Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Good - we tend to show up for tough teams. We tend to lose when we underestimate a team. So I'm thrilled they gave Houston a run for their money. The team will take notice and hopefully take them seriously.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread I agree. TS seems to have a knack for getting the team in a good frame of mind lately so lets hope he knows what to say and do to keep the boys sharp and intense.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread i disagree...put every DC player in a cast and give them crutches...and the final score will be DC 6-0 RSL.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread I'm barely in shape enough to be a goalpost. Dibs on that.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread AND it had better be 10 or 20 times larger and more grandiose than the Cobi send-off because Eddie Pope actually played for this team, and scored some relatively big goals.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Last year, we didn't play well against them on our surface either. Yep.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread I can think of one really BIG goal that he scored
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread I think Tommy learned a couple of weeks back about speaking more carefully to the press about poor player performance (man, I'm an alliterative all-star!) No public pissing on players! GM
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Quiet you. *puts additional offering on football gods' altar*
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread I have a question for people that come to the game from up by the Baltimore area. I am going to be working from Columbia, MD on wedesday and wanted to know the best way to get the stadium by car and how long it should take me. If anyone can help I really appreciate it.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread OFF TOPIC-- My favorite alliterative phrase: "A little old lady got mutilated late last night." --Sleep well. asitis
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread They're not your slightly older brother's RSL. Kreis is starting to fix the mess Ellinger left him.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Take either 100 or 32 east to 295 south. Follow 295 to East Capitol street right to RFK. Should take you 45 min. See ya there.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Hey, you take your bad hoodoo back to your own threads... << Blondie does reverse bad juju dance>>
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Very simple. Two ways you can go. 1. Take 95 South to the Beltway (take the exit to the left) and then take the exit for the BWI Pkwy towards Washington. Stay on the PKWY until you hit the exit for E. Capitol St. 2. Take the BWI Parkway (South) off of Route 32 East. For the record, I recommend taking the Parkway to avoid the late rush hour hangover traffic on the Beltway that always seems to exist between 5-7 pm, You usually hit some initial traffic once you get on the PKWY but it is smooth sailing to the stadium. I live in Ellicott City and it is 30 minutes from door to Lot 8 on most occasions. I also recommend you keep your radio station tuned to 103.5 FM as they do traffic every 10 minutes on the 8's and they are usually pretty accurate within a few minutes.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Wouldn't it just piss us all off if we lost the SS and also had to play NE in NE for the Eastern Finals b/c we lost 2 matches to RSL? I totally agree with Ursula on this one. Nowak treated every match as if it was the only match that mattered. Soehn treats every match as important but also has a long view. I think we'll see one regular on the bench. Otherwise, I think he'll look to use 3 subs (so someone like Olsen only plays 45-55 minutes). I don't think we'll see Carroll replacing Simms. For one, Simms shouldn't be that tired, he didn't start the first half of the season. For another, I want some bite in the center of midfield. However, I wouldn't be shocked to see Carroll line up at an outside mid spot (or see him replace Olsen at half-time--something like that). I also wouldn't rest Gomez or Fred. We want both of those guys for their ability to score and also influence the game (b/c we'll miss Moreno). But I'd be ready to pull Emilio quickly if we get a lead. We got our butts handed to us in SLC b/c we showed up on cruise control, confident that we could take out a bad team. Here's the deal with RSL: with the argies, they now have a credible MLS roster in terms of talent--they're in the bottom half of the league in terms of talent but they're no longer an A-league/USL team. But every match but maybe 1 or 2 they've been in. They've fought and hustled every match this season. If you don't show up to play, they can take you down. I can take losing the SS to NE or Chivas b/c we lost to them: the better team would be rewarded. But I"m going to be majorly pissed if we let let someone else win the SSS b/c of let downs against RSL.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Does this involve actually dancing in reverse? If so, post vids.