Eleven score and ten days ago Jason Kreis brought forth on this continent a new team, concieved in brilliance, and dedicated to the proposition that the team is the star.

Now we are engaged in a great Western war, testing whether that team, or any team so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are now gathered on a great battle-field of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those players who here gave thier lives that that team might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot concecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground.  The brave men, playing and on the bench, who stuggle here, will consecrate it far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they will do here.  It is for us the fans, rather, to be dedicated here to the chanting and singing, throwing of streamers and wearing of the Red which they who play here have thus so nobly requested.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored men we take increased devotion to that cause for which they have given the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these men shal not have trained in vain - that this team, under Kreis, shall have a new berth into the Cup - and that celebrations of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Rio.

Gem Tactics

How do you measure the heart of a champion? Those who are bold and brave enough to scratch, scrap, and claw their way to destiny? They allow others to take the spotlight, the news stories, and the praise. They crouch silently, but alertly. Then, when the stars align, they pounce with terrible fury. The final thought of a prey animal that has finally succomed to the predator must be something like, "I didn't see that coming" or maybe "Uh-oh..." Such will be the case with any team in our way. Little do they know we have secretly stalked them. Careful not to alert them to our presence. We have a unique opportunity to witness history unfold at a place where past, present, and future converge.

We played at paste
till qualified for Pearl
then left the paste
and deemed ourselves as fools
but this new Vision
and these New Hands
learned Gem Tactics
practicing Sands

Our past is behind us, the present is upon us, our future is in our hands. We just need to Take It

Put a candle in the window

"Guess I've got that old travelin' bone, 'cause this feeling won't leave me alone.  But I won't, won't be losing my way, no, no.  'Long as I can see the light."  -CCR

Last Saturday, prior to the RSL playoff debut at Rio Tinto, a group of Mexicans donning red and white stripes and bandit masks came parading down the middle of the walkway leading from State Street to the stadium.  These butts proceeded to curse (in Mexican) and yell derogitory remarks to bystandars along their way.  Oh how glorious it was to send them packing with their team down a goal in this 2 leg series.  

This coming Saturday will be opposite day.  I am my fellow loyal supporters will convrege upon the Home Depot center, and we will parade down the pathway to the enternace with quiet confidence, respectful of our hosts.  We will be noisy in the support of our team and do so in an intelligent manner.  We will not celebrate prematurely and we will leave the HDC with fond memories of a sound victory for RSL.  The home supporters will exit the HDC for the last time in 2008, not with satisfaction, but with dissapointment, a stark contrast from last weekend's home supporters' feeling as they exited Rio Tinto.  

In It To Win It

Players win games, teams win championships.  The rest of the fetchin' MLS, national media, everyone except those loyal to the Red Yellow and Blue hasn't given a thought thus far to Real Salt Lake winning the cup.  Javier Morales, arguable the biggest Bad Ace of MLS throughout the season, wasn't even in the top 3 candidates for the MVP award.  Landon Donovan, who will be sitting on his ace watching the playoffs just like I will be, got a nomination.  He obviously wasn't all that valuable to the team, cause they team didn't do squat all year.  Maybe I should get a nod at the award... I'll be just as valuable for the Galaxy this weekend as he will be.  Frank Yallop, coach of the last place San Jose Earthquakes, is up for coach of the year.  He did great coaching his team to last place in the leauge.  Jason Kries took this team, turned it upside down, and made the playoffs, but wasn't even considered for any sort of recognition of his efforts.  All that crap doesn't matter, and won't matter when RSL hoists the cup on November 23rd.  Everyone will be scratching thier heads when they realize what we, the loyal fans, have known all along... it's our time.  It all starts tomorrow.  You can't win 'em all unless you win the first.

