Coming to you from Hollywood
They’re off in LA and RSL will be looking for the full three points tonight against a depleted Galaxy squad. LA is without stars Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Eddie Lewis, and Steve Cronin while Real boasts a solid lineup minus only Andy Williams.
P.S. Due to some connection issues we’ll have to do this from the phone tonight so hang with us.
15th minute: Not quite the start RSL were looking for. Just minutes after having a Fabian Espindola goal called back, LA forward Brian Jordan picked up his first career MLS goal off a rebounded Nick Rimando save.
To add to the blow, Fabi appeared to injure his foot celebrating his goal.
22nd minute: RSL continues to push hard and the pressure pays off. A beautiful flick from Kenny Deuchar finds Yura Movsisyan alone at the top of the box and the young striker one-touches past the onrushing keeper to level the game 1-1. Real’s definitely been the stronger team so far, let’s see if they can continue to fight and pick up the lead.
37th minute: Things have leveled off over the last 15 minutes. RSL has got to keep the pressure up and put the Galaxy away as early as possible.
Halftime: They’re at the break at The HDC all level at 1-1. RSL has looked very solid after giving up the early goal, but they need to keep it up and get the victory because they surely won’t be satisfied with anything less.
53rd minute: The second half is underway and RSL continues to push hard. And Yura continues his strong play combining beautifully on a give-and-go with newcomer Will Johnson that saw the young Canadian bend a ball inside the far post for a 2-1 lead.
69th minute: And the Galaxy equalize. A very similar ball to the first goal that sneaks across the goal mouth and finds Edson Buddle at the top of the six and the LA striker slips the ball home to level things up.
80th minute: We’ve got a Robbie Findley sighting as the speedy forward replaces Deuchar up top. Does Robbie have some magic tonight? He’s scored 5 goals this season and every one of them was a game-winner.
85th minute: Robbie has been dangerous so far but Real has been unable to put one away yet.
End of Match: After 93 minutes, they’re done. Definitely a tough draw to swallow for RSL. The were hungry for the victory and controlled most of the match, but a few tough breaks and an opportunistic Galaxy squad, see Real head home with just one point. On the positive side, the result keeps RSL in second place heading to Nrw York for a huge match next Saturday.
Thanks for tuning in, we’ll be back later with more…
06 Sep 2008 RSL HQ
What radio station is the game on tonight?
Well, I don’t know if I want to call this a good game or not. I mean, we had possesion, we had a lot of shots on goal, and our defense and midfield seemed great. And yet, somehow we let in two goals. I blame the first goal on Olave for not passing the ball out of the back. The second one was just chaos in the box, not a ton you could have done about it.
Haha, and I’m sorry, but that wasn’t a smart move by Espindola. That was pretty funny. Hopefully he didn’t come out of that with a serious injury because we need him.
Our midfield looked really good today. I was very impressed with our ball movement throughout the whole game. Better looking than it has been. I was glad to see our patience on the ball too. I think it led to some great scoring opportunities.
As for our forwards they did ok. Awesome assist by Deuchar and an even better finish by Johnson. I think that is up for goal of the week easy. A thing of beauty!
So overall we played a good game, but I have to say that I am REALLY disappointed with a tie on that one.
Well, I guess a point is good. Better then a loss.
It is great to see Will Johnson contributing immediatly, great pickup for RSL.
Boy, that tie felt like a loss. Why does this team take its foot off the pedal as soon as we got the lead? When will they learn to put their foot on the neck of an opponent and end it? How many points have we left on the table this year? The team played well for about 75 minutes. They need to learn to play well for 90. Johnson looked good again. Wingert needs to learn how to cross the ball accurately. He had numerous chances and never put a decent ball in. I’m no Yura fan, but that second goal give and go with Johnson was a thing of beauty. I didn’t know he had it in him to pass the ball.
Such a disappointing result for RSL. Espindola gets hurt celebrating his goal that was waived off for offsides, Ian Joy sucked as usual, and Olave got burned by Buddle. Our playoff spot now dangles by a thread. I will say that Movsisyan did rather well. I’m glad to see him progressing nicely. Also, picking up Will Johnson was easily our best summer transfer move. Keep him in the starting lineup. Also, having Williams’s creativity would have helped a lot.