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Players with caution trouble are bound to pick it up and sit at some point. Sitting them for this reason alone is not really sufficient. If anything, you want to play them in certain games prior to a game that you may rest them anyway, killing two birds. Both of you make too much sense, and I agree with both of you. As per my normal position, I stress moderation. We should play as many regulars as we believe it will take to secure 3pts, and rest as many as we think we can do without. Beating teams at the bottom of the league is what makes you a Shield winner. Win when you need to. Absolutely. I think we've seen with this team that coming out gangbusters early on and scoring first are pretty critical to winning full points. We should start mostly a first team, keeping in mind 3 players you want to remove should you get comfortably in front and everything goes smoothly. They get rest and we get points. If things don't go smoothly, you have your guns. And, we have some recovery time ahead.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Having watched RSL post Argies (in particular their last game against Houston) I vote for Vanney and Boswell in the back. That's absolutely nothing against McTavish - I love him and he's played well recently. I just think against Espindola and Morales we need as much experience as possible. Given that Espindola will dive and foul at will, I want Vanney's level headed play combined with Boswell's gung-ho approach post benching. They're vulnerable to speed on the wings. It didn't look like they had much of it themselves at the outside back positions. I like Gros on one side with a combo on the other. Maybe Olsen/Moose or even Olsen/Kpene. Do what we can to let Burch float up and swing some into the box against the disarray going on in there. Dyachenko up top just because he's a little taller than Kpene, and we might be able to use Kpene's speed on the wing. Fred sits and gets fully recharged for the final stretch. Add Gomez to your fantasy teams - he looks set to score in this one. Olsen needs to be on the field though, if only to get Espindola ejected somehow. That'd make a nice futures bet - y'know - ....if you're into those kinds of nefarious activities.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Correct me if I am wrong, but winning this game would clinch a playoff spot, right...? And we owe RSL a beating I think this game will depend upon Emilio remaining hot, and our guys playing smart.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread Yes, a win eliminates 3 teams (in addition to the two eliminated last week) from catching United, thus clinching the playoffs.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread In that case, ignore everything I've said up to now. Let's clinch this bitch.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread It's not so much that they're our boogie man, just look at the RSL team this year. They... 1. Hustle 2. Have tended to have someone (Atiba Harris is a good example) at D-mid who doesn't mind marking Gomez and putting a body on him. 3. Have good countering potential (especially with Findley). Irrelevant of the surface, that means that if you don't show up with your lunch pail ready to put in a full day's work, if you get sloppy, if you make mental errors, if you react poorly to pressure on the backline, if you can't play wide, if you push forward too much, then RSL is a team that can hurt you. Hopefully we've rectified some of those glaring issues. Additionally, with guys fighting for position, it's a lot harder for the team to collectively thing "it's only RSL." And tape against Houston doesn't help us in this regard. People look at the stats. They conclude RSL is dreadful (which they have been). But what the stats don't show and what people forget is that RSL has been in almost every match. I don't mean they've been even, I mean RSL fights and claws and struggles in just about every match. Most MLS teams have a couple of games where they lose by multiple goals and the players just mailed it in or failed to show up. For all of RSL's losses, they just don't have those kinds of games. They lose b/c of bad luck, b/c of poor talent, b/c of weak tactics, b/c they couldn't finish. But they don't lose b/c they didn't show up.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread They should have a new slogan. "We're ReALly inept. But at least we're boring. So we got that going for us, which is nice." It pisses me off that we lose to this team.
Re: Official ReAL SaLT LaKE @ DC United Pre-Match thread FSL has no legitimate DM, so Gomez should be able play this game like an NBA point guard. This is a good opportunity to get him back some of his 2006 mojo (although his play in the last 8 games has been good). Esky is one of my all-time favorites. But when he plays with a chip on his shoulder, he often tries to do too much on his own. How many times did we see that against the Revulsion? McTavish or Boswell (who must know his tendencies pretty well) should man-mark him out of this game. I also hope that Pope takes this last opportunity to defect so that he can retire in the correct uniform.