Our Time

Necessity is the mother of invention. The ends justify the means. A wild beast doesn't like to be backed into a corner; it can be dangerous for anyone in its way. Very seldom in the game of soccer do we see a true, "win or go home" scenerio. Tomorrow, this will be the case for both teams. The word "character" comes to mind. Who has it? Who wants it? Who has loyal fans? Who has a new Rio Tinto Stadium? Who has the heart of a lion? In short, we have it, they don't.

"Goonies" - 1985
Mikey: Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket.

Goonies never say die and neither does RSL. Goonies didn't ride up Troy's bucket, and neither will Real Salt Lake.... It's OUR TIME.

Rocky Mountain Cup

On the RMC, these words are written: 

 

"Bring me men to match my mountains 

Bring me men to match my plains 

Men with empires in their purpose 

And new eras in their brains" 

-Sam Walter Foss, 1894 

That sure sounds more like a call to RSL players than to Colorado players to me. Who on Colorado's team can answer that call? Who wears a Colorado Rapids jersey with pride? Every player on RSL is a winner because they believe in the team. Every player has pride in the colors they wear. Who on Colorado's team has the leadership to match Beckerman or toughness to match Ian Joy? Who on Colorado's team wants to win more than Will Johnson, or to whom does this game mean more than it does to Thug (aka Andy Williams)? Who thinks they can compete in any athletic competition against Olave? Casey perhaps? We all remember when Olave threw Casey around like a rag doll last time these two sides met.

I don't know why I was initially so nervous for this game. The more I think about it, the more my nerves turn to anticipation for the baddest ace game ever.

Crapids Suck

The stage has been set for the biggest event in RSL history.  My emotions are swelling almost out of control.  Productivity has taken a back seat to meditation.  My thoughts and feelings about the magnitude of the upcoming contest are summed up in the words below. 

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! 

-President Thomas Whitmore (from Independance Day)

Long live RSL!

In The Air Tonight

"I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord

I've been waiting for this moment all my life, oh Lord

Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? oh Lord, oh Lord"

-Phil Collins

Can you feel it?  The stadium is open.  The playoffs have already (figuratively) begun.  FC Dallas will wish they had never have come to the Rio.

There is something in the air tonight.  The initial smell is like a fetching win by RSL.  Lets hope it doesn't turn out to be a fart..

Fetchin' Chivas

Last Saturday's game sucked. It was the epitome of the season for RSL. Chivas were getting killed most of the game, but like always, RSL couldn't score any of their 100 chances. It was fetchin' bull crap. It may be Clint Mathis that is the curse of RSL. They are 1-5-2 since the return of Mathis. I don't know what else to blame it on. Actually I have one idea...

It is hard to find solid evidence from looking at stats that support my theory, but I believe that Kenny Deuchar is the secret to RSL's success. He hasn't scored hardly any goals, but he is the secret to RSL's possession in the attacking half of the field. RSL has a problem connecting from the back 4 to the midfield. Often times, they pass the ball around in the back for a while and end up booting it up the the front. Deuchar is prolly the best in the league at directing those long balls into dangerous spots for his teammates and keeping possession of the long balls. When Deuchar is in there, they can keep sending those long balls up there and then Dr. can knock them down for Morales or Findley or whoever is close by and then they can start their attack from there. He hasn't been playing as much in these last few games that they've been losing. He needs to start. He gets into the head of defenses, causes problems for the organization of the opponents. The more he is in, the better off RSL is. And none of the forwards are consistent finishers, but Doctor Goals knows how to be a consistent finisher, so he may as well be in there. IMHO, him starting and playing most or all of the game is the missing piece from the RSL team that hasn't lost at home and the one that we saw on Saturday.

Drought

Dear faithfull readers,

I make no attempt to excuse my recent form.  School, work, social endevours, sickness can accumulate and combine against my passion for Real Salt Lake, but they can never overcome.  This blog, formerly a free-flowing fountain of information for my faithful readers, has since run dry and been left for dead.  But rest assured, ye faithfull readers, that you are not forgotten.  

