (even if it's something he knows isn't ideal) and something completely unknown. Most coaches in that situation actually do the same thing. They go with what they know. I think RSL fans just need to get used to the fact that if we give up the first goal, we are screwed. Some nights we'll get it and we'll usually get a good result, some nights we won't and our lack of talent will make it very hard to get a result those nights. So we'll be right around the edge of making the playoffs. If you want to criticize Kreis, it should be for the roster and not for the way the team has played on the field because in all honesty that aspect is about as good as we should be able to expect from this group of players. Nothing that happens after the first goal really matters. Sometimes RSL's opponents will keep pushing like DC did. Sometimes they'll sit back and defend like Toronto. Either way, every coach in the league knows that once you go up on RSL, they have no choice but to go extremely offensive, and so depending on the personality of the team we'll see the variation we've seen the last two weeks. The 4-1 scoreline is irrelevant IMO, and definitely not indicative of the way Kreis coaches the players he has.
well i can no longer think positive about this team. I do not see us winning a game with the type of forwards we have. This is a professional team that is not holding the forwards accountable. The forwards are like forwards on a college intramural club team. nunez should of been tried. Yuri has not score like a forward should since he came here. Things are not right but jason can't seem to think outside the box and try new things. The better players are getting frustrated and pretty soon they will lose the fire to keep at it. Change the lineup jason ..Try something else.Put Deuchar and yuri on the reserve team and tell them that they will be waive if they don't start producing.
They aren't even playing up to that level right now and I disagree about the talent level. Right now, RSL's biggest problem is tactics and that's all on the coaching staff. It's obvious that the players don't get tactics and that is something the coaching staff needs to figure out in one damned big hurry. All we saw tonight was a big load of shit sitting on the pitch doing nothing but making the grass grow better. I'm going on vacation, otherwise I would be setting up www.firejasonkreis.com. The 30th marks the 1 year anniversary since I started firejohnellinger.com
I think you are totally incorrect in blaming the forwards, the forwards cant perform if they dont get the ball, the system calls for too much inside midfield play. This is the coaches responsibility and the team has no tactical strategy.
Ah, the wonders of how many games "hard work" will win us. Anyone still drinking the Koolaid - thinking that bringing in hard working guys and putting 11 players created in the image of Jason Kreis is enough to get results? It's not. Tactically this team is still inept. That doesn't change without (a) tactically smarter players and (b) a coaching staff that knows the game (and doesn't predicate their strategy on MLS from 1996-2002 when just pushing the attack forward hard and overlapping defenders was enough). Kreis is fast approaching John Ellinger's record for ineptitude.Anyone know what his overall record since taking the reigns is?
Jason Kreis performance as head coach emphasizes how crappy John Ellinger was in the same position. JK went for it after two penalties. RSL got burned. RSL was getting burned all game down the wings. The clump does not work. This team needs a Claudio Reyna type in the middle... a calming figure who can dictate the pace and midfield play. Morales is not that player and needs to be on the wings. Kyle/Dema need to either hold or play on the wings. Isn't Cordova suppose to be this type of player?
Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando On the loss: It’s tough – we knew it was going to be tough. It’s a different game, on different grass. They were hungry for a win. It was in the back of their head what we did to them at our house. We knew they were going to come out strong, and try and put it on us. On the team’s road struggles: We come out, we play good, and we go at them. It looks like its going to be a good game, and then they get a PK. We fall back a little bit and then we start to chase the game. I think every time we start to chase the game we open up. They get chances and then they have opportunities to score. And I don’t think its a 4-1 game; we hit the post. On Moreno’s two penalties: He makes a living off PKs. I think he’s made 203 career goals off PK’s. No, especially at home I’d say one hundred percent. I just want to guess the right way and at least get a touch. But what are you going to do. On Moreno’s first penalty: He always makes his PK’s – what are you going to do? I thought he was going to go to one of the sides. That is why he is so good, he doesn’t just go to one side, he goes to the middle.” Real Salt Lake midfielder Carey Talley On the loss: It was a bit of a struggle. The two penalties definitely altered the momentum of the game. On the second penalty given: I think he called [Chris] Wingert for a hold, but that was outside the box. I don’t know once he got inside the box where the foul was, but he fell down. He was given the call – what are you going to do? On the difficulty to score goals on the road: The first fifteen minutes I think we had a couple of decent opportunities. The ball was crossed in and no one was on the end of it. We didn’t take advantage of those. Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis On what need to improve: Scoring, results, everything. On the penalty calls: I think the first penalty was something that some refs call every time, some don’t. And then to give that up after I thought we had done well enough… the second penalty kick, again, some referees would have called, and some wouldn’t have. And that really puts us under there. Before we gave away that I thought we were doing pretty well. To give that up, you are snowed under, especially when you are playing in DC. On moving forward: We got another game Wednesday night, and a game after that on Saturday. We’ll see how we recover.
What exactly is so "obviously" wrong with their tactics? They almost never get caught short on numbers (when the score is still tied). Offensively their game is clearly to hold the ball, move it side to side and get the outside backs up and sending in crosses. They execute this very well, it's just that this isn't the most efficient way to score goals. But it's a safe way to play since in theory RSL has a big target in the box, outside backs that cross pretty well, and no dynamic players in the middle that would let them play any other way. Findley needs a lot of work in moving off Deuchar, but otherwise I don't think tactics has been one bit of the problem, especially not on the players' end. The criticism that this is too conservative is valid, because when they make a mistake in the back or get a bad break like tonight, they are going to lose the game. There isn't much the team can be doing tactically to improve results. What do you suggest? If the other team keeps players behind the ball, RSL doesn't have anyway to break that down. The best they can do is send in hopeful crosses or set up long difficult shots. They are desperate for a player who can penetrate on his own. No tactic is going to break down good defense if the team doesn't have the skill or talent to work the ball through the middle. And they just don't have that. What they can hope for is to be aggressive in the middle, try and force mistakes and get counters, and earn set plays because that's one of the ways they can break down defense. That approach will never be consistent, but there's not much RSL can do without anybody who can create numbers for the team by getting around his man on his own. Do you think there is anybody on this team that can do that? That's what I mean by not being talented enough. Not only do they lack a star who can do that consistently, but they don't have a single player who can do that even occasionally. Sadly, the most effective one on one player for RSL might be Wingert.
I was going to make a joke about me raising my hand, but then again I'm mostly tired of it as opposed to outraged. Sigh.