Thanks & rep to ReAl Football Fan for posting yesterday's links.7/31/06 local news roundup RSL 2, DCU 1... KSL-TV/Jeremiah Jensen: Watch the Highlights and Post-Game Reaction including Jeremiah Jensen's One-on-One Interview with Jeff Cunningham Daily Utah Chronicle/Tony Pizza: Stunner in Salt Lake City--RSL snaps D.C. United's 14-game unbeaten streak Ogden Standard-Examiner/Jasen Asay: Kicking in for a win (free link) "When we scored the first goal I was yelling for the guys to grab the ball and get back because I felt that (the D.C. United players) were a little tired and I felt like we had some juice left," said RSL midfielder Chris Klein. "I don't know if that was wishful thinking or not but it ended up to prove true in the end." Stadium... Provo Daily Herald: Herald poll response -- Real Salt Lake Editor's note: The Daily Herald recently asked readers if Real Salt Lake should relocate to Utah County. Here are the comments we received:SL Tribune/Heather May: Rocky may face daunting final year In addition, the mayor remains hopeful a deal can be struck at Salt Lake County and in the Legislature to deliver a Major League Soccer stadium to Sandy and help him land a performing arts center with a Broadway theater downtown. He also has proposed that the stadium could go to the Utah State Fairpark. SL Tribune/letter: Stadium plan is a good deal Women's soccer... KUTV: WPSL Final Four held in Salt Lake (2 mintute video segment) Ogden Standard-Examiner/Justin Johnson: Top of Utah boots play in Australia Earlier this summer, Emily Anderson (Weber High School), Shanel Shepard (Ogden High), Brittney Briggs (Northridge) and Kelsey Messmer (Logan High), as well as Liz (Brooks) Browning (Southern Utah University/Ogden High) got the chance to visit Australia up close. ... “It was an amazing experience,” said Browning, a defender who helped lead Ogden High to the 2001 state 3-A title before becoming a four-year starter at SUU. “International soccer is so different, so it was exciting to get a chance to take part. It was awesome to go and learn about a different place and a different culture.”
ha ha, sounds good! :-D However, I doubt Ellinger cares at all what any of us think. He'd be an idiot to sit around worrying about us.
Don't be so sure. Only God, Ellinger & the fishes know how many "sl7vk-enscribed" golf balls rest on the Jordan River's sandy bottom.
It doesn't seem like much of a deal. Tickets are $15 for VIP & Premium. IIRC Corner & End are $10. Kids under 10 are free with a paid adult.
It's not even a season ticket game! I'm going to sound like a whiney SOB here, but I think the FO could have bought a lot of public trust back if they were to offer this game at rock-bottom Bees-like ticket prices. $10/family or something like that. It's would be a money loser the night of, but maybe they'd get some repeat fans that would not have come otherwise. Instead we'll have at most 1,000 attending. Blech!
8/1/06 local news roundup "Nik continued to improve and be steady for us," said Ellinger. "My confidence in Nik...was justified." RSL 2, DCU 1... The Daily Universe (BYU)/Zac Layton: Real edges D.C United Provo Daily Herald: RSL reserves fall to D.C. Deseret News/James Edward: 17-year-old Nikolas Besagno making big impact on field for Real Salt Lake "I told Nik before the game, 'Ante Razov is going to camp out in front of you even though he's a left-sided striker because (Juan Francisco) Palencia goes back in the midfield, and Ante's not going to line up in front of Douglas (Sequeira). You're going to be his target," said Real coach John Ellinger. So what happened? Less than 90 seconds into the game, Besagno got caught off guard and Razov slipped in behind him to bury the games's opening goal. "He learned the hard way," said Ellinger. "My hat's off to him, he got better as the night went on." Stadium... Sandy City Journal/Deborah De Vos: County veto of Real disgusts Sandy mayor (.pdf) "We want to keep the team in Utah and so we are open to other suggestions," said [RSL CEO Dean] Howes. "But we're done making proposals. if someone wants us, then they can bring us the proposal and if we agree with it, we can then move forward."SL Tribune/Holly Mullen: People speak up about Rocky At the Smith's grocery store parking lot in the Rose Park neighborhood, Maria Gallegos said she hopes the mayor keeps working on a plan to bring a major league soccer stadium to the west side's Fairpark. "We have people on this side of town that would support [Real Salt Lake]," she said. EDIT: speaking of the same Rose Park Smith's grocery store... Madrid friendly... Deseret News: Beckham optimistics [sic?]
James Edward is writing puff pieces about Besango? Ugh. I like this line the best: "Ellinger never doubted Besagno's potential, but he probably didn't expect him to be contributing so well this early." If I had any more energy to spend on this I'd go back and find about twenty quotes that contradict the objective part of that statement.
I'm surprised how much of the information that Dolan mentions in the Sandy City paper was not mentioned more publically. A few items of interest: - TRT revenue projections were estimated at 4% over the life of the tax even though the previous two years 7% & 10% (thus, the "payback" was presented at a "worst case" conservative number). - Sandy generates $4 million a year in taxes that go to SLC. Hence, Dolan is going to push for legislation to keep Sandy funds in Sandy. The two questions I have: 1) RSL & Sandy - Why didn't you make MORE information like this available to the public so that at least if people were talking about it, you would increase the chances of them having a clue about the particulars of the deal? 2) The Newspapers/Media - Is it really too much that instead of repeating things you hear and endlessly speculating (passed of as news/reporting) you actually research and present facts? What a stupid waste.
