2009 Game 15: Toronto FC vs. RSL: Where has this team been?

I finally got out to my first game this season (with a little help from KALL's $7 ticket promotion), but I couldn't have picked a better one to go to. RSL put together one of its more complete games of the year in taking apart a Toronto team that came in on short rest.

RSL controlled the flow of this game, for the most part, and after going up 2-0, kept Toronto from ever really looking dangerous. Yura put together one of his best outings of the year and we had a nice cameo by Ian Joy late. Overall, some solid play by the home squad, and a good, and necessary, win.

First half grade: A-
A good first half but not spectacular. The second half saw a few players step it up (most notably Ned Grabavoy) and really lead RSL to the finish. Two goals, but the defense was not perfect and Toronto had a few chances.
Second half grade: A
Nicely done by RSL in the second, scoring the final goal, but more importantly, shutting down the Toronto attack completely.
Game grade: A
A good, solid win at home. Hopefully RSL can build on this without getting the big heads that killed the team after the 6-0 thrashing of the NERds.

Player grades:
Nick Rimando-7 Didn't have a lot to do, but made the saves when necessary.
Chris Wingert-6 Also didn't have a lot to do, but the attacks never seemed to come from his side.
Nat Borchers-6 Passing was iffy at times, but got the job done.
Robbie Russell-7 Nice job filling in for Olave.
Tony Beltran-6 Poor first half, but redeemed himself with a solid 2nd.
(Ian Joy 83)-6 Nice to see Ian back on the field.
Kyle Beckerman-6 Almost a 5, scored a goal, but missed 2 or 3 absolute sitters.
(Tino Nunez 91+)-NA Didn't have enough time for a true rating.
Ned Grabavoy-7 Bad first half, but astounding in the 2nd. Nice assist on the 3rd score.
Javier Morales-6 OK game, nothing too great.
(Andy Williams 75)-6 Nice to see Andy getting some run.
Clint Mathis-7 Hard to argue a goal and an assist.
Yura Movsisyan-7 Nice, composed finish on the goal (for once). Very active, but had a bad case of ballhogacitis.
Fabian Espindola-4 The only weak link on the night. Just awful. Absolutely no effort and zero movement off the ball. Probably could have had 2 goals if he'd followed up on some plays.

Coach grade (Kreis)-7 I'd have started Andy over Ned, but Ned proved me wrong on that one in the 2nd. A 3-0 win is hard to criticize, but I'm still shocked Espi got a full 90 with that sort of (non-)effort.
Ref grade (Jurisevic)-5 The usual inconsistent MLS ref effort.

RSL Man of the Match: Yura Movsisyan
Yes, he made some mistakes, but got himself into good spaces and looked good on the goal.

Douchebag of the Day: Amado Guevara
After his teammate delivered a late, crushing tackle and picked up an obvious yellow, what does Guevara do? Complain for about 5 minutes. Seriously, it was one of the easiest yellow calls you'll ever see and Guevara whined like someone had punched his mother. Grow up, dude.

And now, some low-quality pictures from last night's game courtesy of my crappy camera phone:
Setting up the formation on a goal kick.


For those who haven't yet seen it, the unfortunate aftermath of the Supporter's end stage debacle


And now, a series I like to call, simply, "Sunset Over Rio Tinto"


Mathis sends in a cross as the sun sets




And then, the sunset truly hits...

Toronto vs. Real Salt Lake GAMEDAY

Trying to get my sidebars somewhat up to date and I thought, "What the hell? Let's throw a prediction or two out there." So here goes:

Tonight:
Those dirty, dirty Canucks (ha ha, sorry I have a Canadian friend and it has become habit) 1 - Real Salt Lake 2
Salt Lake at home against a jet-lagged, 2nd game in 3 days Toronto team at altitude? I like our chances.

Tomorrow:
Brazil 2 - USA 1
As much as I want the US to win (and there certainly is a chance they could pull it off), I don't see it happening. Especially with Bradley out with one of the worst (if not THE worst) straight reds I've ever seen. Plus, although related, judging by the calls from rest of the tournament, I doubt the US will get through the match with 11.

Discuss.

Game 4: Real Salt Lake @ Toronto FC

So I just went through the game again (although it was on fast forward again, this time I paid better attention). I also looked back over my first impressions and realized that that all basically still stands, so this review will be pretty short as I went over a lot in that other post.

First off, what in the hell is with all the streamers in Toronto? Did someone hijack a semi full of streamers and drive it to BMO Field? Seriously, that was a bit, ok, a LOT, out of hand. Folks, let's start stocking up on streamers now and when TFC comes to town absolutely annihilate their players with paper while they attempt free kicks. I swear I thought Javi was going to drown in a paper deluge while sending in a couple of those corners.

