Gameday in H-Town
The boys are in Houston and prepping to take on the League leading Dynamo. It’s certainly a tough task for RSL as rarely will you find a team in better form than Houston is in right now. The defending Western Conference regular season champs have not lost in their last 10 outings (a stretch that dates back to an April 4 trip to DC United) and have won 8 of those 10 games.
Meanwhile, RSL is coming off of their first road victory of the campaign with last weekend’s 2-0 result at the Home Depot Center in LA. The win saw Real put together a 90-minute effort for, arguably, the first time away from Rio Tinto all season.
So RSL is doomed, you must be saying… Not quite so fast. RSL has an impressive history of ending long unbeaten runs. The team carries a 4-1-1 record against teams with 9-game, or longer, unbeaten runs. The mark includes a 1-0 victory over the Dynamo in 2007 that ended Houston’s franchise record 11-game run, as well as last Saturday’s 2-0 victory over the Galaxy and their 10-game run. (More after the jump)
Basically what we’re trying to say here is that we should be in for a good one. Remember to tune in to the match at 6:30 p.m. MT on KUTV 2.2 or Comcast 111, with the half-hour pregame show getting underway at 6:00 p.m. MT…
We’re just getting underway, so here’s your line-ups from Robertson Stadium. RSL going with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, following up last weekend’s first road win with the same 11 in the 4-3-3- formation:
GK: Rimando
DEF: Wingert (R) – Olave – Borchers – Beltran (L)
MID: Beckerman (deep) – Johnson (deep) – Morales (att)
FWD: Mathis (R) – Movsisyan (C) – Espindola (L)
Houston is leaving regular captain Wade Barrett out of the first XI this evening (although he’s in for Craig Waibel just nine minutes in after an early injury), while also still dealing with the call-up of Ricardo Clark and injury to Brian Ching, who is indeed available off the bench for Dom Kinnear’s side:
GK: Onstad
DEF: Waibel (R) – Cameron – Boswell – Hainault (R)
MID: Mullen (R) – Mulrooney (deep) – Holden (att) – Davis (L)
FWD: Kamara – Weaver
We know it's muggy here, but this is ridiculous!
20 Jun 2009 02:42 pm RSL HQ 18 comments
Is Olave retarded? Rimando had an amazing game, RSL was lucky to get out with a tire. Olave has to win the bone-headed move of the year award.
“if it ain’t broke, dont fix it” approach
-RSL Moderator (who by the way needs to find a way to automate this site)
Well all I have to say is….FIX IT.
Hat’s off for RSL staying consistent on the road. Olave’s red card was a joke. Rimondo’s foul in the box a worse joke – and he was the man of this game…all the way around.
I was pleased with RSL’s cool headed road game and impressed that they almost won the match (which they would have deserved).
Was it me, or did anyone else feel like the ref was Houston’s 12th man? I think so…even the cross to Ching was taken and allowed when whoever it was, brought the ball down with his right hand.
I think RSL came away in a good place considering that they played the best team right now in the league, at Houston, with an incredibly inept, or biased, referee helping them out.
We’ll beat them when they come here…we have a grudge and the skill/talent to do it. I played for 25 years and it’s always a tough deal when a ref decides to try and determine the outcome.
Long Live Nick!!!! What a superman he was…
These last two games really have helped to restore my confidence in the team I saw at the start of the year. We’ll be in the playoffs, I think. Steady as she goes….
Well, if you told me before the game we could get a 1 all draw and a point out of houston, i would take it and laugh… With that said, it was sad to see the actions of one man, and another mans reaction, ruin the full 3 points for us.
I wont argue that either of Olave’s cards were deserving of yellows, i will however argue that the ref, jair, was far from consistent tonight. Fouls would be yellows at one point, then wouldnt even be a foul another (both ways). Olave should not have done what he did, in the second yellow, however the first one was an action that happened numerous other times in the game and would not get the same result…
With that off my chest, I am excited about this team. Right now would be a great time to go on a run, we need to pick up full points in our next game and we will be at 19 points through 15 games… something that isnt great, but given the month of may (awful, just awful month) its a pretty amazing spot to be in.
Come on RSL!!!
oh, and Rimando, thank you for being amazing tonight, easily Man of the match, i think houston fans would even agree
and ching… well why are you in the states first off? If you were training full strength this whole week, then why didnt you make the trip to south africa (i wonder where bradley stands on this… could ching have just ended his national team career?)
all in the past, moving forward now. LETS BEAT TORONTO!!!!
Great game boys, worst ref ever!!! SERIOUS WTF? So proud of all the team. Heart and hustle on the road I love it. Can’t wait for next Saturday. I have a feeling we will rip TFC apart at home. Lets come out strong as supporters and show the team we are ready for the second half of the year!!!
VAMOS REAL!!! Real Till I die!
A point out of Houston and 4 points in the last two away games? I have to say I would have taken it a week ago.
Hard to know what Olave was thinking? maybe he thought it should have been a RSL throw-in?? Still another strange play from our centerback.
3 points at home next week and RSL is back looking pretty good.
Cannot wait to hear what denz has to say!!!
awesome- nice ‘result’. When you play the prevent defense, you prevent yourself from winning. Lets call it what it was boys, we had 1 shot on goal, which was deflected in. Houston had countless opportunities, it was inevitable. However, I don’t get all the space Beltran conceded, and 4 guys in the box and nobody marks up? The last 30 mins I especially appreciated the bootball, as opposed to possession. We were down 1 man, not 5. Maybe I underestimate the humidity…Ugly. Olave is out of control, which to me is a lack of coaching/respect for the coach- who knows? The crap he pulls is unbelievable. I can’t imagine other coaches allowing that behavior. Still one point nobody saw us getting- is this a positive experience then?
