Everyone, thanks for posting in the thread. After waking up this morning the first thing I did was read it.
Yay! RSL won. I couldn't follow the game due to previous engagement (going to a haunted house with my son) but this rocks!
@Lizzie Bee I genuienly feel bad for you because the second half at the stadium was up there with the CCL days of fun. Certainly not the first 15-30 mins, but the last 15 (and especially once the goal went in) were just wild. The Ole chant that was going was special. It felt like the old team. It felt... fun. Seriously, I had a lot of fun. Pro Tip: Move to the west side of the stadium during rain, there is ample coverage in areas and plenty of places to stand above the seats that are covered, as well. My section barely got wet at all, even when the wind changed and the flakes came down.
That's what I told my son when we got back to the car. It was an awesome experience and we were lucky to be there.
I’m so out of practice, I apparently don’t know how early to show up anymore. We got to the stadium at 7:40 and I thought we were doing pretty okay, but we used those 20 minutes (and more) standing in line to get in. We didn’t miss kickoff or the team intros, but the rain did quite a bit of damage during those 20+ minutes before we found our amply covered seats. I guess my question is whether you can skip the line with an earlier arrival or if that is now baked into the process?
Yes you can. I like to be a little early so we usually get there between 45-60 minutes before kickoff. Usually closer to 60 minutes. You can usually stroll right in with little to no wait or take time to walk around the plaza before the lines get too long. We like to get there, get in to the stadium, buy some food and enjoy it during warmups and then enjoy the game. Getting to the game closer to 30minutes or less increases the chances of missing the kickoff and starting the game off in a less than stellar mood.
It depends on the night. I think 45minutes early is always smooth sailing through security, but then you're stuck inside for a long time. 30 tends to be alright. I think last game, because of the weather, everyone was pushing it to get there as close to kickoff as possible to avoid weather and watch UofU football. It was a packed day of Utah sports. Another issue is that the security company has continually short-staffed events at Rio Tinto. Technically, RSL employees can't check bags and operate the metal detectors. You've gotta be certified to to that. Their staff does operate the scanners., which usually isn't the hold up unless a bunch of the scanners fail in the same spot.
there seems to be a 30 minute window before the game where the lines go into full on stupid mode. It makes no sense, really.
Better late than never, I guess: The weather sucked and it looked like we were going to be lucky to have 50% attendance. The crowd eventually filled in (I think a lot were either stuck in line to get in still or just hiding out under cover of the rain, especially on the east side) and was one of the best, if not the best, of the year. In the first 15-20 I thought @Paleworm 's prediction was coming to life. We were dominant but really had nothing to show for it. I was just waiting for the Portland counter to put us behind. Luckily it never materialized. Minutes before his goal, we saw the difference between Kreilach and Johnson when a ball over the top was played into him and, with any sort of speed, would have created a really dangerous chance. Instead, his slow ass couldnt get to the ball. With that said, his goal was exactly what you hope to get from Kreilach. Major kudos needs to be given to Baird on that goal. His ball had enough pace on it to split the defenders and not give Clark a chance to come out. Also of note on that goal: If I'm Clark I go yell at my CB's for a good 2-3 minutes. Kreilach was the only threat in the box and they let him just jog between the two of them without anyone accounting for him. Before that goal, though, I really want to highlight Herrera's shot that had Clark scrambling and just got to. The technique on that shot was world class. The only criticism was that he put it near post and not far post. Otherwise, that was an absolutely amazing strike and, had it gone in, would have been arguably the best goal in our playoff history. I went back and watched the highlights on this and the national broadcast made a very good point that we didn't want the halftime whistle to come because we were utterly dominant. That's true from a momentum standpoint, but also because we have this horrible tendency of coming out of the halftime tunnel in a horrible manner. Which happened again. Portland found the back of the net within just a few minutes and it felt like it should have been scored even earlier. I don't know what is done at halftime, but it has to change. We are also extremely lucky that Valeri wasn't healthy in this one. There were a couple balls that Blanco and other Portland players were putting into the space between our backline and KB/Everton that Valeri would have killed us on. From minutes 46 to about 75 we were getting absolutely worked. And, of course, Freddy is over there just watching instead of yelling at the subs to come change things. Also extremely frustrating was the continued play of the midfield, especially once Valeri came on. Everton was way too advanced and KB was getting overrun. And we just kept playing stretched. It was irritating as hell to watch. Equally frustrating: our complete lack of a left wing. It's very telling of how much more important Savarino is to this squad that, once things got tight, we completely abandoned the left side (Baird/Toia). The sub for Plata should have happened at least 10 minutes earlier. Kreilach and Johnson about the same time. And while I am completely annoyed with Freddy, once those two came on things changed back to at least even. So credit needs to be given there. Plata played inspired and Johnson was willing to put in the work. Both aren't super sharp with the ball, but they came in and got things going our way again with sheer effort. The game winner was ugly, lets be honest. Plata's touch before the pass was extremely heavy and, if you watch it on it's own, makes it look like the "pass" is actually an attempt to just keep possession. From there Rusnak makes a run to the ball and "dummies" it, but I also think the CB for Portland's touch is more what caused the ball to go through his legs. Clark's angle is a tough one, but he left a TON of space on the near post that Savarino punished. From there, the crowd went nuts. It was already a really fun second half with everything else going on, but you could feel the energy in the building jump on that goal. While they were misjointed for a lot of the match, the supporters section really showed it's potential at the end with the coordinated Ole chant. That was special. I hope it came through on TV as well as it did in person. Bonus post! I'm nervous about the Seattle game. We didn't look convincing for a long stretch of our game. They went 120 and didn't look convincing for all of theirs, either. This is the only team on the West that I like our chances against, which means we'll probably get ran off the field...