Ellinger Gets Manly: 8/01/06 Coach Ellinger's weekly appearance on 1280/700 The Zone's Manly Morning Show. Coach E discussed the tremendous win over DC United and looked ahead to the US Open Cup and beyond. mp3 here (click to listen or right-click to download) iTunes podcast feed here generic podcatcher rss feed here The Unofficial RSL Audio Archive
8/2/06 local news roundup “It’s different because you can’t tie,” said Mehdi Ballouchy. “It’s win or lose.” RSL vs. Colorado (USOC)... SL Tribune/Chhun Sun: No time for RSL to let up--Fresh from an upset of D.C. United, the team wants to build on its momentum "Now, I think, we still need to go into that game [vs. Colorado] with the attitude you don't wanna lose," Ellinger said. "Now it's more so when you beat the No. 1 team in the league...I think everybody feels good about it, I think the rest of the team feels good about it, and they just wanna add to it. They don't want it to stop there." ... "For me and the rest of the players, it's an important game," team captain and forward Jason Kreis said. "A lot of fans don't quite understand what it's all about. At the end of the day, it's a chance to win the trophy, it's a chance to put some money in the pocket." Deseret News/Dan Rasmussen: RSL hosts Colorado in U.S. Open Cup action "I'm not quite sure what lineup Colorado will put in there," said Ellinger, "but most of our starters are healthy so we're going to probably start close to what we started the other night (against D.C. United)." July injuries decimated Salt Lake's backline, but it appears most of the central defenders are close to returning. Eddie Pope (foot contusion), Nelson Akwari (hip contusion) and Cameron Knowles (hamstring strain) are all nearing full recovery. "Either one of those three could probably play, if necessary," said Ellinger, "but Cameron has the less pain, so he'll be on the roster."Ogden Standard-Examiner: Open Cup quarters on the line--RSL players welcome opportunity to advance (paid subscription only) “It’s a chance, in my mind, for this team to build a resume,” Klein said. ... “It also becomes bad because what I’ve seen before in the game right before the break is you’ll get some players that have one foot out the door ready for that vacation already so it’s important for us to step up,” Kreis said.Dive or no dive... KUTV: RSL takes a dive but win game. Is it worth it? (2 minute video segment)
OK I am not condoning diving and i am sure this has been said before... but watching something like that does tend to bug me because... Yes Chris Klein took a dive... but that ref was buying what the players were selling on both sides of the ball. The ref certainly missed some calls leading up to that call that were blatant fouls... but no mention of those... but anyway....
I was wondering when somebody was going to bring up the diving issue with that last penalty. Kudos to KUTV for doing that little segment. Wilson made a poor (and baffling) challenge and did clip Klein, but I agree with Duece that was a dive. I have a problem with this, mainly in the larger sense. It's so hard for a ref these days to see what is what, and people can get away with diving regularly. They need to start suspending players for blatant dives where contact is minimal(there is contact on this one so I probably wouldn't support a suspension for this- more like the Champs league final when Arsenal scored on a free kick when zero contact had been made) and rid the game of this. If you find a way to make players play honestly, the game will get cleaner because a ref will have more confidence to make a call when he or she is less concerned about being fooled by a dive. That's a tall order I know, but one that we need to at least strive for. On the bright side, Klein's unathletic looking, against the laws of physics fall is pretty solid evidence that he's not very practiced at this sort of thing, which I find reassuring. I don't think anybody needs to raise a stink about RSL nabbing two points in injury time from a little embellishment, but I don't want to see this repeated-by RSL or anyone else in the league. Unfortunately, I know I will.
Eh... deep into injury time, your team is desparately seeking a goal. You're in the penalty area with no angle and the ball on your foot. The defender dives in wrecklessly. A smart professional player is going to draw contact and earn the call EVERY time. You have to do that there. Trying to be an American football, manly-man and take the tackle will amount to one of two things: (1) player loses the ball and the team ties/loses or (2) player gets mauled and can't walk afterwards. Chris Klein did what ANY smart professional player would do there, he just wasn't very convincing about it so it was more obvious. I can't call this cheating in his case. He did what any professional would do - even if they were on always "upstanding" DC United.... And for the record, I'm one of the few American fans that doesn't cry about tactical dives, so it has nothing to do with this being an RSL player and defending him. It's like drawing a foul on purpose in a basketball game in the waning moments with the hope of pulling a free throw out of it as well. That CK penalty wasn't cheating. It was incredibly dumb defensive play by Wilson.
Chris Klein "embellished" it a bit, but that doesn't mean the call wasn't legit! I laugh every time I think of him jumping up after the call and celebrating. Awesome.
KUTV's piece was utter drivel. Their idiotic reporter, who acted like he was such a tough guy during the interviews yesterday, used everything out-of-context. Ellinger and Klein repeatedly stated they thought it wasn't a dive, but that Klein may have embellished it. So, how does KUTV lead its off piece? By stating that RSL won by using a dive. And they splice quote after quote to get what they want, instead of what people actually said. What poor journalism.