I can't complain about Glad getting beat like that. Too many mistakes tonight to try to keep up with this team. RSL can't compete in a shootout.
To deflect from how LAFC is two levels above RSL Trey and Ryan will keep going back to the Chiellini handball controversy in their next pod.
Our fan base is the dumbest in the league and I’ll hear no other arguments That’s a yellow It was reviewed Move on the real podcast “what it” will be Ruiz crossbar. That might make the game tight for the last 30. But when lafc wanted they cut rsl apart. They were winning this game no matter that shot
How does a team up 3-1 make four of their subs and the team down only make one I cannot stand the vibes approach from Pablo Oh and Rubin is dogshit. It’s laughable to say he should start above anyone. Even kei
The substitution stuff is getting ridiculous at this point. So is the constant crossing, nobody can get on the end of one unless it's a set piece. I still want to be see a 4-3-3 or something with Luna playing under Rubin. Don't care if it's a road weekday match. I want to see it from the first whistle before I write him off.
LAFC clearly a class above. Gotta say, this was entertaining. We played really well for stretches. Ruiz allows this team to play some fun soccer. Laughing my ass off for Chiellini volleyball spike. Heard tonight that a fellow super fan from the early days I partied with a bunch, who I had lost touch with, finally succumbed to cancer. RIP Julie.
Exactly. “one foot away from goal of the year I tells ye” - the Codger At times this match was like Man City facing the lean lads of West Badgerton. I’m very glad that I was in attendance. Also, there were several elegant plays from RSL but LA is simply on another level. I mean, Chielini was past the midfield circle half the time - they just flat out occupied our half and pressed well when they lost it - completely compacted the field. This is what next level MLS looks like. It’s good for soccer in America.
Why Rubin? What does Rubin offer that cordova and Julio don’t? I truly don’t know his role on this geam
This game kinda reminded me of one when Vela was setting the league record for goals scored and we had Onuoha. We played our hearts out, but they were clicking on all cylinders then and totally outclassed us.
Dunny wondered aloud on the broadcast if Anderson was still coming back from injury and only a 60-ish minute player right now.
He's just done it before in the league. I know he hasn't done it recently, but when RSL tried to play with more of a 10, he produced. Cordova has had a much longer leash than any other attacker and I have no idea why. If Pablo doesn't want to play that way, I'm not going to argue too much. He knows way more than I do. Rubio doesn't work with this current strategy, won't argue that. Same with Julio, don't know if it's injury related or not, but he's not having the same impact as last year. Is it more talent or utilization?
Watching my recoding of the game. On LAFC’s third goal the soft turnover in our own half isn’t the only problem. Brody was again caught flat footed while his man made a run through the box. This happens way to many times. Typically the other team can’t find the back of the net, but LA played this run beautifully. I don’t know whether or not Brody called out to Silva that the runner was coming his way. It didn’t look like it. But is Silva had turned around to cover the run the man he was marking would have then been open.
1) Cordova = Blitzer interference 2) Julio was effective last year as a fast sub running against tired defenders. If he’s slowed by an injury why start him? Yes, LAFC’s backs play wayyyy up high, resulting in lots of room behind them….but an injured player is less likely to take advantage of it. My thought is that his speed was negated by LAFC’s speed. That’s one of the fastest MLS teams I’ve ever seen. Their backs had great recovery speed when they were beaten by an attacker. Also, we weren’t very good at sending accurate balls to attackers running down the middle at high speed like Robbie Russel or Rimando did.
Given LA’s extremely high pressure, starting Julio to execute counter attacks was the right tactical idea. But we struggled to make clean transitions from D to O and struggled to get him the ball in space and when we did - he was too deliberate - did little with it - and often had minimal support from other runners. Our best attacks happened when Herrera got upfield honestly. He’s one of the few players we had who didn’t look out talented. If anyone is gonna knock LA off it’ll be a solid defensive team that can stymie FC’s attacking movement and counter w speed in any channel. But I would take LAFC over the field. They’re fast and skilled EVERYWHERE.
If RSL played this team ten times they would be lucky to win one game. RSL did some good things but just don’t have the players or tactical plan to do much against this all star team. I certainly don’t think that one transfer window is enough to really judge the new owners on but they aren’t starting off on the right foot that’s for sure. I’m with 15 on Rubio. He’s a nice haircut and thats about it for him. At this rate RSL won’t even be close to making the playoffs.
