10/6 RSL vs. Chivas USA

RSL may possibly be the unluckiest franchise in professional sports. Now, I know you make your own luck for the most part (and RSL has made plenty of bad luck over the past few years), but they are still very unlucky. This game was a perfect example. Despite being at least the equal of, if not better than, Chivas on the night, RSL came away with a 3-2 home loss. Sigh... On a side note, I'm not sure I'm helping any. Let's look at some of my favorite sports teams: the Chicago Cubs (enough said right there), the Syracuse Orangemen (shafted out of an NCAA berth in bball last year, football team is beyond terrible), the Southern Utah Thunderbirds (the less said about their sports teams, the better), and of course, RSL. So sorry RSL fans, I guess part of this is my fault! hahaha On to the review!

Some pregame thoughts:
-The weather was awful. 39 degrees, and it was raining off and on all day. Bravo to those who went out, you are a hardy breed indeed.
-It looked like Kreis sent out his B (or maybe B+) team for this one. Seitz for Rimando, Kotschau for Pope, Lancos and Forko for Kipre and Wingert, and Chris Brown for...well about anybody, but let's say Movsisyan.

Meh. That's the first half in a nutshell. The game was pretty even with neither team having much in the way of great chances. The weather didn't help matters much as both teams struggled with their first touches, although RSL's forwards were having an extra difficult time for some reason. In the first 15 minutes alone, the forwards misplayed at least 3 balls that could have been legitimate scoring chances, including one by C. Brown in the 10th minute that would have almost surely been a goal if he had settled it. In the 14th minute, Chivas caught a huge break when Alex Zotinca, already with a yellow, was not shown the door after a very late challenge on Espindola that sent him into the boards. Maybe not card worthy in all circumstances, but for a guy who already has a yellow and had made some rash decisions by that point of the game, it was definitely a debatable red. The game was pretty even and quite sloppy and then in the 22nd minute was a classic RSL moment. A slight defensive lapse led to a Chivas goal. Like I said before, RSL is unlucky. While other teams get away with defensive mistakes on a fairly regular basis, RSL ALWAYS seems to pay for them for whatever reason. However, this was not an undeserved goal, Merlin made some nice moves to keep Forko a couple steps off of him, allowing him room to get a cross off. The main mistake came when Cunliff ran right past Mantilla, who just was standing there, and was wide open to put the ball in the back of the net. 1-0 Chivas on some bad defense, by Forko, who needs to pressure the ball harder, and especially Mantilla, who needs to cover his man!!! Very simple really. The rest of the half passed, sloppily and mostly uneventfully, with the only real bright spot being Findley's sudden domination of the air. He seemed to win every header that came his way. If he can develop an aerial game, whoo, look out! Halftime 1-0 Chivas.
Half grade: C-
A boring, sloppy first half. RSL was a match for Chivas throughout the half and were on the wrong side of the scoreline on this one. What should've been 0-0 was 1-0 on one defensive lapse.

