RMC

I've been taking a sabbatical for the last little while from Real Salt Lake. Apparently so has the defense. We've let in 7 goals in the last 2 games. Unbelievable. I wasn't able to watch all of the Columbus game and didn't have anything really to say about it, but dang. Something happened all of the sudden to the D that needs to be fixed right away.

We'll get an opportunity to right our wrongs this coming Friday when the piece-of-Crapids come to town! As a fellow fan remarked as we discussed RSL this morning, this is THE game of the year. If you only go to one game all year, this is the one to go to. This is the one and only trip the Utah for the RMC (Rocky Mountain Cup) and it is going to be a dandy. We've got 3 ex-crapids on our team in Weenert, Mathis, and Beckerman. They've now got Ballouchy. Those players always get excited to show off against their former teams. And of course they have Mastro-weenie, everyone's favorite player to heckle. It's going to be an exciting game to watch reguardless of the outcome.

Horst Crap

Well, I'm a bit upset about the game. Everyone except the back 4 played an outstanding game. Borchers played what looked like a crappy game because he had to play two positions at the same time. Horst had two or three bright spots in the first 10 minutes, but when it mattered most, he did nothing. Weenert looked dead tired all game and Russel bit on every fake that he saw. If we would have had Olave in the game, it would have been an easy win, guaranteed. That just reinforces the fact that Olave is probably our MVP.

The Ace Slideshows, LLC Bad Ace of the Match this week is a very close call. Yura Movsysian made a very, very strong case for himself because he looked very dangerous every time that he touched the ball. Doctor Goals finally got a goal on a sweet shot, but didn't play long enough to impact the game as much as the Bad Ace needs to impact it in order to get the award. Morales scored also, be he missed two other EASY goals that knocked him out of contention. Beckerman and Williams also had very, very solid games. However, this week's award had to go to none other than Robbie Findley. He was the biggest reason that RSL was so dangerous on offense and he also, especially at the end of the game, was trying harder than anyone else on the field. He took everything personal all game long. If he'd make a little mistake and loose the ball in an attacking position, he track down the guy who stole the ball and make him make a crappy pass and win the ball back. Towards the end of the game when a tying goal was within reach, he was everwhere trying to win the ball back and get another opportunity on goal when most of his teammates weren't able to move. He got into a bunch of dangerous positions and nearly picked up a couple of goals with his head. And most importantly, it was his awesome assists that were the reason for two of our three goals. His first assist to Movsysian was an awesome, perfectly weighted pass into space where Movsysian nearly managed to take all of his own angle away, but made up for it with an excellent finish past Pat Butt-steada (the Houston goalie). Then, he switched roles with Dr. Goals for his second assist and layed down a header right in the path of Dr. and Dr. rifled it home with a sweet finish. Findley is very deserving of this Bad Ace award and lets hope his teammates can all give the same effort that he gave this comming weekend against the first place team in the league, the Columbus Crew.

M&M's - UPDATED

It looks like it is a done deal, apart from some work permits and paperwork from his old team in Greece. Mathis is back in Salt Lake City. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

• Averaged a goal or an assist in every other game last year for NY
• Experienced MLS veteran - something we don't have much of on this team
• Known for his touch, passing and service - this is exactly what we need to get some more goals from Dr. Goals and Co.
• Still accurate on free kicks

Cons

• Chemistry risks: He has had the attitude that he is the star in the past, yellow cards are regularly thrown his way
• Didn't do squat last time he was here
• Hasn't had a team that he contributed to regularly since New York - rusty

There have been some other influential details around this deal that may lead to a better Cleetus than the first version. The biggest one might be Maximus Mathis, Clint's firstborn child that is about a month old. He's settled down, married, and had himself a son. The coaching staff have made their thoughts for this team very clear and Mathis is excited and wants to be here, so I think that his attitudes have definately changed for the better. He's no longer the "star" of the team that he once was and seems willing to help out the team any way he can. This could potentially be a great thing for RSL, but only time will tell. In the words of Jason Kreis' high school soccer coach, "Fortune favors the bold." This is a bold move so lets see if it turns out to be a favorable one.


UPDATE: It is official. RSL put out the press release this afternoon. I've not found an official source for the salary numbers, but one source that has been reliable so far says that it is under 100K a year, which is less than we paid Matias Matilla, so I think that is not overspending for Clint.