Anyway, what a terrible first half by RSL. There's been a lot of talk of pushing the action and being a possession team, but this looked like the RSL of old. Back on their heels, sending worthless long ball after worthless long ball forward. To make matters worse, both Deuchar and Findley spent long stretches of time playing so deep, you'd think they were playing defensive mid. Not good, not good at all. At least Jason Kreis owned up to it, saying "I think we came out tactically and played that game a little bit wrong, to be honest. The coaching staff takes full responsibility for that. We were sitting back when perhaps we should've pressed them from minute one, which is the tactic we took up in the second half." (Thanks to MLSnet and James Edward) Well duh, Jason. You want to press teams and try to score goals and make them work rather than sitting back and letting attack wave after attack wave come at you? I'd have never guessed. I guess that's why he makes the big bucks... Honestly, RSL was lucky to escape that first half down only 1-0.

Half grade: D-

The second half was a lot better with RSL cutting down on the number of long balls and working on keeping some possession. They actually outplayed TFC this half (by a bit of a margin as well), but were hit with the most common of RSL's ailments: a complete and total lack of finishing. First in the 47th, there was the scrum off of a Morales corner kick where I think every RSL player (and maybe some RSL fans as well) got a foot on the ball in the 18, but no one came close to putting it away. This sequence led to a series of approximately 1,342 corner kicks in a row for RSL, out of which they did something positive with exactly 0 of these. In RSL's defense, a lot of these corners were not that good, although Morales can be partially forgiven for that as he was being blinded by the world's supply of streamers while trying to send the balls in. Then in the 67th, RSL had another great chance when Dema Kovalenko, wide open in the 18, had a ball fall to him and hit a volley to...Montreal. Whoops. He was open enough to settle the ball and then shoot for an easy goal, but the rush job led to the choke of the week. RSL probably would have finally broken through in the 73rd when Findley fought through a foul, got the ball to the corner of the 18 and the end line and had a wide open passing lane to multiple RSL players directly in front on net. But the ref inexplicably did not let RSL play the advantage, setting up a free kick that went nowhere. Thanks ref! There were other instances of RSL's ineptitude in front of net (see: corner kick to Williams at the top of the box where he puts in 50 feet over the goal), but I'm not trying to write "War and Peace" here. All in all, RSL outplayed TFC, but in usual RSL fashion were unable to get the equalizer. On a side note, it was strange to see RSL actually play better when they replaced Joy with Williams and went to a 3-5-2. They really seemed to take control at that point. It's good to know RSL can play different formations if need be. Final score: 1-0 TFC

Half grade: B-

Pros:
-Much improved 2nd half.
-3 man backline of Mantilla, Borchers, and Wingert looks capable if needed.
-Findley looked a lot better this game than he has.
-Morales is very steady and solid of free kicks.

Cons:
-The first half.
-Streamer death.
-Joy with another poor game.
-Sturgis's injury.
-Espindola was hurt and didn't play.
-TOO MANY LONG BALLS.
-The lack of finishing.
-The not given advantage call.
-The magical 3 minutes of stoppage time that lasts 1:45

Game grade: D+
Can't give a much higher grade for a game where they go scoreless and look overwhelmed for 45 minutes of the match. They better turn this around before next week!

Player grades:
Nick Rimando-7 Solid game, held off some TFC attacks
Ian Joy-4 Seemed lost again
(Andy Williams 62)-5 OK, some decent balls, some awful ones
Matias Mantilla-6 A couple minor mistakes, but solid
Chris Wingert-8 Saved RSL's bacon on a few breakaways
Nat Borchers-7 Quiet and solid as he has been all year
Kyle Beckerman-5 Not enough from the cap'n
Dema Kovalenko-5 On again, off again kind of game
(Yura Movsisyan 79)-5 Didn't have time to do much, and didn't
Nathan Sturgis-6 Decent, but in limited time
(Carey Talley 27)-5 Not a bad game, not a good game
Javier Morales-4 Other than a few nice free kicks, didn't show much
Kenny Deuchar-5 Needs to start finishing some of these headers
Robbie Findley-6 Active, but playing too deep

RSL Man of the Match:
Chris Wingert - Yes, he had an error or two, but his game-saving stops on counter attacks were golden. Without Wingert, this game ends 3-0. Well played Chris!

Assclown of the Match:
Is there any doubt? The whole refereeing crew wins the day here! Start with the not given advantage play that would have been RSL's best scoring chance and add a dash of showing 3 minutes of stoppage time while giving less than two. Bake at 400 degrees for 90 minutes and voila! You win Assclown of the Match!

