So, what's it going to be? What are we going to see on Saturday from RSL? Nashville seems to be a decent side with a 2-0 win against New England which is a pretty strong eastern contender this year. Will injuries for RSL continue to impact the lineup? I was just getting to think that I might be a little too pessimistic about Freddy and RSL this season but Freddy came through and my excitement for the team is still locked away safely. As 15 pointed out in his notes from the last game Freddy is not a quality in game manager. Last week was much like most games for RSL under Freddy. Decent start but unable to maintain supremacy after changes by opposing coaches. The pessimistic side of me says that RSL plays well for 70 minutes or so only to be out coached and out played on tired legs down the stretch and pay the price. The optimistic sides says that RSL jumps on them early and then holds on for a win or draw. Right now I lean a little pessimistic but it did feel good for about 70 minutes to be an RSL fan last week so...
Nashville is a bit better than their points total reflects. They struggled out of the gate in their first two matches, and spotted their opponent 2 goals in each before outplaying their opponent by a significant margin in the 2nd half. I suspect they've "cured" that slow start business. We consider Nashville our 2nd home and have season tickets there, but with covid and some personal issues have only been once in last 18 months and have yet to see a game in Nissan Stadium. So I'm a bit torn on my allegiance with this match. Anyone know where to get a half NashSC, half RSL kit? Julio has trained 100% last two days, so I expect his return. Herrera and Silva have "mostly" trained, so there is more doubt there. Here is my lineup mostly copied from last week, with injury replacements in parentheses. Projected starting XI Rubin Julio (Meram) ----- Kreilach ---- Rusnak Besler (Luiz) ---- Ruiz Toia ---- Glad ---- Silva (Holt) ---- Herrera (Brody) Ochoa Bench: McMath, Powder, Holt, Brody, Portillo, Chang, Meram, Martinez, Morgan Opposing players to keep an eye on: Randall Leal - I think he's a star about to emerge in this league, Walker Zimmerman - defender of year last year and he's their target from many set pieces in opponents end Opponent key stats: allowed 4 goals in first half of first 2 games (3 of those goals came in first 15 mins of the matches); 0 goals allowed in last 2; RSL may not get a lot of good looks in this one, fortunately to this point RSL (except for Meram) have done a good job of converting the chances they do get. I'm a fan of Gary Smith as a coach, and actually liked what he was doing when he was the Rapids coach. He actually led them to their MLS Cup win in 2010. Was surprised to see them move on from him after 2011 season, but they ended up with Pareja who wasn't so bad before abruptly jumping ship to Dallas. I blame all Rapids decisions on Kroenke. Big question is whether they'll go with Jhonder Cadiz up top - talented, but needs service (think Saborio). He's struggled a bit since joining the club. He's usually supported underneath by Hany Mukhtar who plays a #10 role. However, last week Mukhtar was out, so Smith played CJ Sapong in essentially a withdrawn forward role with Dominique Badji up top (yes that Badji). This essentially pushed the playmaking deeper (Dax McCarty) and out to the wings (Leal, Muyl).
RSL will not be requiring masks at the game. Attendance is still capped at 10,000. Real Salt Lake will announce beginning Saturday masks are no longer required for entrance at Rio Tinto Stadium, based on local/state health guidelines, but are still strongly recommended. Special seating arrangements will be made for those who prefer masks/social distancing.— Spence Checketts (@spencechecketts) May 11, 2021 10,000 fans is still the capacity, with potential to expand in the coming weeks based off local/state guidelines and recommendations. Mask mandate remains in place for stadium and team employees due to MLS protocol.— Spence Checketts (@spencechecketts) May 11, 2021
I'm okay with this while seated. Would much prefer if masks were still required entering and exiting and while in common areas.
Yeah, this is a really weird pivot from the "You have to have a mask all the time" to suddenly just throw the baby out with the bathwater. I got asked at once while seated at the game last week to pull my mask over my mouth. I felt bad for the poor RSL staffer tasked with that. They were having to walk around a lot. The common sense thing would have been to not require them while seated with your group but everywhere else. I know why but I also want to ask why the club didn't go this route with requiring a proof of vaccination or a negative test. It's probably just the way Spence wrote the text makes it seem confusing, but is there really going to be a "mask section"? Because I'd like to sit there just for my sanity.
FYI, I called and expressed by displeasure with the jump to no masks and thought it would have been a simpler transition to just wait until after the 3 week break in games to make a change in policy. Also the suggestion to have no masks in the seating area and masks walking around. I did have him change our seats to the masked section which is in sections 5 & 6. I guess that would be like the leper colony sections or something. I also asked if they could get someone to help Freddy count to ********ing 5. He laughed. I also pointed out if he had played iloski, ramirez, portillo, etc last season he just might have a bench he could have confidence in this season.
I'll balance it out and say this has 0-0 draw written all over it. Nashville has shown an improved defense, as KIR pointed to, and I'm hopeful Freddy and Co. took the Wondo gut bunch this week to focus on defending.
I guess if its good enough for the CDC, it should be good enough for me. https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-announce-fully-vaccinated-people-171653579.html
I'm a bit conflicted, since I have little kids who won't be getting the vaccine anytime soon, as well as Utah still registering 400 cases a day or so. If there were double-digit cases, I'd feel much better about it. Seems premature, but pretty exciting too.
This is where I am at. Yes, I've been vaccinated but my daughter and son have not been able to. May daughter will be able to soon, hopefully (12) and she is the one I'm most concerned about given her asthma and severe allergic reactions. And in Utah, we've seen first hand the "well if everyone else is vaccinated why should I" crowd grow and grow and grow. Six more people were reported having died from Covid 19 yesterday in Utah. That's still far too big
Since we've strayed into Covid..... The new CDC recommendations mostly make sense to me but it does feel a bit like they were looking for a PR "win" and that they didn't really think about the challenges of parents with children. Between my oldest returning from university in Europe where she is still many months from her place on the vaccine line and the new 12+ rules we have a big day of vaccine appointments the day after airport arrival. Meanwhile, my summer move plans for Singapore are on hold because they are not currently provided travel passes (even though they include a 14-21 day required hotel quarantine) because cases have gone up to 20+ a day (in a population of 5 million) for the last couple of weeks. There is no purely scientific approach. Every approach is a mix of science, culture and politics. With that aside I have no idea what to predict this game. But I will anyway. Rubio is hungry and wants more. If Julio is back along with him I think it could be interesting. I can see a 2-1 victory happening. Games in hand and current PPG keep me excited about the possibilities. Probably unrealistically so. But I can hope.
Got myself a single ticket in section 37. Now I'm really hoping for a fun result. Just finished watching an amazing FA Cup final. Great stuff!
Can we just keep the pride kits and use those as our new away kit? They look far better than the boring white
So, small miracles department: at least we only have one GK on the bench this week. Ochoa Brody Holt Glad Toia Kreilach Ruiz Julio Rusnak Meram Rubin Bench: MacMath; Morgan, Powder, Schmitt; Besler, Portillo, Chang; Douglas, Iloski
We've given up way too many free kicks in good positions. One of them is going to result in a goal at this rate. Fortunate again. We looked good for about ten minutes but the half has been pretty ugly overall.
I feel like i just watched glad and holt pass it back and forth for 45 minutes. It's a beautiful night at that RioT but the soccer is not up to the same level.
Brought my new son in law to his first game tonight. The first half has left him unimpressed, both with RSL and I'm afraid soccer overall.
It’s very frustrating. Finally Rusnak dropped back to receive the ball. He turned and attacked up the middle, drew defenders to him and dished out a nice pass. I would enjoy seeing more of that.