Week 1 - Real Salt Lake

Unfortunately, looking at this stats Penso looks like he loves to hand out cards.

A week ago I was disappointed that Collin had dropped to second team. After the Saturday game, I was excited to see what Mateos could do with an extended run. Some of his long passes were fabulous.

 

I think the CBs will be solid. It's Bendik that makes me nervous. He did not look good at all during the friendly.

 

Well, crap. Collin has seemingly done well when given the opportunity in camp, unless they want to see if they can survive without him. Hate to see the injuries start already, and Mateos was looking good.

 

Paul T has a story up now. He's saying two to six weeks for Mateos, which is a little better.

He also says that Hines is a physical CB like Collin, and Redding is more technical like Mateos. So it seems almost like Heath is treating it as two different positions.

 

So RSL is coming off a midweek game, while Orlando is coming off of 133 days of rest. Sounds good to me!

 

RSL is coming off of a midweek game, but at this point in the season (beginning) rotation isn't as much of a concern as chemistry is. With that, I fully expect RSL to roll out the best XI. There are some possible knocks that would need replacing, but fatigue shouldn't be a huge concern.

(4-2-3-1)
Rimando
Beltran - Olave - Maund* - Phillips**
Beckerman - Sunny
Plata - Morales - Martinez
Movsisyan

*Maund picked up a HUGE goose egg in a head to head collision on Wednesday. Supposedly no concussion worries but he could be rotated for Justen Glad if the swelling isn't down.

** Phillips had to sit out Wednesday's game with a sickness. No word on where he is. If he's still unhealthy, I expect Chris Wingert to take his place

I'm looking forward to this one. our game last year was ruined with Kaka's red card so we didn't really get to see too much of the teams go at each other. The front 4 for RSL was taking it to Tigres on Wednesday and has a lot of RSL fans hopeful we can fix last seasons woes. Our defense is suspect at best, though, so I fully expect goals from you guys in this one. Multiple

 

Thanks for the very nice rundown.

A couple of updates/notes on the Orlando side not otherwise mentioned:

• No one is really 100% sure whether Collin will start or the young kid Redding. One would think Collin, but there have been plenty of rumblings about Redding. Could be interesting either way.
• Rivas looks like he will be available Sunday, almost assuredly as a sub. He has had a "miraculous" recovery from his ankle injury.
• Nocerino is finally in town, but not available for selection this weekend.
• Not stated in this thread is that Higuita would be an expected starter, but he is serving a suspension for his red card in last year's finale.

 

From the outside looking in, this lineup doesn't look strong given some of the injuries. Kaka-less midfield doesn't look strong. I think with Kaka and Nocerino this could eventually be a strength of the team. Backline also seems vulnerable, although I don't know anything about Redding. I actually like the attacking three. Molino, Larin and Shea I think will have a good season, although I assume Shea will revert to wingback.

Is this a fair assessment from an outsider?

On our side, our center backs are not very strong. Too many mental errors, and not a lot of depth. A sigh of relief that Maund is starting despite injury on Wed. Midfield wasn't a strength last year despite having Beckerman and Morales, but Sunny seems like he could be the missing piece. Attack looks to be much stronger this year.

 

That may well have been the most insane ending to a game I have ever seen. We dominated the game and deserved at least a point. Funny, Shea was given MOTM and I thought he was pretty poor save that last cross.

btw -- what's with the tumbleweeds in here? Is there a better forum for OC talk?

 

Based on the preseason, our offense looks very dangerous and the defense looks questionable. I think the defense will be ok, not so sure about Bednik. But watching RSL take two of their very few chances to score, the defense didn't look so good today. I think mainly Hines was the victim.

But we were also down a few players today after going through most of training camp with minimal injuries. The depth showed up late, and we got the draw.

 

Shea was terrific the entire game, easily MOTM. Not only did he have the assist on that beautiful cross, but he set the whole play up by dancing around a defender on the OC side of the field. The absence of Kaka and the rust of Molino meant that some of Shea's passes didn't connect. Even when Shea doesn't play particularly well, he makes a big impact because he has a very high soccer IQ. If he plays like this all season, he'll have several goals and assists even from the LB spot.

We should thank our lucky stars we have Brek.

 

We certainly dominated the game, and Penso the ref called his usual terrible game. I thought the RSL red was justified until I just looked at the replay. I didn't think he should have gotten that, and Ceren certainly should not have gotten his red. Some of those yellow cards were completely ridiculous. This crappy game brought to you courtesy of PRO.

 

OC lions on Reddit is very active.

 

WOW! that was incredible. Amazing how many dramatic games we've seen at the Citrus Bowl. Amazing day for soccer in Orlando.

I thought the team looked rather poor outside of the first 15 minutes. If the Larin goal in the beginning isn't disallowed, I think we dominate.

I've seen quite a few people say Shea had a great game. I disagree, he was very active but had poor cross after poor cross all game. I thought his poor crossing killed off a lot of great attacks, especially considering how much room RSL was giving Shea on the left. I would much rather have Kaka or Rivas on the left and have him back at LB.

 

I thought Shea had good cross after good cross, and Larin (among others) flubbed a few. Boden was the one dribbling the ball along the ground from the wing instead of getting it up in the air. Not impressed with Bodz today. Winter should have gotten the start in Kaka's place.

 

Was it my imagination or did the linesman wait a good 10 seconds before flagging Larin offsides after the first goal?

 

Absolutely. I have no idea why either. Well, other than the fact that the linesman must be from Utah. One of many dreadful calls. Amazing we can't get decent refereeing in this country.

 

Yeah. Even when they make the right call, they do it for the wrong reasons.

 

I guess he thought that Shea touched the ball, but Shea really wasn't close to it. Mind boggling bad call. Meanwhile, Ceren gets a red for hitting a player in the neck, except he didn't.