RSL @ TFC First Impressions

Hello all. I am trying to do a full review, but I feel like I should watch the game again before I do that, as I watched most of it the first time in 1x fast forward. That and I kinda faded in and out of it at times. In other words, what an ugly game. One that will make it hard to watch again, but I'll try. So in lieu of a full review (which, like I said, I will try and get up later this week, work permitting), I thought I'd just put down some impressions I got from the game.

First of all, I was as excited as anyone about the signing of Ian Joy. The guy plays with a ton of heart and bleeds his team. Unfortunately, he's not very good. He's consistently out of position and when he is back covering his man, he often leaves a 5 yard cushion between him and the attacker with the ball. The only thing I read from this is that Ian thinks/knows he is too slow to keep up with anyone so he gives himself a cushion so he doesn't get burned. Unfortunately, this leaves a wide open space for opposing players to send in crosses and find other open players on the field. I like the hustle Ian puts in, but I'm not liking his game. Perhaps it's time to get our #3 pick on the field? Or put Sturgis (when not injured, which seems not to be often) back there? Have Forko and Kipre signed elsewhere?

Secondly, this team looks more and more like RSL 2007 which scares the pants off of me. Blowing leads deep in extra time (Chicago), losing games big in which you play fairly even most of the game (TST), beating down DC at home, and now, the "it's 20 minutes in and I can already tell RSL won't find the back of the net" syndrome has creeped back in. You could just tell RSL would never get an equalizer. And they didn't. If there was any doubt, Dema Kovalenko's absolute disgrace of an open volley proved RSL could not score in that one. (Note to Dema, if you're that wide open and can't hit a volley, here's what you do: Settle the ball THEN shoot. You'd have still been open.). The reflections of last year are striking. And the results are, sadly, nearly the same.

Going back to Sturgis for a minute, I really like his game, and when available I would always put him in over Talley (or Joy). However, as I mentioned a few months ago the guy is ALWAYS hurt. The latest injury is being vaguely reported as a hamstring strain, so I'm not sure how long he'll be out, but between this and (if healthy) the Olympics, I don't expect to see much of Nate this season. Too bad, he's a quality player.

Sigh. This was a disheartening loss as an RSL fan. RSL came out looking like they could sleepwalk to a win and it proved to be their undoing. I worry that this team thinks they are a lot better than they are. They ARE good enough to make the playoffs if they really get their minds in the right place and work. But with the same old "We're just unlucky" drivel coming out of RSL-land all season, I'm not sure this team will get in the right frame of mind. I think this next game will prove a lot. RSL will be up against a hungry DC United team in the second leg of the Ben Cup. DC is coming off two straight losses, should be well rested and healthy (and thereby playing ALL their players, like Gallardo), and will be looking to avenge the leg 1 massacre at Rice Eccles. If RSL can get a result on the road in this environment (and keep the Ben Cup a blowout for this year), then there is hope for them still. If they are lethargic and sloppy like they were against TFC, it will get ugly and won't bode well for the rest of '08. Go RSL!

News and Notes

I want to start by apologizing for the severe lack of content recently. I have had a lot going on, including "good times" dealing with car insurance companies and so I haven't had the time or ambition to update a lot (or watch a lot of games). I'm hoping the clouds will part soon and I'll have more time for the Review once again, but until then, updates, and especially full reviews, will be very hit or miss. Sorry once again.

Having said that, I DO want to throw together a little update while I have the chance. First of all, the second annual Ben Cup has ended in an official tie. Both DCU and RSL finished the season series with a 1-1 record in games between the two. In addition, both games ended 2-1 leaving a goal differential of 0 and an away goal differential of 0. So the Cup will stay with Real for another year by default. Good job guys!...I guess...