"Meat" the Team Day

Meet the team day at Snowbird. Good bratwursts, good time. This was way better than the solitary half-slice of cold, plain cheese, Little Ceasar's pizza that was served at the ticket day event. Real is starting to treat the Royal club how they deserve to be treated. It almost makes up for the flippin' stupid game we're going to have to endure on September 3. I'd rather see the Frosted Flakes mascot, Tony the Tiger play Real than the Mexican 'Tigres'.


As far as Mathis coming back, I think it could work. If he and Kries are as good of friends as has been said, he could fit in with the team. That being said, he better not show any signs of disrupting the balance we've found with team chemistry. Last thing we need is a winer in the locker room to mess things up.

Tigres

Sucks. Another Mexican team is coming to town. Another sucky game will be played at Rice Eccles on September 3rd. I'm really excited about this one.

Clint Mathis return?

This will be a quick post. I've known for a couple of weeks that Clint Mathis has been hanging around the team and playing in some reserve games. But today, James Edwards of the Deseret News suggested on his blog that Mathis may be trying to work out a return to RSL. I am all for it with one stipulation: we can't pay his ace 500 grr like we used to. He needs to earn his way by scoring some goals. Whenever he is motivated and playing hard, he is potentially a bad ace. But last time he was on RSL, he never played hard. Every game of 2005 I was in the stands yelling for Clint to do something sweet, and the only thing I can remember him doing was scoring a worm-burner free kick from 40+ yards out. He would yell at the refs the rest of the time. But my opinion is this: he would be a good aquisition. He is friends with Coach Kries which would help with the motivation. He has a pretty good resume (besides his time here playing next to Dipsy Selowane and company). He plays up or down to the talents of his teammates, and I think he would add a lot to this team. The only thing we can't get stuck doing is paying his ace more than he's worth. But he can't get signed in Europe right now and he likes living in SLC, so we may see him settle for a reasonable contract. Anywho, what do you think of the Return of the Clint?

Rocky Mountain High

To quote (with a twist) the immortal words of the late, great John Denver, "RSL was born in the summer of it's 4th year. Coming home to a place they'd never been before. They left yesterday behind them, you might say they were born again. You might say they found the key to every door."
Real has come home to a place they've never been before. That place: First place. RSL also proved they left yesterday behind them. In an eerily familiar scenerio, Real found themselves giving up a late goal in last week's game. The RSL of yesterday would have settled for a disappointing tie, but this "born again" team would have none of it. Justice was served when Robbie Findley slide-slotted the ball into the onion bag in the 87th minute to seal the win. The better team is supposed to win, and that's what happened. Finally. Now, Real has found the key to winning at home, but the door to winning on the road remains locked and deadbolted. The coming weeks will be loaded with road games. It will be a "rocky mountain" to climb all the way to the top. Hopefully Real can ride this "high. " R.I.P. John Denver....R.I.P.

Pictures

This is the first of many pictures to come.  I'm just toying with the multi-media features of the blogger services to figure out how to best manage the multimedia features that will be coming in the future.

Slow News Day

Real Salt Lake is currently on a 18 day vacation between regular season games. Although I wish they were getting ready to play against Real Madrid this coming Saturday, it's probably a good thing to get some rest and gear up for a push into the playoffs for the last 10+ games. Apparently, everyone on the team and in the FO are gone doing things besides soccer, so there has been absolutely no news about RSL recently. However, there have been a few other MLS games going on. Here's a quick glance around the league:

LA sucks. They lost to the worst team in the league on a stoppage time goal. They are still 4 points behind us. They play Chivas next Thursday and have no chance of overtaking us before we play again.

Houston is good. They are one point behind us and they don't play again till we play them on the 16th. Whoever wins that game will have the top spot in the west.

FC Dallas are 2 points back, but don't play again for a few weeks. They've been getting tons of goals from Kenny Cooper lately.

Chivas are 5 points back and play a struggling LA team next Thursday. They also have a game against KC this Saturday, so with a win in both games they will be in first place. They've struggled lately though so that isn't likely.

Colorado is 6 points back and play Toronto on Saturday. They're not looking too hot right now.

RSL, Houston, and FC Dallas are the teams to beat right now. Hopefully we can continue the hottness into the playoffs.

Well, there's nothing else to report right now. I'll get some multimedia up on the site before the end of the week hopefully.