So the best team in the land shows up right when RSL needs a team to play up to talent and effort wise. One of my favorite soccer stories was when we went to the RSL vs The Galacticos at Rice Eccles Stadium a long, long, time ago. We had seats on the 3rd row of in the North East corner. After half time, when David Beckham was subbed on, Real Madrid had a corner and were playing to the North Goal. Mr. Posh Spice came over to take the corner and the lady next to me was practically screaming and was noticeably excited considering she probably took 450 photos before he got the corner off. I had no idea my wife liked David Beckham. I said, "you like David Beckham?", her reply, "oh yea!" The reason I share that story is because about 2 years ago my wife, who is not a sports fan, but has become very much a soccer fan over the years and is my constant companion at RSL games, she informed me that she was now a Tottenham Hotspur fan. Cool beans. I later found out that her becoming a Spurs fan had absolutely nothing to do with Gareth Bale being on the team. Well, it wasn't the entire reason. She also loved they way that Rebecca Lowe said Tottenham Hotspurs. At the last home game when they announced that our next home opponent was LAFC, my wife turned to me and asked, "is LAFC really the next home game?" I replied, "yes, yes they are. please don't embarrass me." She promised to behave. True stories. 3-1 RSL
Really looking forward to this one. Mrs. Mouse and Minnie Mouse will also be in attendance. Lots of talent out on the pitch as well as a massive amount of inconsistency. LAFC is at the top of the table, as goob mentioned, and we're in 3rd. Check that - 4th....wait a sec, we're in 5th. Just ahead of Portland and Nashville, who happen to play each other tomorrow evening, so odds are good we'll fall to 6th by the end of the day tomorrow. No reason we should even earn a draw with these guys, so I'm with goob and will go with RSL 3 - 1 LAFC. Because...RSL.
I don't know how it impacts Saturday night, BUT..... LAFC has a Leagues Cup Showcase game against Club America tonight on ESPN. Pretty sure they will be under some pressure to put some of their stars out there. That being said, LAFC are ridiculously deep. I have no reason to expect points from this game, but there's always a chance. Cordova shouldn't start. I think I'm ready to see a 4-2-3-1 with Rubio and Luna starting. Ugh, I feel almost dirty typing that, but I don't know how else to get those guys on the field in a position to succeed (maybe a 3-5-2). You can bring Chang, Julio and Cordova off the bench to run hard late in the 2nd half. Hoping to give up no more than 2 goals.
Set Pieces From what I can put together about LAFC this year, their biggest weakness might just be defending set pieces. RSL, on the flip side, showed some really strong abilities this year (especially early) at taking set piece chances. Set pieces don't just happen, though. Instead of Rubio I'd be interested in Julio getting the start. LAFC's backline has been anchored by Chiellini. He will absolutely eat up a player like Rubio or Cordova. Julio, on the other hand, has pace that Chiellini struggles with - saw it in Serie A a lot last year. I don't think Luna starts this one. Pablo will lean on veteran players like Meram and Chang ahead of a young wildcard. Not saying I agree, just don't see it hapening. Julio Savarino Meram Ruiz Loffelsend Chang Brody Silva Glad Herrera MacMath I'm not optimistic about a win here, at all. Or even a draw. LAFC have won 4 straight, and 6 of their last 7. They're in form. RSL is not. The Club America game might give us a slight chance, but every time we've talked about the opponent having shorter rest this year it feels like RSL looks the more tired team.
I’m going with @2nd Mouse ‘s 1-3 prediction. On another note, What’s the over/under on how many minutes Chiellini can go at our altitude? I predict he gets subbed at halftime.
If we get a point against the leading team in the west and arguably the best team in the league I would be very pleased and surprised.
I'm not certain if LAFC will follow suit, but this cup seems to be non-serious. Here's the subs for LA Galaxy's 2:0 win over Chivas, with the line change at half:
The changes for the 2023 will definitely increase the importance of this cup. All 47 ML and LigaMX teams will participate. The winner gets a spot in the CCL Round of 16.
I agree that some teams will take it less seriously than others. But right now the games are treated more like typical friendliest. It’s important to no one. I doubt that having all of the teams involved will make it more importo anyone, but the CCL spot will be a carrot for some.
Off the Crossbar podcast mentioned that the game has been bumped back to 8:30pm MDT. Don't know what TV it's on in CA (supposed reason it's been bumped back), but for me I'll have to try to watch on Twitter or maybe the stream on KSL will work for me again. It's going to be a late night, but it's a game worth watching until the end.
my 7 year old is gonna love that... but really its to get butts in seats. It doesn't matter. Utah fans - across all sports - refuse to show up on time/early.
I would normally agree about changing the time for local fans so they aren't late, but an 8:30 start in Utah makes no sense for the local fans. That's a really late start for a game that isn't on national TV.
The club hasn't done a whole lot to report this game time change. I'm a STH and haven't received an email or text about it. The angle is to have as many fans (like me) think the game starts at 8 but it really starts at 830. They've done this other times this year - purposefully and as the result of factors like traffic or weather. But hey, I got a text about buying tickets to the Atlas game...
That's interesting. Of note, the official kickoff time on the MLS site is 8:08pm. Maybe they don't have the memo yet, either?
I think you are both correct. To me it smells like the league has been involved in making this happen. It wants LAFC to play in full stadiums and to have maximum tv exposure in SoCal. Moving the time accomplishes the latter. Not announcing the time change helps to accomplish the former.
Very curious how the team comes out in this one. I am not sure something flat would be indicative of anything - we've done that plenty of times before - but coming out renewed, with purpose, playing well, that would wash away a lot of the disappointment of this week.
Pablo has his team in a position he thrives in: underdog that nobody in their right mind is picking to win. Yes, that's a shot at goob, mouse, and RSLer. ********ing weirdos
Morning of game All communications have stated it starts at 8p MT Where did soapbox guys get this delayed start time from?
It sounded like they were recording their podcast and were notified by a team representative while doing so.
Tyler Gibbons confirmed it on Twitter to me that it was done for national TV reasons. I'm sure they aren't saying it loudly because they want a full stadium at kickoff for said national TV reasons. Although I don't know what TUDN is, I can only watch on Twitter (usually terrible and harder than you'd think to find).