It may not be clean, but this is a lot more fun than grinding out tight games where it feels like we are just playing to not screw up.
I’m digging it. of course if they play like they have the last two games on Saturday against Seattle they’ll lose 10-4 or something stupid like that. I’m sure they’re all having fun with the substitute teacher, Pablo, and his positive vibes and all but he really needs to crack the whip on the guys with the mental farts that have lead to ridiculous and embarrassing goals lately. Getting beat by an all left foot Chubby Lopez from the San Jose 30-45 year old coed soccer league just can’t keep happening. Granted he’s a good player but damn. Clean up the defensive BS and the season should end with exciting soccer playoffs or not. Pablo has these guy’s believing in themselves and if he can get them to believe in defense this could be fun.
Can't wait to watch the highlights. Another game right in the middle of my work day . I'm not sure how a I feel about a sense of cautious optimism and hope on these messages right now. It's been a while since we had any of that.
I think it’s pretty obvious that Pablo has had a positive effect on the team and their chemistry. Under Freddy these guys would have not reacted positively after some of these lame brain goals they’ve given up lately. Of course they might not have given up some of those goals but they for sure wouldn’t be playing anything that looked like exciting and positive soccer. It’s fun to cheer for a team that’s not giving up.
Pablo is making it real hard to not like him. He definitely sounds like a HC in his quotes. https://www.rsl.com/news/quote-sheet-rsl-4-3-san-jose I want to see this formation with everyone healthy and available. Brody and Herrera on the wings. Wood, Rubin, Julio, Menendez, Rusnak and Kreilach rotating up top causing havoc. This could be fun. Seattle will be getting this team's best on Saturday, that's for sure.
It should have been reversed as Judson could have easily picked up a red for his yellow card infraction.
SJ looks like a team that doesn't really know or care what they are doing on the field. I can't believe that their style of play will continue especially if they don't make the playoffs down the stretch. As a fan I don't think I could stomach that style of play. I'm all for being creative but this is just a gimmick. Granted RSL's 3-5-2 looks a bit gimmicky the last two weeks but at least it's a real something different and gimmicky. As pointed out I think that there is something to the 3-5-2 that done correctly could really benefit RSL. I would like to see them revamp a bit and get a few or a lot more players to fit that mold. Certainly more fun to watch then what we were seeing under Freddy which was going just about no where if you ask me. For all the hype about Freddy being some kind of player development genius it certainly looks like the team wasn't responding as well to him as they are to Pablo. Time will tell but I like what I am seeing with this team. They don't give up. Now if they could only stop giving away goals we might have something.
I had to work late last night so didn't get to turn on the game until the 63rd minute. I am specific about that because I turned it on, grabbed my dinner, and watched an olympico get scored on us. That was something. Anyways, some thoughts in what I saw / from highlights: The 4-2-3-1 might have made use of the abundance of wingers we have on the roster, but it made Rusnak and Kreilach compete for the same spot (attacking mid) or push Rusnak wide, and out of where he is most effective. This 3-5-2 or whatever the hell you want to call it allows Rusnak AND Kreilach to play centrally but not stand on top of each other or completely kill us defensively in the midfield. In reality, the 3-5-2 looks a lot more like a 3-4-3 with the freedom it is allowing the above two mentioned players and Rubin or whoever is at the very top. The issue is that the block of 5 behind them (two center mids and three backs) have not looked all that comfortable with the adjustment just yet. Part of this is the change in responsibility, I'm sure, but lets not pretend those same players were playing lights out before. Especially the CMs I can't stress this enough, though, in the limited population of change we've seen with Pablo at the helm, Rusnak looks to be finding his form of the Rusnak that excited us when he joined. I realize that started before Freddy, but he seems to be on another level these last few games. More involved in play and making those passes / shots that a $2MM player should. For this system to be really effective, the type of winger on the roster has to change. We need the type that run for the hell of it. A guy with either younger legs, or somebody that has made a career of long runs down wings. In other words, it can't be ********ing Justin Meram. I know he scored, but San Jose went at the space he was supposed to be covering constantly. I realize Toia got put on skates, but