And now, with this post amidst a drought of posts, there is much that could and perhaps should be said about RSL.  But alas, all I will offer is this peice of advice for RSL, followed by an ultimatum:  Beat fetchin' Chivas' aces.  You have one day.  

Dave

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.

Best in the League

It looked like it was going to be the same old story. Another game where RSL dominates everything at home and no one was going to score. Movsysian had a pretty good one-time shot off a good low cross from Kovalenko, but Sutton was there to stop it. Findley has a tap in from about 22 or 23 inches away from an open net and rockets it off the post. Beckerman took matters into his own hands with a few blasts from outside the box that sailed inches wide or stung the hands of the keeper. And we went into halftime 0-0.

But this team is too awesome these days to be leaving a game that they dominate at 0-0. Weenert, the Bad Ace of the Match from the Saprissa game, continued his nose for goal in the second half. He looked dangerous many times and after a broken corner kick he gathered in the ball in space and sent in a looping cross to the far post where Olave was waiting to direct the ball into the net. A goal and an assist from defenders. There are so many bad aces on this team that they can find goals from anyone on the pitch. A few minutes later, Weenert sent in another blistering shot from 25 yards out that certainly made Sutton sigh with relief when it missed by 2 inches. RSL continued to control the game. Toronto were lucky to get anything on our back four all game. They got lucky again to earn a free kick (which olave pretty clearly grabbed the dude's foot) and got way lucky to get it into the back of the net. In days of yore, RSL would have rolled over and died at that point, given up another goal, and lost the game. But not anymore. We fought for our lives, and stuck it to them and got our late game winner.

That brings us to the Ace Slideshows, LLC Bad Ace of the Match. The attitude and effort of the team is consistently high and it showed last night that this team has lost all resembelances of the disasterous teams of 2005-2007. Therefore, the Bad Ace of the Match goes to the entire team for last nights game. Here are a few comments for each of this week's Bad Aces:

• Rimando - Bad Ace saves, like always
• Borch - Solid Bad Ace, also has a Bad Ace fo-hawk
• Olave - Bad Ace brusier who intimidated the other team into letting him alone in front of goal so he could score his first ever goal. Probably the Baddest Bad Ace on the team.
  
• Weenert - Bad Ace defender who has taken matters into his own hands to show the offense how to play
• Joy - Bad Ace for not screwing up like he did at the first part of the season
• Robbie Russel - Bad Ace by association. He is now on a team of Bad Aces, and he made a couple of good passes to keep the title.
• Cutler - Everything from his flowing mane of hair to his hustle play screams Bad Ace
• Kovalenko - Bad Ace for keeping his turnovers under 10 for a change
• Thug (Williams) - Bad Ace for ripping Toronto's D a new one in the corner flag at the end of the game to kill out the clock.
• Becks - Grade A Bad Ace
• Morales - Quiet Bad Ace, looked like he may have been injured
• Movsysian - Thinks he is a Bad Ace, and since RSL won, we'll let him have that title for this week
• Findley - Speedy Bad Ace that can't score easy goals
• Dr. Goals - Tallest Bad Ace that can't buy a goal
• Kries and other coaches/players - Bad Aces by association

That's just what RSL need before their 18 day break. Everyone ought to be proud to be able to call themselves Bad Aces for the next 18 days.

Toronto Preview

The pressure is on. With no league games for 18 days starting tomorrow, RSL is in a must-win situation this evening. The rest of the league will be playing games for the next two weeks and RSL will have an extended break, which means a couple of the teams are bound to catch up to us. We need to put a little bit of space between us and second place so that we'll still be in good position after the break. The odds for a win tonight are working in our favor so far. Toronto is the worst team in the league on the road and RSL is the best team in the league at home. However, RSL must shake their current scoring drought before they can win anything.