Still not happy at all. When is this team going to grow a backbone and play with some grit and determination rather than relying on excuses for dropped points? That game, among many others this year, was there for the taking. Everyone is already blaming Olave for the loss, with good reason. He’s gotta be the dumbest player in the MLS, but where in the world were the 10 players on the field looking when in the 90th minute Brian Ching was left wide open in the box?! He’s the obvious target man and he’s allowed to make a run from midfield completely unmarked and unobstructed?! I know that we were playing the Dynamo in Houston, but the excuses have to stop. Great teams are able to handle adversity and fight through it. People have got to stop praising mediocrity, or that’s exactly what we will continue to get.
How does Beltran let himself get that far out of position on the long switch to Davis? And HOW does Russel, a sub who should have had plenty of energy, not pick up Ching as he makes his run into the 18 looking for the cross? On the replay, everybody is just standing there. If you want to win you can’t quit playing. If you’d rather stand and watch, get off the field.
“Any time you can come to Houston you’re not expected to get a result, so a point is a very good result,” said RSL defender Tony Beltran.
And with an attitude like that, of course it leads to dropping 2 points. They got lucky not to have dropped all 3.
It’s all about doing the basics right. Marking your man, making passes, running off the ball. How a coach and a team think that they can win a game by constantly defending for an entire half, just kicking the ball down field as soon as they get it, is beyond me. It takes much more effort to play defense than it does to keep possession, spread the field and make Houston chase the game. Somehow L.A. managed to take the game to RSL when they were a man down.
How many points has this team dropped this year and over the last few years by conceding late goals????
omg…skinnyj…that is how you get points on the road…the best teams in the world find ways to win on the road…did you see the recent barca chelsea semi final?
PS. the ref was absolutely MLS quality, which is baffling. We have better referees in the Adult Rec league. The MLS will continue to be a joke to other leagues until they can correct this issue. This embarassing officiating also causes problems for the national team when it’s MLS players get red carded in MAJOR touneys because they are not used to FIFA refs….
Swenny09- I play and watch a lot of soccer-too much. If you want to compare overseas teams/leagues- yes I never, ever see a team play a defensive shell like that. If they got possession, they would turn and boot it downfield so Houston could make another run at it. Chances are very good the opponent will score- Our record the last several years, and the incredible amount of last-minute goals allowed speaks for itself. Just like they say in football, prevent defense only prevents one thing, and that is to prevent you from winning (and leaving 2 points on the table).
I’m a little shocked fans and players are pleased. I thought it was a hard played, but poorly played. I think we played better, but still we lack something, not sure if it is a dominant, dangerous player, a creative coach, better attacks, something??? I think the D is looking much better, or is it rimando making them look better? Maybe I am expecting too much? Is it too much to expect more than 1 shot on goal- which wasn’t really “on goal” as it was deflected into the goal???
Is being down 1 single player in soccer supposed to look like a 5 on 3 powerplay in Hockey?
I believe that there are several things lacking. 1. Creativity- Real is incredibly predictable in their game plan. 2. Possession- on the whole, the team loses possession so easily or boots the ball clear up the field and hopes for the best. There does not seem to be much value placed on possession from the back ALL the way to the front, even if it means taking it back to regroup and try the attack again. 3. Dangerous in the offensive third- there does not seem to be a plan once Real crosses midfield. There might be a few passes from side to side and an occasional cross, but there is no real coordination from midfielders to strikers. They rely too much on individual skill rather than linking passes to get easy shots in the offensive third. This also falls under creativity and possession. Things seem to fall apart once Real enters an opponent’s half.
this shouldn’t happen. ever. dumb. dumb, dumb, dumb, DUMB! what the hell was olave thinking!? what the hell was our defense doing!?
we had 4.5 minutes to hold on! what do we do? the same thing it seems we have done since Ellinger! why cant we kick this!? finish a damn game already! 4.5 minutes. this match ended pathetically.
i hope someone tells me im wrong. i hope a bunch of happy-go-lucky super positives tell me to see the good in the game. the reality? we were sitting on 3 points and we decided to play like we didn’t care about it. thanks RSL, that was PATHETIC.
maybe im too quick to attack olave for the “loss” on saturday. i think his style of play ought to be considered in the scope of MLS matches–specifically officiating.
i really dislike blaming officials for bad games (though sometimes in MLS it feels like this could be a weekly past-time). and i am not blaming our leaving 2 points on the table on the official. that is no one’s fault but our own.
but too often i think MLS players are the victims of inconsistent officiating, and on saturday night i think that bit olave in the ass. the first yellow card could have been given out 5 times during the match. but after the official gave it to olave, he wasn’t consistent, and the same play went without cards. the problem is that if you are going to set a tone, you HAVE TO STICK WITH THAT TONE! players read tone. it affects games!
so the reality, at least as i see it, is that olave has consistency problems. but so do MLS officials. put these together and it spells disaster for RSL.
he made a boneheaded move that really cost us. but can you “punish” him? its a catch 22 with olave. bench him and we get the results from saturday. leave him on…and we get the results from saturday. he certainly needs to learn some composure. …and our team needs to learn to win. seriously.
weak pk call… weak weak weak… i mean come on… really??? thats a hard challenge yes but it should not have been a pk… im usually dont harp on officials but come on… cosistancy buddy… good yellowcard on Olave for the first one but was that really a second yellowcard offence? What about the Houston forward manhandling Ramondo in the first half while he i trying to set the ball?? that was way worse than the Olaves getting in his face Chings face… Two people really didnt think right there… Olave for one… And the Ref for the other…
Great playing RSL… but attack all 90 minutes and see what happens… not just 60 minutes of a game… control the mid better… defence great job…
4 points in two road games… thats great… keep it up…
Go RSL…