Not announcing the game really kicked at 8:30 is quite ridiculous. I got there at 7:30 and neither team had even come out for warmups yet. Speaking of which - LAFC continued the trend of the opposing team having a shortened warmup compared to RSL. Not sure if it means anything, just found it curious. If ownership was wondering where they could make a splash that would grab the attention of untapped fanbase I hope they watched last night: get a Mexican international. The number of people there to cheer specifically for Vela was astounding. Bale and Chiellini were second and third on that list of players people showed up for. Saw a remarkable number of Juve shirts. Not as many madrid (though that makes sense) but a noticeable number of Welsh shirts/flags. Was really strange. The folks in charge of music/pre game had their timing off. They had the crowd at a peak, but then the game didn't actually start for another 20 seconds. Was too bad. Felt a good setup. I can't stand having games on any sort of national TV. The waiting for permission to kick stuff is nauseating. It didn't take long for LAFC to show just how dangerous they are going forward. The midfield play of Ruiz and Loffelsend was put to test early and they failed. LAFC cut through them with far too much ease. The first LAFC goal is dirty. When LAFC was shopping players to make space Arrango was a name floated out there. He has significant trade value so LAFC could have really landed a good chunk of change for it. Instead, RSL sent a miniscule amount of xAM for the injured guy who, with the new additions, would have been shipped to Vegas Lights. Hearing in the post-game interview that RSL "were interested in Arrango" from Pablo. And that was it... well, it's pretty damning to Fall, IMO. But hey, I'm sure this will eventually be spun to blame DLH/Blitzer because fans want to blame a layer of the club that would take years to change as opposed to those tasked with actually doing the thing we're upset about. Oh, this game... yeah, Cordova scored. LAFC were very weak on the left wing because Vela was completely disinterested in defending. Brody went on a great run, good layoff to Cordova, hell of a finish. Felt like maybe there was reason to be excited. But, nah, LAFC went to the other end and just were relentless. Feel bad for Loffelsend as he totally mistimed his "jump" for that ball. Acosta hit a hell of a shot to MacMath's near post. I'd be more critical of MacMath there but it feels pointless. Second half was better to start. RSL was pushing the envelope. The problem is LAFC, like anyone who does film on this team, made sure to focus by putting at least 2 players on Sava and daring the rest of the squad to beat them. Typically this falls to Meram. While he wasn't terrible, he certainly wasn't up to it in this game. He had far too many turnovers in the attacking third that killed off plays. Meram somehow missing from 2 feet out was the summary of his performance. It's harsh to say he completely whiffed it, but the ball hit him inside the six and he was still second to the ball. The aforementioned Ruiz hit from distance was the last chance RSL had. When that didn't go in, LAFC woke up, went to the other end, and scored. Now, a good coach would go to the bench immediately after that. It's why 'Dolo did. LAFC threw on 3 new players after going up 2. RSL.... waited. And then put on Rubio " I try a bike at least 3 times a game" Rubin. Might as well have ended the game then. Waiting until the 80th to add in Luna and Chang (and nobody else) was just so RSL/Pablo. Glad showed why he wasn't part of the allstar selection. I am sympathetic to the notion that Glad was on tired legs while Bale was more fresh. But lets not pretend like Bale was out there doing anything fancy. He dribbled around Glad. That's it. You could tell the team put a lot into this game. It was hyped up to be a pivotal point of the season. To get that result was damning. There are 10 games left on the season now. 5 home and 5 away. When looking at the run of matches, RSL has to get pretty much a perfect record at home if they want to stay in the playoff picture. Van, Minn, DCU, FCC, and Por are all games the team needs to win because the run of road games (SEA, FCD, LAFC, AUS, LAG) are rough. I'd be surprised to see any points in there. If you told me over under at 3 points, I'd probably take the under.
Always enjoy your insights into the games. I don't feel too upset after this one. I was hoping for a closer score, but wasn't expecting points. I actually liked the way the team approached and played. They appeared to be able to execute their plan fairly well. I felt pretty good about the game and the performance, but then your points 12 and 15 really but a damper on things for me. The result wasn't there mainly due to talent. RSL would have had to play a perfect game and hope that LAFC was just in town for the golf and touristy stuff. You could see how easily they could capitalize our our mistakes. The other big thing is our players aren't good enough to finish the chances they work so hard to create. Really hope that gets resolved this offseason. They won't challenge for a home playoff spot without a 15-20 goal scorer. As you said in #10, Sava needs help. Teams can mark him out of the game and nobody is good enough to take advantage game to game. I'm trying to not think to hard about your last point. Fans should be bringing this up on a daily basis. They might have to hope that results continue to go strangely for West teams and that RSL can stumble into the playoffs again. Man, typing that kind of statement is getting old.
Oh shit RSL played the other night? I thought they had an impromptu volleyball match at the RioT. Kidding aside, I bought tickets to the game for the first time in 3 years and I sure as hell didn't buy them to see RSL play. I wanted to see Arango, Vela, and Bale score goals and I was not disappointed. I was thinking of updating my jersey and buying one with Sava's name but maybe I should buy an LAFC jersey...
Once the entire West is at 25 games played, I'll make the playoff run thread I do each year. One thing that stands out to me, just with RSL schedule, is the remaining two EC games. RSL has to get max points in those two games. Also, would anyone bet that RSL can catch LAFC? Say LA dropped every game from here on out, could RSL get the necessary 17 points to tie them? That's how much better that team is than RSL...