Keys to victory:

1. Don't change the D. We've got a 271 minute shutout streak going right now. We need 23 more minutes to have the longest streak in the league this year. We need 90 minutes of shoutout soccer to win tonights game.
2. Score a fetching goal. Doesn't matter who or how, but someone's gotta get a goal in a regular season game. It seems like it's been 10 games since we've had one! If no one else wants one, Weenert will have to score just like he did against Saprissa last week.
3. Take advantage of Edu and Wynne being gone for the olympics. Toronto will likely have some rookies or inexperienced guys on defense, so that is where the weakness will be.

We'll see you all after the game.

Saprissa Stinks

Last night's game was kind of a waste.  It was pretty much one way traffic the first half with RSL getting all the chances.  However, there is some sort of curse on our forwards.  None of them can buy a goal if their lives depended on it.   Dr. had some good shots, all of which the goalie miraculously saved.  Findley had some easy tap ins that he squandered.  Alex Nimo was definately a bright spot as he sent in a bunch of dangerous crosses that no one could figure out what to do with.  But, not surprisingly, the game when into the half 0-0.  The second half was pretty unorganized and there wasn't much effort on RSL's part until they were backed into a corner down 2 goals to 0.  They came out in a 4-3-3 formation and kind of coasted around.  Espindola came in for about 15 minutes to start the second half and looked a little bit slower than normal, and he seems to be suffering from the same curse as everyone else.  He had an easy peasy tap in that he never got a foot to and didn't manage to score on golden opportunities.  But, after some sloppy, unorganized defense lead to two quick Saprissa goals, RSL started putting on some pressure in hopes of salvaging the game and not looking ridiculous.  It got pretty chippy at one point in the match when a couple of red cards were handed out and boos flowed from the crowd for the last 10 minutes of the game.  But RSL managed to get one goal back and only lost 2-1.  It was kind of a waste of a game, but oh well.

As for the Ace Slideshows, LLC Bad Ace of the Match, it has to go to Weenert (aka Chris Wingert) for his persistence and unwillingness to give up.  He was all over the place at the end of the game, making good runs everywhere, giving it everything to try to energize his team.  He figured since the forwards couldn't score a dang thing, he would take the game into his own hands and do everything himself.  It was his slashing run through the heart of the midfield that lead to the goal.  Hopefully the forwards were taking notes from their defender who showed them how to time their run perfectly and finish a breakaway chance one on one.   

Chicago Wrap

I'm back in Utah after a week of traveling to Wisconsin and Illinois and it is nice to be back. Unfortunately, I've got very little to report on today, because I am still digesting my Chicago experience. In summary, it was awesome. Their stadium is an awesome place. The grass and the seating layout was so much better than Rice-Eccles. There were just under 20 grr people and it was the loudest soccer match I've ever been to in my life. The game day experience was fantastic. The game was as exciting as a 0-0 tie could be and I'm blaming the fact that RSL didn't get on the score card on Robbie Findley. He should have done better with that shot that went straight at Jon Busch. But RSL was lucky not to give up a goal a few times as well, so I think that the result was a fair one.

This week's Bad Ace of the Match will go to Nick Rimando. He came up big a bunch of times and was the only reason RSL got a point.

Live from Chicago!

Well, I'm on my way to Toyota Park for the game tonight and the keys to victory tonight are pretty simple:

RSL needs to fill it's persciption for a goal from the Dr.

It's that simple. Stay tuned. I'll have more live from Chicago.

Bad Ace of the Match

First off, I would like to appoligize to all of my readers for the delay in getting this post up. I've been traveling every day since the game and haven't been able to sit down to finish this. Now to the good stuff...

The Ace Slideshows , LLC Bad Ace of the Match for the Columbus game last Saturday is Javier Morales. He set the tone for the rest of the team early with a goal and he controlled everything in the game from then on. Every touch he had was beneficial for the team. He kept the ball and didn't lose it cheaply. He was the leader and influenced every thing that hapened in that game. Everyone on the team was inspired by hos performance. He is well deserving of the title of Bad Ace.

