congratulations on a very good second half and a fantastic finish (put it over the midget) and you stole the point and likely the playoffs from RSL with that one... The guys that made the trip were great, didnt really hear them too much as i sat near our supporters section, but it was nice to see them there. Congratulations on the stolen point (my opinion obviously) and outcoaching kreis in the second half. Thank god you guys didnt have Casey....
Dive is with little or no contact... Omar was merely trying to "accentuate" the foul call. And, it didn't work. Although it did work for Espindola...
Seriously? Nate, you can't even believe that. That was 100% a dive. Not that I blame him (much), most guys would have dove there, but come on.
'accentuate' hmmm yeah that's the ticket. even though you can't admit it. fine. i did not expect you to anyway. but your comment regarding a dive is inaccurate. little or no contact institutes a dive for you. wow. stick to hoops guy. as you have no idea. that was diving. omar dived. as he should have and as he did. diving is part of "the game" and there is nothing to be ashamed of. i was simply trying to "point it out" and see if you would admit to it. diving in football = throwing both arms in the air like the big ballon guy at the local used tire shop when a defender tries to block your shot in basketball. every sport has "diving."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onZHpGYFPls"]YouTube - wacky waiving inflatable arm flailing tube man[/ame]
The Rapids are now tied with Seattle for 3rd int he West and 5th overall, but Chicago, Chivas, and DC have played 2 more games, and Seattle has played 1 more game. Houston is 4 points ahead with the same number of games played. Colorado is tied for 4th in both goals scored and goals allowed. After the Revs game today nobody has played as few home games as the Rapids, and nobody has played more road games. With 7 of our first 11 on the road, I'd say we ended up doing pretty well. Now its time to take advantage of our heavy home schedule over the next 3 months and give ourselves a good cushion heading into the last part of the season.
Colin Clark showed his ability to alter a match. There was a 12-13 minute window fairly early in the second half when Clark moved abruptly to a right-side attack. (From around 45' to around 58'.) Immediately LaBrocca and Peterson became involved aggressively in the attack, firing several shots at a quite rattled FSL defense. FSL withdrew to protect the goal, taking pressure off the Rapids back line. When Colin returned to the left side and Dalby came on for Peterson, the match returned to FSL dominating the possession. The solution to the team's periodic struggles isn't in Argentina or on a relegation-leftover shopping spree. It isn't even at forward. In fact, it's obvious: human cloning. Seriously, Colin's effort was a game highlight. What would happen if the Rapids could find worthy bookends for Harvey and Clark?
Sorry to you guys that came out that had to sit through the opening. I swear they never do that. I dont know why the hell they decided to do it this time. Talk about a buzz kill.
Buzz killington for sure. I like how they mentioned it on fsc. -very quickly- "they're blessing the stadium..... and while they do that we'll take a look at...." Our security guard said it's a common thing in the community. I feel bad for you guys always having to put up with stuff like that.
Out side of BYU games, which I unfortunately attended as a child, I haven't seen it at any other public events. I usually avoid those types of event anyway. The whole time I was thinking to myself that this is doing nothing to help the stereotype everyone has of Utah.
So anyone willing to give an objective description? Now that I'm curious. Preferably without editorial comments, so as to avoid any nastiness, intended or unintended.
I believe they baptized the Rio Tinto stadium by transporting the entire complex to the Great Salt Lake and immersing it. Buoyancy issues aside, it was a great success as the nacho vendors saved a ton of money on salt. Note: I may not have all the facts correct, although I believe they do have a lake in Utah.
No, it dried up. Its more a dumping ground for MagCorp now. Soon it will be homes. It was right after David Archuleta sang the National Anthem, a latino gentleman gave a prayer that was supposed to be for dedicating the stadium. I (having spent most of my life in Utah) tried to remain open to the idea, and saw it as a time to mix my drinks, since most people would have their eyes closed. The problem with it is, what started out as a short non-denominational style prayer, turned into a 20 minute mormon style prayer. The biggest problem I saw with it was they were making the players stand around the whole time. Probably why you guys had two injury subs.
Rapids thoughts on RSL draw Reactions from GS, Omar, Mehdi, and Jordan Harvey. http://www.soccer365.com/us_news/story_8609180908.php
DIVE... DIVE... DIVE!!! Omar has dived twice this season. There is no other way around it, Nate you don't have to admit the obvious!!