Meram (and the CM's) offered next to nothing in support. One thing that confused me last night, in the limited time I saw, was what exactly the instructions to Chang were. Was he more of a center mid or a winger? If the latter, then what was Menedez? The halftime sub made it so I didn't get to see any of that setup but on paper that really stood out as a weird design. I completely agree with the assessment that San Jose's style is gimmicky. Especially in the middle and defensive third. The winning goal was some atrocious defending. The pass from Rusnak was sublime, as was the run by Rubin, but in no way should the CB's be chasing individual players in that part of the field like that. I cut the cord with Dish and now just stream so inevitably I got the SJ commentators. They were interesting to listen to - different from the complete homers that they had before. They were pretty harsh on the way SJ seems incapable of playing attacking soccer while being able to defend or vice versa. This was 3 points I did not think the team could get, at all. It's big in the playoff picture. Because of results, it moved us up a spot to 6th and ahead of LAFC and the 1-win-in-their-last-6 Minnesota. And because of the very limited conference overlap, we benefit from our competition frequently playing each other and unable to both pickup 3 points. It is painful to say, but Pablo is showcasing ideas that are worth watching. As bad as some of the defending was last night, the overall soccer was so much more palatable than most Freddy games. The players, as mentioned above, seem buoyed by the change and I can only imagine the locker room material a coach leaving you can create. Which setups for a very exciting game this Saturday with Seattle. They have an extra days rest but played Santos Laguna with a full strength squad on Tuesday. Neither team has the full week rest they'd like, but both are looking at this game as points needed - Seattle to keep pace with SKC and RSL to stay in the playoff battle.
I don't think our defenders covered themselves in glory on the goals, but Chofis still had to do some amazing stuff to score. It may be the highest quality hat trick I've ever seen. The combination of skills he showed is really impressive. We've had true gifts too often this year. Toia and/or Holt could have impeded Chofis or stopped him altogether. But good gracious was that beautiful from him.
The olympico was well struck, but I still don't get how neither Ruiz got to it or Ochoa parried it out. It was really strange. The other two goals were outstanding, though. Toia got completely juked and the first shot was top level.
I think that Ochoa gets a good hand on the ball if it wasn't for Ruiz getting his head on the ball. A regular sized player on the post probably heads that away to safety or at least for RSL right to a SJ player or another RSL player that accidentally puts it back on frame. At least that's how the last two games have gone.
If you're local and really motivated about getting the RSL broadcast, I've finally been able to chromecast to my TV with the KSL app. It's not as good as the image quality that I get from espn+, but at least I get to yell at David James for still somehow not understanding the game.
you both offered a solution and reason to not use said solution well done Though, I'll be honest, DJ doesn't get under my skin as easily/quickly as Dunny does lately. His schtick of having twitter going at the same time as the game and getting in dumb mentions is past the fun/cool stage and into the "well this is who I am I guess" stage and it feels like it. I also don't want to listen to dudes sitting in SLC calling the game, as Dunny and DJ do for any road game.
That gets a little awkward when they have to mention that they missed the buildup to the (2nd?) goal because they were watching the same feed from SJ that we were. Great insight.
Another solution is to pull up the KSL feed in your browser, and send it to your Chromecast that way. Not sure if the quality is better than the app, but it's another option. One huge negative about the site though, is that if you start the feed early, it'll throw you into a rerun of the prior game. That alone is fine, but it doesn't automatically swap you to the live feed once coverage starts. So if you forget, you're SOL until you refresh the stream. I may or may not have done that a few times.
yeah, the pauses and the "well, um, they scored" type comments are hilarious. As well as the long pauses to figure out who is subbing. I really don't understand why the team thinks Samantha Yarock is necessary to fly to the games but not a commentator. Would it be super difficult to have Dunny fly out and call the game from a press box without his own crew? I don't know how that would work
If the last 4 matches are what we're labelling a success now, I'm worried for this organization. I'm surprised at the optimism I find after having been away for awhile. Where's the Embratsu that I know and love?