RSL v Van; The Massively Pointless Conclusion to a Massively Emotional Regualr Season

Bright side:
3 games
270 minutes
0 goals given up

 

Yeah. Even with today's lineup.
That's actually something good.

Maybe we can win all our playoff games with PK shootouts.

 

When is in the box Jason going to get on the bandwagon and realize he needs to change something. This was one game that Alvarez and Kyle could of play at the same time. Kyle could of played instead of gill with Alvarez behind him!

 

That about wraps it up. You can feel that after 60 minutes in the last 2 games that it wasn't going to happen. The Seattle tie is even more frustrating now.

RSL now sits in 5th. A Seattle tie or win moves us to 6th. RSL must make the Cup Final to get into 2013 CCL.

 

Velasquez-Morales-Vianna-Steele could be deadly in 2013 you mean right? I swear I would be in favor of firing Kries today if Steele continues to be a major part of this team. 90 minutes of utter shit tonight.

 

I'd like to see a 5 player midfield like:
Velasquez - Morales - Vianna*
Beckerman - Alvarez
*Vianna being adjusted to the MLS calender

But we're more likely to see:
Steele - Steele - Steele - Steele

 

Standings:

1. SJE 66pts 72g
2. SKC 63pts 42g
3. DCU 58pts 53g
4. NYRB 57pts 57g
5. RSL 57pts 46g
6. CHI 57pts 46g

RSL has a goal differential of 11 while Chicago has 5, so they are placed ahead.
EDIT: Chicago is ahead of RSL for discipline, which is the next tiebreaker after goals scored.

A Seattle tie would place them between NYRB and RSL (they currently have 51g). A win would secure 3rd outright.

I actually thought Johnny was okay tonight. However, he's still not consistently making great decisions.

 

I understand your frustration, but if Kreis is stuck on the 4-4-2 (and they haven't been training for any other formation either), Steele makes sense.

Our Midfielders:

Choose 1 AM:
Morales (out with flu)
Gil

Choose 2 for Left and Right of Diamond:
Johnson (trying to give him some rest)
Grabavoy (still recovering from injury/maybe not 90min fit)
Velasquez (good offense, poor defense)
Steele (bi-polar offense, pretty good defense)
Viana (new to the team, not fit)

Choose 1 DM:
Beckerman
Alvarez (redundant with Kyle)

Not Really Considered:
Martinez
Muniz

So Kreis wants Johnson on the bench, get Grabs some 1st team time leading into the playoffs, and not give up an early goal. Viana can't go 90, so it's Tian or Steele to start. You go with the better defense and hope to score, and then sub in your offense.

The biggest shame is that Grabs couldn't go 90. If he could, we would have seen Tian in for Steele instead, I would hope.

 

I had a feeling this was how the game was going to pan out with neither team wanting to push for anything. What sucks the most is we had the one result go our way so winning would've meant we had a huge chance at hosting the final. I don't care how often they praise Steele for his defense, what good is it when your first move after getting the ball back is to pass it back to the opponent? I'd honestly rather have KB+3 offensive minded midfielders than loading it up with the safe defensive minded ones. I'd much rather see a 3-2 score than a 0-0 snore fest.

I still hate Toledo. He's so wildly inconsistent. One second tacky fouls are called, the next you can throw someone down and it's ok. 2 seconds of play on or 15, who knows! It honestly feels like he's got a random timer app that alerts him every x seconds and he's supposed to blow his whistle for something at that time.

Overall a very meh game. I was really hoping we'd try and take this one and move onto the playoffs on a more positive note, and especially helping control our fate for getting back into CCL plus putting us in a good position to host the final should we get there.

 

When Jason came out to talk to the fans on "Fan Appreciation Night" and basically begged us to come to the playoff game, I was thinking maybe a better approach would have been to play a great game and make us want to come back.
But I'll be there of course. Co-dependence in all its glory.

 

15, I understand why you liked Tony's game last night. But, on the flip side he showed another full game of why he irritates me so much. He can't attempt a simple give and go. It drives the other players crazy too. After he makes a short pass he doesn't make a run to get the ball back in space. When he receives a short pass he doesn't trust himself enough to send the ball to space. Then, he sits on the ball scanning the field, thus allowing the defense to organize and mark everyone. Steele gets a lot of crap on here, but many of the plays where fans think WTF was he doing? Are actually plays that Toney (and others) screw up by not being where they should be.

 

Vianna could be fantastic next season so I'm looking forward to that, but as good as he is he just isn't ready to contribute right now.

I feel as though Velasquez should really get some more time.
I'd much rather see him as the super-sub than Steele.

KWS is somehow still improving. That's just crazy.

Gil did alright. You'd be silly to expect him to replace Javi, but he did good.
We still lack a true backup AM.

Espindola was his usual Good/Bad self. I wish he wouldn't drop so deep in the midfield or hold on to the ball so much.

Sabo gave our attack dimension and stretched the defense, but I don't think the team took advantage of that. He didn't get enough service into the box and when he was being double teamed by the defense no one exploited the space.

Mansally didn't utilize his speed as much as I hoped for. His shots were powerful but he tried too hard to hit the corners of the goal.

Steele was Steele.
One moments he looks like he belongs in the MLS, the next he's trick passing it back to the Whitecaps.

 

I'm surprised no one is calling out Beckerman for his performance last night. It was his worst game I've seen in a long time. Several passes straight to the other team. Is Steele rubbing off on other players?

 

Go rewatch the CCL game and tell me if it's Beltran or someone else. He was doing the give and go pass all damn game and Espy never gave it back to him. A few times if Espy would have given him the ball Beltran would of had a few shots on goal.

 

Isn't Javi out of contract after this year?

 

We need another AM bad.
Not only that, but our other midfielders should be pulling some weight in the attack.
Regardless of who is playing on the sides of the diamond they should be crashing the box and doing overlapping runs frequently.
Much too often the midfield is too willing to let the 3 guys up top handle the final third alone.

 

I read something on MLSoccer that he ws in his last year, they're probably wrong.

 

At Seattle Friday, makes me feel better about 3 straight shut-outs so lets hope we Go into Seattle come home with another 0-0 and we can start praying for a big match win at home. (Something we have not seen much). As a die hard RSL fan I am looking forward to this series, but having lived thru this less than stellar year I fear one and out.
If Kries plays Steele for any significant time RSL will lose.....first sub if we need offense better be Valasquez.