There's really nothing to be nasty about, it just dragged on. KeeptheR said it all. It made me glad that I set the DVR to record an extra ten minutes.
On the plus side, the delay meant that there was only 10 minutes of overlap between the Nats and the Rapids.
The blessing came before the national anthem. I am sure of this. It was very nondenominational at the start, but by the end it was somewhat uncomfortable for me as a Jew! It kept feeling like the prayer was about to wrap up, and then Elder Gonzalez would reiterate, add detail, etc. He first blessed the stadium, but later he blessed the employees, the turf, the seats---I am not making this up. The whole time I kept getting the feeling he had someone in an earpiece telling him to drag it out, sort of like when Jake Schroeder slows waaaaay down during the national anthem on the 4th of July because he's waiting for a flyover. And after the blessing finally did end, the announcer on the PA introduced David Archuleta to sing the anthem and informed us there would be a flyover. Archuleta did not drag out the anthem at all, and the flyover was probably a good 10 seconds or more after "the home of the brave."
It was a blessing of the field. That seemed odd since the stadium opened last fall. I didn't think it was odd to have a public ceremony before the game to do it. The length was odd. Once I realized it wasn't going to be a quick wham-bam-thank-you mam sort of thing, I started looking at my phone. It was over 5 minutes for sure. Now going too long isn't something the LDS church has a corner on. My sister just last week went to a funeral where the priest pissed her off not only because he didn't bother to find out anything about the man who died (a young cop who lost his lower leg from an accident while on duty and had died a few years later due to complications arising from it) but because his sermon was nearly 20 minutes. Nearly 20 minutes of talking without once talking about the young man. That is, it wasn't about the time but also the content. That is similar here. It wasn't that it was a religious blessing nor just that it was very long for such a thing (especially since the players were getting "cold" and it messed up the TV schedule) but the content. In this case the content was nothing. It was as though the guy had just attended his first class on how to give an impromptu prayer and thought he could walk out there and wing it. I think the structure, the seats, the grass, the water, the fans, the children, etc, etc were blessed ten times over up and down in varying forms. What also annoyed me was how many times it was talked about being a place for the community to come together. No, it's a building built for an entertainment and development company the tax payers are largely paying for. Is it for the community? Sure... kinda like a shopping mall would be if the tax payers covered the majority of it's costs to build... oh, that and you had to pay money to get into. But that's just me on that part. The stadium was nice. It felt a bit small but I see that as a mark of good design as it it seats more than The Dick. But there were some little things that got me wondering if it wasn't built a bit cheaper. There seemed to be less concession stands (emphasis on "seemed"). There seemed to be less LCDs at the concession stands that they did have, including a few permanent ones that had none. The store was a bit smaller and while had a nice variety of items didn't have as many as one the one at the Dick. There wasn't much for parking adjacent to the stadium. I'd assume this was because of the small footprint of the site (IIRC it was an old gravel pit) along with some other public venues next to it with parking. They also have an LRT stop 2 blocks away. You can see the site here just before major construction started : http://www.bing.com/maps/default.as...dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1. It was a small footprint to work with. I'd be curious how the exec boxes compare. I was wondering why Rio Tinto would be a stadium sponsor. Not as much as Xcel Energy sponsoring the Xcel Center in St. Paul (they have a govt imposed monopoly so it's not like you can choose to buy electricity from another company). Rio Tinto's a huge mining company, #2 in the world right now (although that could change as they scramble to sell of assets to finance their huge debts), so why something so publicly visible? I had forgotten they had bought the ol' Kennicot Copper. So the stadium was a nice way of providing some nice views of the Oquirrh mountains to the west including Kennicott's Bingham mine (aka the big gash). So there's a public relations aspect to it with displays on the west side of the stadium talking about the mountains and the mine. But also one of Kennicott / Rio Tinto's subsidiaries is in the development business with a butt ton of land down around the mine and in the west and sw corner of SLC metro. Things have grown enough now that the area is ready for development, especially with the legacy highway looking to be underway in being built on that side of town. So they've got the PR aspect and the development aspect to sell. The beer was disappointing. These days stadiums have been moving away from just a couple choices for food and beer. In the case of the Rio Tinto stadium you have a whole 2 choices, Bud Light and Bud. And at $7 and $8.50 a glass or large glass of Bud was overpriced even by stadium standards. Which brings me to main thing, is it a real stadium if they don't have cup holders with the seats?