The second half started a lot like the first, although both teams had seemed to adjust to the conditions a bit and the ball control was better. Early in the half, RSL had a nice attack building when Brown decided he was Ronaldinho and got very cute with the ball and Chivas easily dispossessed him (that's a lot of s's!). He made up for it in the 52nd, finishing off a flicked on header from Espindola (that's from the RSL site, I swear it was Lancos with the header) off a gorgeous pin point long ball out of the back (site credits Lancos, maybe I just have the order confused?). Brown got through 2 defenders and pushed it past Guzan for the goal. Nice. 1-1. Then the floodgates opened. Cunliffe quickly answered in the 54th as no one bothered to cover him. He recieved the through ball and put it front post past Chris Seitz, who, although he was left out to dry a bit, needs to do a much better job covering the front post and cutting off that angle. That'll come with experience. 2-1 Chivas. Remember the luck theme I am using in today's review? The 58th minute saw another example of RSL's luck. Paulo Nagamura hit a once-in-a-lifetime strike from 35 yards out that went over Seitz and tucked into the top corner of the goal. I guarantee he will never score another goal like that again. A beauty of a shot, definitely worth going to MLSnet to see the highlight. 3-1 Chivas. RSL quickly clawed one back in the 63rd when Andy Williams played a nifty ball across to an onrushing Findley who buried it past Guzan for the goal. Findley has ice water in the veins I tell you, when he has a good rush on it like that he rarely misses, unlike many who put balls like that over the top or wide. Why he hasn't been playing much recently is beyond me. GET THIS GUY ON THE FIELD! 3-2 Chivas. RSL almost gave it right back in the 66th when Kotschau was absolutely embarrassed by John Cunliffe who put the ball between K's legs and went towards goal. He put a dangerous ball into the box that would've almost certainly led to a goal if Lancos had not been there to pick it out and remove the danger. Well played by Chris. Movsisyan came on in the 61st and in the 76th, continued his streak of not being able to even buy a call from the refs as he was completely thrown to the ground and wasn't even able to get a whistle. I'm feeling bad for the guy, he can't even get a fair shake. In the 77th Brown came off for the offensive prowess of...Atiba Harris??? Definitely a head scratcher of a sub, I think I'd have gone for Kyle Brown first. Or perhaps a Harris for Williams sub or something. Rather odd. Chivas then went into bunker mode, trying to hold off RSL. It worked until in the 89th, Movsisyan finally was able to get free and hit an absolute rifle shot on goal. Unfortunately, it hit the crossbar, and in true RSL-luck fashion fell onto the goalie Guzan, who smothered it. The four minutes of stoppage went by uneventfully, and despite being as good, if not better, than Chivas in this match, RSL ended up losing 3-2. However, in RSL's defense, I think with the "A" team (bum-ba-bum-bum...I pity the fool who can't hum the A-Team theme) RSL wins this game. I at least think Nick would've stopped that second goal, but oh well. On a similar note, Chivas is going to have to do MUCH better than that if they want to win the MLS Cup. I certainly wasn't overly impressed and the Houstons and DCs of the world are much much better than RSL's B Team.
Half grade: C
Bad conditions made for a sloppy game, but at least this half was entertaining. Lots of goals, but giving up two in a half (even if you score two), makes it hard to give higher than a C.

Pros:
-Findley started and played a very nice game.
-A couple nice "team goals"
-Movsisyan was active in his short time on.
-Seitz got some playing time. Good to see him out there.
-The Chivas announcers were MUCH better this time around.

Cons:
-3 goals. On a night where it was hard to control the ball. Yikes.
-That "Legion Idaho" section. It appeared to be in RCB territory if I saw it right. Opposing teams' supporters sections should not overpower our own!!!
-Too many blown first touches by the forwards, killing some good opportunities.
-That RSL lost a very winnable game.
-The Chivas announcers insisting on yelling the name "PANCHITO MENDOZA!" It's like a less endearing version of Hot Rod Hundley's old "OSTERTAG!" call.

Game grade: C-
Would have been higher with a win (obviously), but for now RSL needs to learn to win these kind of games. A sloppy game in bad conditions, but at least it was an entertaining second half!

Player grades:
Chris Seitz-5 Didn't have a lot to do. Probably could've done better on goal #2.
Chris Lancos-8 Best game in an RSL kit. Looked composed, added to attack. Nice game.
Ritchie Kotschau-4 Got beat a few times, should be embarrassed of the Cunliffe play
Matias Mantilla-4 Him leaving his man led to a goal, loses a point for it.
Willis Forko-4 Seemed to struggle in this one, still rusty I think, and cold didn't help.
sub(Chris Wingert 68)-6 Left side settled once he came in.
Kyle Beckerman-6 Feisty but got lost at times.
Carey Talley-5 Seemed more interested in mixing it up than actually playing at times.
Andy Williams-5 Some nice passes, great assist, but was absent from too much of the match.
Robbie Findley-8 Won so many headers (I didn't know he could do that), and he scored!
Chris Brown-6 Bonus point for the nice goal, otherwise thoroughly mediocre.
sub(Atiba Harris 77)-5 Never made a mark on the game in his limited time.
Fabian Espindola-7 Good game, I like him more and more. Nice runs, nice passes.
sub(Yura Movsisyan 61)-7 Looked good, shot that hit the bar was unlucky not to go in.

Man of the Match: tie! Robbie Findley and Chris Lancos. Very good game by both!

Assclown of the match: Zotinca was close, but Panchito Mendoza earned it in the 69th when after taking Williams down pretty hard he proceeded to walk over and "shove" him in the back of the head (while he was still on the ground). Andy got up and kind of went after him and then Mendoza decided to slap Andy in the face as well (a very womanly move by the way). For that completely unnecessary bout of assclownery, Francisco "Panchito" Mendoza is the Assclown of the Match!

ps-Sorry if any of this was incoherent, it was typed while I was half asleep and talking to an old friend on messenger. My bad :)