Just gotta bring up that Seitz hot take... I seriously went at Dadof5(?) with that stupid opinion and fear I scared him off. Hopefully not
Close . . . he was (is) a Dadof6. He may be the poster I miss most since he had a refereeing background on top of being a neat guy, and the perspective was welcome.
Agreed. I hooked him up with some homebrew kegs back in the day so he could make rootbeer. I haven't seen him at games either, which I used to quite often. I hope he's alright. IBIK and Aosthed and Donk were great too. Prolific was.... prolifically entertaining.
Nah. I had the impression that the frequent bashing of referees was the main reason. Sadly, I was a large part of that. I still feel the same way about MLS officiating; but, I regret how strongly I used to bash them and would be much less vocal if I had the chance to relive the past.
I met Dadof6 at a watch party for the Colorado away game in '08 that sent us to the playoffs. He was such a nice dude and easy to talk to. I miss his perspective. Heck, most of the guys on this board that I've met in person have been good guys, even Prolific. Well, I guess I should deduct some points from him for introducing me to the addiction that is this forum. I was at a watch party at Brewvies and he stood up and shouted "Who here is from BigSoccer?". Nobody answered and he said something along the lines of "That's typical." I joined the forum shortly after that game.
With KB gone, the armband needs a new home. Now, the caveat to that is that, in 2020, KB only logged 5 starts with 2 of those in the MiB Tournament. So we've had time to see who would potentially wear it. Based on those games, it appeared a competition between Rusnak and Kreilach. However, an article on the club site listed two other players by name - Silva and Herrera - and also a "lead as a group" approach until a voice emerges. Personally, from what I've seen (which is limited to games and some videos here and there) this has to be Kreilach. He has the most experience of the bunch, seems wells respected by the team, and (mostly) backs his play with captain qualities, if you will. And while it shouldn't affect their ability to be captain overall, missing Rusnak for Euros and Herrera for Olympics really hampers them. For Silva... I've just never seen that side of him, but maybe I'm missing something.
Also, Trib Article with "5 Burning Questions for RSL" that... well don't do a whole lot of answering. Let me summarize since it's behind a paywall if you've used your Trib allotment for the month: 1. What is the latest on the ownership transition? - "RSL is in limbo on many fronts. The front office doesn’t have discretionary funds to get a designated player, so it has to be creative as it tries to improve the roster. John Kimball is running day-to-day operations, but Garber says he reports directly to the league. And there has to be at least some anxiety about what will happen to people’s jobs when the new owner finally does come in." 2. What is the state of the roster? - "Coach Freddy Juarez told The Salt Lake Tribune that some player announcements are coming and the club is working on acquiring others. He said his club needs “two or three more pieces.” The team has 27 of its 30 roster spots occupied, per MLS." 3. Who are all those new coaches? - "In are assistant Pablo Mastroeni and goalkeeper coach Ignacio Hernandez. The club paid the Houston Dynamo $50,000 in general allocation money to pry Mastroeni from his contract there, and Hernandez comes from coaching at Cal Poly and was also at the RSL Academy from 2012 to 2015. The team is still looking to fill out the rest of the staff." 4. Who will wear the captain’s armband? - "Juarez said among the leaders on the team are Kreilach, Rusnák, Herrera, goalkeeper Zac MacMath and defender Donny Toia. Whoever ends up with it, Juarez wants the decision to happen by itself within the roster." 5. What style will RSL play? - This one had the most head scratching information for me. It indicates that Freddy's last season was his only season. That is only partly true. Yes, it was his first full season, but lets not pretend he hasn't been with the club for years and the first team since 2016. - Next, it brings up his fabled "we attack in this formation and defend in this formation" stuff. Which... ok. I still don't get why he would pick that form of transition. - It ends with something that felt especially just *facepalm* like: "However, Juarez said, maybe the team needs to be more unpredictable and attack down the middle of the field more often instead of almost exclusively on the wings. Maybe the quality of balls into the box needs to improve. Maybe he needs to direct more players to make runs into dangerous areas." - I don't know who those "maybe's" are from, but man, this isn't a "maybe" critique area. This team HAS to be more unpredictable. This team HAS to use the middle of the field. This team HAS to improve on service. There is no maybe about that. All in all, another "ok, well, so what does this actually mean" article. Expecting more is probably unreasonable at this point, but then again why publish something that achieves nothing? Oh, and that we haven't filled that last assistant coaching spot is really weird to me. What is the hesitation there? You'd think you would want that person in before preseason if not right at the start...
The ability to stay on the field and not get sent off seems like a good quality for a captain. You know, like KB was able to do.
This part sticks out to me. Didn't Putna get the majority of the minutes last year? Does this mean Freddy is looking at MacMath being the #1?
yeah, that one is a weird shout. Almost like he was just giving Zack a nod for his work last year during the DLH side show and the BLM stance from the players. MacMath had 7 games last year, I believe 6 of those were the two games to start the season and then the MiB games.
I had missed that we *paid* Houston for Mastroeni. That hire has always felt like an elaborate joke, or personal insult, to me. This revelation isn't helping.
Gotta imagine Houston had a good laugh about that. Hou: You want this guy? Is this a joke? Yeah, ok... just send us a check for $50k and we'll let you have the guy we're probably gonna fire anyways. *Hangs up phone, texts friends that he just had an elaborate prank call that could only happen in MLS* *RSL Sends Check* Hou: Holy shit
It's good to know that we're going to have no real tactics again other than bombing down the wing. And maybe sometimes thinking about going through the middle.
Last year we also had a set piece coaching specialist, which I would count as part of our tactics. No such person this year, so far.
I sorta understand big big clubs thinking they need to have a guy who specializes in set pieces (which has expanded into throw ins) but man, is that really necessary for us? I also find it funny that a coach would want a guy who focuses entirely on that. That's such a limited part of the game to dedicate that much time to. It feels very american football. Oh we need a specialized coach for that! Actually... just keep the same principles of your tactics and you should have these things occur naturally. Further, I'd think you'd want the players to be allowed to express creativity in those moments with either a well rehearsed set piece they've come up with, or hitting a great shot that they've been doing after practice for weeks.
Yes. This. I have been practicing rolling my eyes and throwing my hands in the air with humorous disgust. I don’t want to pull a muscle when the season starts.
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/rsl/2021/03/10/former-utah-jazz-exec/ John Kimball providing RSL with stability as search for new owner continues Kimball has focused on repairing the internal culture of the club and letting other executives do their jobs.
MLS released the home openers schedule. RSL has a bye the first week. This announcement also confirms that Vancouver will be playing the season at Rio Tinto. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021/03/10/mls-announces-home-openers-2021-season
Wonder how the home attendance for Vancouver games will look. Ate they going to sell tickets or just have an empty stadium?
Now's your chance to get season tickets to all Vancouver Whitecaps games! This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for you! Act now!
Our home opener is a noon kick on May 1st. Not a fan of the time slot. I was lucky enough to get vaccinated yesterday so was going to feel up to trying an RSL game in person. May 1 at that time, though, is impossible to make. So... Pretty funny Vancouver opens the RioT for 2021, not RSL. 8p Sunday night kick for them Opening the season with a all but for sure loss in Minnesota - the new Texas of RSL - sucks. But not sure I would expect anything different, regardless of the opponent.