I am reassessing my opinion of Movsisyan. Mainly because of my ignorance of the fact that he is only 21. I had always thought he was 26-27. The kid is only 21??? Alot of the faults I have seen this year are things that many young players need time to develop (pass vs. shoot). He does have raw talent and I think with seasoning he may turn into a really good forward if his decision making gets better. With the knowledge that he is only 21 (younger than Findley) I now understand what Kreis and Lagerway see in him. This change in opinion is irrespective of his performance last night, but last nights performance does show that he is progressing.
Agreed Andrew. They should have put in Williams instead of Kovalenko. That would have been a much better change. Kovalenko really doesn’t add much to the game.
first of all, Williams was on international duty, otherwise I am sure he would have held his starting position. Second, we are still in great shape for the playoffs. Yes the result was dissappointing, however there are many positives to take from this game. Possession and patience has improved immensly. I felt our team played hard all game long, I did not see the let down as we have in games past. It is frustrating that our back line that has been soooo solid is struggling a bit, but Olave and Borchers are hard workers and I see them fixing their mistakes. Also our forwards are learning to play together and help each other to create chances. Go RSL!!!
Oog - Williams was not available.
When you can’t beat up on the second stringers for LA that is just sad!
Oh well, typical RSL.
Williams was with the Jamaican natl team. Plus, I don’t think that was intended to be an offensive substitution.
If Espindola is now going to miss several games I think we are in real danger of missing the playoffs.
Fabi, sos necio. Como vas a ariesgar lastimarte con esa tonta celebracion? Ojala que sea la ultima vez que lo hagas.
Great game Will, and props to Jooker for an awesome assist.
we should of won that game. with landon and david gone we should of come out with a win.. but at least we came out with a point
man espindola broke his leg, not good at all. thought we played well, just gave up two stupid goals. hopefully we can pull it together and get some road wins. cause we need them bad.
Is the Deseret News right? Espindola broke his leg?
andrew: yup no jock me came down on it wrong and it snapped. sucks huh?
I am so bummed that Espindola broke his leg. I feel so bad for him, and that is a huge loss for the team at this stage of the season.
In my opinion Espindola is our best striker…I know I may get told I’m wrong but the guy puts it in the net consistently. Mathis? Mathis? Mathis? come on! Will Johnson looks great, I like the signing of Russel, Fabi y Javi. Bien! but Mathis??????? It’s ridiculous. I’ve heard no (real) explanation. Fabian is a huge loss, the way the injury came was just sad too, I don’t think the goal needed Fabi’s touch either and to injure yourself after coming back from an injury celebrating a waived goal after player/goal of the week awards. Just sad. I really think we need him alongside the good Dr. and when we don’t have him I want to see Findley. Findley and Espindola should hold a spot and Deuchar and Yura hold a spot. but without Fabi we really need Yura to STEP IT UP DOWN THE STRETCH! Yura will be a great player in a year or two and right now he is good. greedy from time to time but a good player. I like his ability to fire from distance. Final Point: The quality of our goals vs. the quality of L.A. goals says it all. We should feel like we lost 2pts. instead of winning 1. P.S. Lumpy’s is a great venue. we need to keep coming out for the away games.
The first 15 minutes of that match were just bizarre. We are all over them, creating chance after chance, then we score a really nice goal. Then the Bruce freaks out, and the goal is waived off. Then Olave, pulls a Reyna, and some no name reserve player scores on us. Then we find out that Fabi is out for the match. Ouch. Credit our guys for coming back and taking the lead, but we should have kept attacking and put the game away 3-1. We sat back a little, and forgot to mark Buddle in the box. Bad idea.
For those bashing Mathis, did you actually watch the game on Saturday? Mathis was great. I questioned Jason and Garth bringing him in as well, but Saturday proved that he belongs on this squad. He should have had an assist on Morales’ open goal miss, and he was playing dangerous, pin-point balls forward all night. He was active, and tracked back on defense to win some balls. He also outran Mike Randolph (very fast) to a through ball and got a good cross in. Enough Mathis bashing, he is a good addition. With Williams playing for Jamaica on Saturday, it would have been Cutler playing if Mathis wasn’t. Would that really be a better solution?
It kills me that they called back that goal. I guess refs are afraid of the wrath of Bruce Arena. That’s the third draw this year where we were robbed of the win by a sideline official. That being said, if Javi sticks the ball into the open net, we don’t lose. We should have killed LA, we took it to them for the majority of the match, but they capitalized on 2 bad defensive errors.
p.s. Will Johnson is awesome. I’m so glad he got that goal, he fully deserved it.