Second, reports are saying that RSL has named former MLS goalkeeper and announcer Garth Lagerwey as their new GM. Lagerwey had been working as an attorney at a Washington DC law firm previously. I'm trying to be optimistic about this hire, as he does have MLS experience as well as law experience, but I can't get jazzed about it. RSL hires yet another guy who has ZERO experience at the job for which he is hired (although this means I can also hold out hope for a FO position at RSL, as I have no experience at running an MLS team either). I can't help but think we'd be better off with Pastorino still in there. He at least knew the rules and was good for the team PR wise. Plus, how seriously can we take a guy who is best known for his call of "Sweet creamery butter!" Hopefully, it will pan out, and it's nice that RSL FINALLY hired someone, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also, if somehow you didn't hear (and if you are looking at this site it is unlikely you didn't), RSL has traded its 2009 3rd round SuperDraft pick, its 2009 1st round Supplemental Draft pick, AND a partial player allocation (aka $) to Kansas City for 20 year old striker Yura Movsisyan and a Youth International slot. I'm kind of on the fence on this one. On one hand, you know RSL will have very good draft position in 2009 (barring Christ using his second coming to sign with them by then) so trading away those picks plus money is a risky proposition. On the other hand, you get a great YOUNG forward prospect in Movsisyan who has 5 goals in limited minutes this season (and has recently been granted asylum status in the USA, meaning he doesn't count as an international). In addition, RSL gets a youth international slot to use for a new signing in the future. On balance, I think I like this trade, but we will have to see a) what KC does with their end of the bargain and b) how Yura develops before I can say for sure. Also, does this mean the end of Esky in Salt Lake? I hope not, but reports (on the Bill Riley show) have his contract expiring at the end of the season and him having had no contact from RSL or MLS. If I'm RSL I resign this guy for next season NOW, he really bleeds his team.

Speaking of Esky, what the hell was Kreis thinking putting him all alone on top against Toronto??? If that tactic didn't work with Jeff Cunningham at the beginning of the year, it sure as hell isn't going to work with Esky!!! And then he continues to start Chris Brown over Findley (and Kyle Brown, Jamie Watson, Atiba Harris, pretty much everyone else on the bench who, in truth, is better than him). Play with 2 forwards, PLEASE! I know it's nice to have Robbie off the bench, but he's the only one on the team that scores with any regularity. GET HIM ON THE FIELD!

Finally, we come to the Toronto game. Debacle is too kind of a word. RSL played like crap from the opening whistle and to add insult to injury, the ref let this one get away from him VERY early. The result was an ugly, chippy, horrible mess that, in a strange way, was massively entertaining. The added storylines of Toronto's RSL-like scoreless streak and Cunningham's guarantee of a goal added drama to an otherwise terrible match. I was on edge the whole game waiting to see if Rimando could hold them to a shutout. No one else on the team seemed to want to, the defense was extremely poor and the midfield was non-existent. Toronto played the ball through midfield at will (even when RSL was still at full strength), even though RSL was playing with only one forward. It was pathetic. Just as I was thinking "Nicky could pull this out for us" and it was getting very exciting (around 85 min. in), the FSN feed went out and they went to 10 minutes of PSA's. I was watching the game on DVR so I frantically ran to my computer to see if Rimando had pulled out the shutout. Final score 0-0. Way to go Nick! You deserved it, even if your teammates did not. Some other thoughts:
-Espindola is a moron. Plain and simple. Stupid, stupid red card. That having been said, the retaliation by Wynne warranted a yellow.
-On that note, the refs were very uneven and let too much go early. Poor refereeing helped lead to a poorly played, too-physical game.
-Mantilla has now reached the yellow card limit and will sit tonight. 6 games, 5 starts, 5 yellows. He needs a better role model than Atiba Harris.
-Esky also needs to start thinking a bit more. Yes, he was often being abused, but he needs to know better than to draw stupid yellows like he did against TOR.
-There is no justice in the world if Nick Rimando doesn't win goalkeeper of the year (and he won't). The performance against Toronto was not just all-star caliber, it was world-class. Simply amazing. Toronto should've scored at least 4.

Man of the Match: Nick Rimando (obviously)
Assclowns of the match: Fabian Espindola, Fox Sports, Jeff Cunningham-nice prediction, and basically everyone on RSL besides Rimando, including the coaching staff-great game guys!

ps-This week's RR predictions (from my mfls.com "team"):
LA 1 - RSL 1
CHI 1 - DAL 0
CLB 2 - TOR 1
NER 2 - NYC 2
COL 1 - RSL 2
KCW 2 - CHV 3
DCU 3 - CHI 1
DAL 2 - LA 1

**Update***
Perhaps Jason could use some seasoning? Open the checkbook, Dave... ha ha ha

7/4/07 RSL v. Toronto FC

Le sigh...

What else can be said? Let's face facts here: this RSL team is terrible and continues to show it week after week. This week's showcase of suck came against Toronto FC.

