Nice to see the shut out. It's been awhile. Goal differential is back to even. Interesting point, RSL at Vancouver is the only league game next weekend. I'll be watching.
Also, we are now legit in a 3-way tie for 3rd in the league! Take into account Austin's ppg, and we are at worst #6. We'll see if that holds up as they play away to LAG tomorrow. Crazy.
Crazy that we're currently tied for 2nd in the west, and just now got back to a 0 GD. But it honestly feels more like we're on an upswing instead of just grinding out results like early season. Also love that 5-0-1 home record. Best in the league so far!
Also crazy: of last year's seven Western Conference playoff teams, we're the only one in a playoff position right now.
That Houston team looked a side that had played 7 games in 22 days. Heavy legs. If Julio was fit he’d have had a hat trick
The stadium experience is improved. Most of all, I enjoyed the unintentional comedy of the guy behind me cheering the return of "Saborio". Also, you notice other subtle things, like the subs warming up are really working. The Freddy/Jeff era was pretty casual that way. Whoever's doing strength and conditioning is earnings his or her money. The fitness and effort are much higher than we saw during the DLH era. Giving a shit matters greatly.
After the game I think Mastroeni said he heard it happened while Pablo was stretching his leg. Which would be really odd.
Hadebe is one of their DPs. He ate up every dribbler who came his way. His height makes him a big problem to defend on their set pieces too.
While we won 3-0, Houston was really putting it to us at the start of the 2nd half, and amazingly, due to some combo of MacMath/fatigue/lack of killer instinct, managed to not even it up or even pull ahead. Cordova’s goal came at a really opportune moment, and was comically ridiculous. We were dangerous on the counter, but they were controlling the game up to then and a bit after.
It was a perfect night for a game. The temperature was so nice and the evening was beautiful. Houston did seem to get a bit gassed and if not for the 2nd RSL goal perhaps they don't lose their wind. I don't believe that I was ever really worried that RSL wasn't going to get a result after they scored. They did have me worried with their lack of an eye for finishing that they were leaving the game wide open for Houston to punish them severely but with MacMath in goal I'm starting not to worry as much. There have been many surprising standouts but Zach in goal has to be the most shocking. The guy has found his groove, knock on wood, and given the players in front of him the confidence that comes from having a keeper you trust. I wont miss Ochoa for a second. At this rate David is going to be that kid with all the potential for the rest of his career. Maybe that changes but to me he has all the hallmarks of a player that thinks he is so much better than he actually is and natural talent will only take you so far especially if your head is not in the right place or just too damn big. I would put money on Ochoa never playing for RSL again. I would trade him to anyone that is interested for whatever we could get. Send him to ATL for a draft pick to pick up a team player like Jasper and 10% sell on fee. Or just the fee. If he is as good as he thinks that 10% would be a big number and if not you can at least buy everyone some ice cream at leatherbys.
I have seats in the Ford Zone with "all you can eat" hotdogs, popcorn, churros, and drinks. I've stated the quality of these items on here in the past: poor. In this particular game they reached a new low. My son nearly got burned from holding one of the hot dogs because they had been on the heater for too long. The tinfoil wrapper was scorching hot and the bun and dog were beyond "well done". It's embarrassing how bad it has got over there. I love the view from my seat, but this supposed perk that comes with it is disgusting. I would not recommend anyone sit there if that is a deciding factor. I loathe utah standard time. I don't know what it'll take to get folks here to ever show up to something on time, let alone early. The atmosphere for the first 10 minutes of RSL games is pathetic. Announcing a sell-out when I can read "Real Salt Lake" pretty easily from the west side of the stadium isn't right. Anyway, on to the soccer: consider me shocked to see a 4-4-2 with Ruiz and Loeffelsend as the starters. Luiz and Caldwell are both fit and available, and Pablo goes with the draft pick. This kid should be in discussion for rookie of the year. Also, Wood retaining a spot up top? I guess it shows the willignness and patience that Pablo has. Other coaches would have sent Wood to Siberia after his performance in front of net in Montreal (and beyond). Kudos to Pablo as it paid off with an awesome header to foot goal. Not enough (that I've seen) has been made of the save MacMath made moments before Wood scored. Houston found a pocket on their left, cut across the top of the box, and MacMath gets down to make a really impressive save. The shot went through Marcelo's legs, too, so Zach really did well to get down with late viewing. Chang has made himself really hard to remove from the lineup. He's pulling the strings out wide with assists. The only real complaint you can have is that he disappears from games for a long stretch, but that was the same thing we said about last year's (joint) leading assist getter: Rusnak. Houston, as I said before, looked ragged. They wanted to break the game into small segments and slow it down wherever they could. The pregame talk from Pablo was to maintain intensity and pace in the game, it appeared, which proved really valuable not only in the first half, but especially in the second. Whoever is in charge of the goal celebration stuff (smoke behind the goals) really needs to learn some patience. isn't that like the fourth time this season they've gone off for non goals? The save MacMath makes early in the second half was one that Rimando always struggled with. That bounce from the header makes the ball hard to really read. Nick would often be late to those or get a finger and push them into the side of the net. MacMath's length certainly helped, but credit to his footwork. Watch the replay, the bounce he gets is really good. Cordova's goal is one that somewhat sums up our season so far. It comes in on a good cross but he takes a really bad first touch. So bad, that it actually beats the defender by taking a ricochet off of Cordova. His next series of touches go into the defender, who then puts it back into Cordova - similar to the play that Meram had 2 weeks ago against Austin - and bounces out for Cordova is the nicest manner. The chip over the keeper is a smart play, and the luck of it is that the keepers hand palms it to the side, but didn't take enough pace out of it for the recovering defender. It's both incredibly awesome and incredibly lucky. Houston had another half decent chance with their scissor (better contact that Cordova's) but MacMath made a pretty comfortable save on it. The Glad header to end showed Houston was out of gas. They had been for a bit but RSL hadn't caught them out yet. Great service from Meram, but truly awful defending. The first multi-goal win of the season and easily the most comfortable feeling one, even if MacMath made a few big saves. I was nervous with how RSL would react to being so heavily favored in this one but they took care of business. A trip to Vancouver this next week is a perplexing one. On paper, we should beat this team. They've been bad, we've been good. But the turf up there is awful and we rarely find points. Pablo started his coaching gig with a spectacularly bad loss up there so he's likely itching to get that one back. Lastly, AR2 (east side) was a local gal that has worked her way all the way from being a ref at youth games here in the valley to the top of the league. It was really awesome watching that happen. The idiots on the east side giving her shit about some calls need to go watch the tape. She didn't miss any.
Agreed about our attendance. It's rather funny calling it a sellout when it looks like there's maybe 2-3k people in the stands, and doesn't look all that full until about the 2nd half. Always felt weird to me to buy a ticket to something, then just miss a big chunk of it. As much as I'm loving MacMath's form, the one thing we've been missing for a long time now is the distribution Rimando had. He was truly special with that.
That was her first MLS game. Kali Smith was also and AR in the Open Cup game with an all-local crew. She doesn't have a bio on the PRO site yet, but should soon.