I think PRK really summed it up well here... I was at the game as well, and I'll offer my thoughts up too... The blessing/prayer just kinda rambled on... The "elder" seemed to repeat himself more than a few times. An eloquent blessing/prayer would have been both meaningful and welcome by most all in attendence, but it was delivered very poorly... Rio Tinto is a nice stadium.... but I much prefer the "Dick"! I prefer the "deep bowl" effect that the DSGP has, as compared to the high walls feel that Rio Tinto had. Instead of entering on street level, you had to walk up several flights of stairs to get to the main concourse (at least from the side I entered (SW).... DSPG may not be the huge urban draw with prime "down town" digs (i.e. Qwest, BMO, PGE (USL1), etc.) but the inclusion of one of the best youth facilities in the country make it a destination. Rio Tinto is a nice SSS in the burbs, end of story.... Parking was rough around the staium, with local businesses offering parking in their lots for a few extra $$... Rio Tinto's awning looks cool and can be seen quite well from the interstate, but I felt like the architects could have done a lot more to frame the beautiful Wasatch Mountain Range to the east. Additionally, the awning doesn't really contain the "noise" to increase the atmosphere, nor provide a lot of shelter for inclimate weather (a la, PGE or supposedly Red Bull Arena).... My final complaint with Rio Tinto, is that it felt kinda awkard to turn up and look at the "jumbotron". I was sitting along the sideline of the team benches near the corner flag. I don't ever recall having this same problem at DSPG, but maybe it is just where I usually sit in the park. At the other end there was only a small scoreboard like you'd seen in a high school gymnasium, seemed a bit cheap... PRK you missed out on a few more beer choices that were on hand at the concession stands under the "jumbotron". I was drinking a Hefeweizen that was brewed by Wasatch. I think they had at least one other beer choice offered down there besides Bud & Bud Lite. Although the Hefe prolly tasted a bit better (at least in my opinion), it was still 3.2% alc. So I didn't really get a good buzz all game... Overall though, it was a great experience and a stadium that I hope to visit many many more times... The RSL fans were very good natured and I enjoyed a bit of ribbing from/toward them throughout the match. Cummings stepped up with a clutch goal! But the lack of a backup for Casey/Cooke was noticed. I think I would have preferred to see Schunk/Richardson up top, with Peterson sliding out wide after the injury to Cooke instead of bringing in Kimura as a mid (I would have loved to seen Guerro at mid in place of Cooke, but as stated in the other thread it seems he is as good as gone...). I saw Beckerman in the stands with Seitz a few rows over from me early in the first half. I stood up and yelled: "Hey Kyle, We miss you in Colorado!" and pointed to my rapids jersey. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up! I like Labrocca and am quite happy with his industry in the midfield, but I do wish the Rapids still had Kyle!
A couple of notes: Our owner Dave Checketts is very much into wining and dining the more well to do fans. That being said, the boxes are very nice and no expense was spared. One other feature for the Prawn Sandwich SG, is the cushy leather seats. The middle sections also have cup holders. Its the difference of flying first class vs coach. Rio Tinto is trying to create a good image in the valley. They also contributed a huge sum of money to the Museum of Natural History at the U of U. I'm sure its to get lawmakers on their side as they continue to expand their new huge housing development on the sw end of the valley, they are also looking to make another ski resort down on that end as well. My beer impression of the Dick is the same as your impression of the Rio. Except swap coors for bud. Our stadium also sells a local microbrew Uinta Hefeweizen, and down by the supporters you can get Guinness.
Rio Tinto was nice. It sucks that you have no parking. I feel spoiled by the whole "soccer somplex" thing. I like the Real errr Euro Poser symbol in the brick as you walk in, that's classy. The roof looks like a covered wagon. A view of the mountains would be better. Waaaaay too much pumped in music, "hey guys this is when we cheer" stuff, that reminded me of 2007 at the Dick. Overall very nice though.