I had a bad feeling coming into this game and now I know why. RSL was beaten at home at altitude against an expansion team that had not won a road game up until this point. Just sad. The first half, however, was surprisingly decent. Findley made an amazing play early to get open and was denied, not by TFC, but by the post. A few minutes later, freshly shorn Jeff Cunningham scored the opening goal off a nice header flick by Dichio. Let's just forget the fact that Cunningham was very clearly offside, the officiating crew certainly did. After that RSL really and truly controlled the game for the rest of the half and really should have put together a couple of scores, but as usual, the finishing was awful. Late in the first half Alecko got free in the box and was subsequently tackled from behind (NFL, not soccer, style) by two Toronto players, setting up a PK which Esky buried. yay for Esky! Half time score: 1-1
1st half grade: B+

The second half, to be generous, was a disaster. RSL looked completely lost and Toronto took control. You'd think RSL were the ones having issues with the altitude. But somehow RSL hung around despite numerous defensive slip-ups and very pedestrian midfield play. Then it happened. On yet another horrible play out of the midfield Samuel got past Kipre with the ball. Kipre hit him a little (although to be honest, I've seen much worse go uncalled) and a PK was given, which was a bit iffy also because it appeared to me that the contact was outside the box. But then, these are MLS referees and they seem to exist in a different reality from the rest of us. Samuel put away the PK, and then it was thank you, good night, drive home safely. Toronto 2 RSL 1.
2nd half grade: D-

This was a VERY winnable game for RSL, especially coming off of a bye week AND a win, and they blew it. It was really painful to watch and I was kinda left feeling that I wanted that hour and a half of my life back.
Interestingly, on the TFC PK, the local color guy (former RSL player Brian Dunseth, very good) said it was a makeup call for the RSL PK and that refs look to make up any PKs they call. That is not right...if a team earns a penalty that is obvious (such as Esky's in this game) they should not be penalized for it. That's ridiculous. Like I said about MLS refs and reality...
Also interesting were a couple quotes from TFC coach (and obvious assclown) Mo Johnston (thanks to RSL's home page for the quotes).
On the Samuel penalty: "He drew that PK, which I felt was a red card; I feel that's the last man." Hmm...first he really didn't draw much contact. Second, and more importantly, Esky was the last man WHEN TWO OF YOUR PLAYERS TACKLED HIM FROM BEHIND!!! If that's not a red, Kipre's certainly isn't. Assclown.
On the game (and its chippiness at times): "I felt [RSL] were over aggressive, in a lot of ways. We came here to play soccer and I don't think there was much soccer played. I'm disappointed in that part; we're a good soccer team and the tactics that you saw tonight weren't acceptable." Hmmm...Mo, I don't know what game you were watching but RSL was not aggressive in any facet of the game. Had they been, they would have won. Also, if you are implying that RSL was dirty and too physical (which he is), I once again say, what game were you watching? From the tackle on Esky to JC nearly punching out Andy Williams (who hadn't even been the one to foul him) to JC's tirades against the refs to etc., etc., etc. it was your team playing a bit dirty. Did you see Robinson in this game? O'Brien's body slam of "Red Card" Kotschau? No? Maybe you should watch the game next time. Assclown.
Game grade: D-

Pros:
-Esky scored! Esky scored!
-Findley looks like a stud.
-Medhi wasn't playing central mid! It's about time!
-Jack Stewart stupidly threw a ball at a TFC player and later kicked Samuel in the back of the head behind the play. Neither was called but the league will obviously suspend him. This will improve our defense by virtue of him not being on the field to screw things up as he usually does.
-Jamie Watson played amazingly well in his short stint in the game and even hit the crossbar on a play that would have tied it.
-I was at the Bees game where Salt Lake hit a homerun with two outs in the ninth to win, so I didn't sit home and watch the game live. I recorded it and was able to get through the game faster (1x fast forward on the directv dvr is brilliant for watching soccer, especially slow parts)

Cons:
-The defense was pretty shaky, especially in the second half
-The midfield was awful in the second half.
-The whole team was awful in the second half.
-The refs as usual
-RSL lost yet again.
-The KSL play by play guy (Tom Kirkland, I believe) is AWFUL and obviously knows next to nothing about the game of soccer.


Player grades:
Nick Rimando-7 solid but unspectacular
Jean-Martial Kipre-5 just decent until the penalty
Eddie Pope-6 strangely quiet game
Jack Stewart-5 went insane, kicked a dude in the head
Ritchie Kotschau-6 quiet but not many big mistakes
Carey Talley-6 solid hardnosed play
Atiba Harris-7 gets into everything, his kind of game: chippy
Andy Williams-6 did ok running the midfield, 2nd half was ugly
sub-(Jamie Watson 73)-8 like savoir faire, he was everywhere
Mehdi Ballouchy-6 still bad crosses & set pieces, but looked better on the left
Robbie Findley-7 very aggresive, very fast, caused problems
sub-(Kyle Brown 70)-7 did pretty well, played with some passion
Alecko Eskandarian-8 worked hard as usual, deserved the goal
RSL man of the match: Alecko Eskandarian