Good bit of analysis from Joseph Lowery writing for The Athletic: "Beckerman’s passing range almost single-handedly took the wind out of the Timbers’ defensive sails in the first half. The RSL stalwart moved into different vertical channels to find space, drew Portland’s soft pressure forward and consistently found teammates in space down the field." He was excellent until tiring late, and I would have turned to Rowe sooner.
There is also this Tweet from Matt Doyle, picking up something I didn't see any of us mention in the run-up to the winner: Not only is this a brilliant dummy from Rusnak, but he beats Chara to a midfield 50/50 to initiate the sequence that led to the goal. pic.twitter.com/LX0DuSAzxP— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) October 20, 2019 (And his own follow-up to the Tweet: "If you'd told me before this game that Albert Rusnak was gonna beat Diego Chara on the game-deciding 50/50 I'd have laughed in your face and called you a damn liar.")
Chara looked extremely uncomfortable without Valeri, in my opinion. In fact, the transition for Portland was really poor without him. I can't stress enough how lucky we are that he wasn't healthy enough to start.
I think that some the post-game analysis here is too negative given the result. Can RSL play better? Of course. Every team, no mater how dominate they are can play better. RSL has it's share of problems, but those problems didn't prevent RSL from winning against Portland, so are they (the problems) really an issue? I tend towards the Al Davis School of Sports. It doesn't matter to me how RSL wins (as long as it's legal), I just want RSL to win. I don't care if RSL plays Brazilian jogo bonito or Italian catenaccio or Dutch Total Football or San Jose "long ball in the box and hope for a Wondo miracle goal". Just win the game since at the end of the day, RSL advances and Portland goes home. RSL advances and Portland goes home. That's has such a nice ring to it, I'll say it again. RSL advances and Portland goes home.
We didn't play a top Portland team. They were without their talisman and it showed. Sure, winning is ALL that matters at this level, but watching an unsustainable winning form isn't something I'm going to celebrate. Lodeiro will be on the pitch for Seattle. He will kill us in those gaps that Valeri was vacant from. The ease of which Portland got into the space between our backline and midfield was alarming. And we kept playing stretched instead of pulling bodies back and fixing the problem. Rowe wasn't set to come on until the game winner. That's mind blowing.
I agree with all of your points except this one. I was in direct line of sight for that goal and I'm 100% confident Rusnak intentionally dummied that ball. Replays look like that to me as well. Plata's pass was just a desperation touch into the middle of the field for sure, but the dummy from Rusnak was an absolute beauty. I told my son that it was the assist of the year, and I still stand by that.
Just have to give this an amen. Incredibly taken shot. I was blown away. Really a shame Clark got to it.
Herrera can legitimately do this. It struck me as similar to when he scored from the halfway line while at UNM. Bonus points - you can see Erik Holt in this video too.
Another random stadium entry tip. Not sure if it's still the case, but the line for the NW entrance tends to have a couple of security gates in the middle that very few people use. Usually you can walk from the outside of the line right up to them. For whatever reason, nobody seems to notice them, despite security trying to get people in line. It's what me and my brother always did. People would give you looks, but sorry, I'm going to go in the empty line that you all are neglecting.