I'll have another post about the Chicago game soon as well as a report about Toyota Park because I will be in Chicago for the game this Saturday! Untill then, let's just enjoy our position at the top of the table...we better get used to it cause we're here to stay!

Bad Ace of the Match

On behalf of the authors of The Real Awesome Fans blog, we would like to thank all of our readers for making this blog a success in it's short history. We are continually seeking to improve the quality of our blog as we learn more and more about life in the blog sphere. Today, we would like to introduce to you a new feature that we hope will carry on for years to come. After every game, we will be selecting the Ace Slideshows, LLC Bad Ace of the Match. This distinguished award will go to the player(s) that turn in an exceptional performance and are a the difference makers in a particular match. We're looking forward to providing more dynamic content on this blog starting with this feature and are excited to hear your comments on our weekly selections! Without further adieu, here is our first Ace Slideshows, LLC Bad Ace of the Match:

Alex Nimo

RSL vs Club Santos Laguna on Wednesday July 9, 2008.

Alex held his own despite his small stature and proved to be the only bright spot for RSL on an otherwise lackluster performance by the rest of his teammates. He is very deserving of this award and hopefully it will not be his last Bad Ace award in an RSL uniform. Congratulations Alex on officially becoming a Bad Ace.

We would like to thank our corporate sponsor, Ace Slideshows, LLC, for their continued support.

Another Chance at First

Tomorrow evening, Rice-Eccles could be the site of the 2nd major event in RSL history this week. The '09 All-Star Game was announced in Sandy on Wednesday morning, and RSL have yet another golden opportunity to seize control of the West by taking first place in the standings with a win against Columbus on Saturday evening. Here are the keys to getting the win, brought to you by Ace Slideshows, LLC:

• Keep up the D - Wingert (aka Weenert) will have to sit this one out, which means both Joy and Beltran will likely be getting the starting nod. They'll both have to be on top of their game to match up against the wing play of Robbie Rogers and the Crew's midfield. Olave and Borch back in the middle have been solid all year and they need to continue what they've been doing.
  
• Kovalenko needs to get sharper - He has his reputation of being an angry tasmanian devil, which is a good thing, but he's got to pull his brain out of his ace and be smarter and sharper. He has been playing like he's got frying pans on his boots and hasn't made the simple plays that he needs to be making to keep possession for our midfield.
• Score some flippin' goals - The Dr. has had ample time to come up with a diagnosis and needs to begin treatment tomorrow night. Morales, Beckerman and Thug aka Williams need to get some good service to Dr. and Dr. needs to score. Findley is in need of a goal too, but not as badly as the Dr. If the Dr. can get on the scoresheet twice by having someone finally finish off one of his sweet knockdowns in the box, that would help out greatly as well.

There you have it. Score goals and don't give up goals. Schelotto and his dreamy hairstyle need to be sent packing. Our confidence will be shot if we don't capitalize on our 4th chance to take over first place.

Kreis hates Refs

The league gave Kreis twice the suspension that they did a few weeks ago. $2000.00 instead of 1 grr, and 2 games instead of 1. I bet he doesn't even give a crap. He likes sitting up in the press box anyways. But I like the fact that he cares enough to go crazy like that. No one can ever blame him for not trying hard enough. And I agree that the refs are butts. Bad calls don't even cause a response in me anymore because they've become the norm.

"Finding Nimo" or "Laguna Beatch"

Take your pick.

The game last night was not unlike the popular Disney movie of the same name. Their Nemo is orange with white stripes. Ours is Black with white cleats. And he flippin scores goals. He overcame his proverbial "little fin" (slight stature) to score a header for our only goal of the game.

I arrived at the game knowing full-well we would be outnumbered in our own stadium. But I didn't want any chicklets, not tonight, no, gracias. It soon became apparent that RSL fans were fighting a losing battle. With perennial powerhouses Dustin Kirby and friggin David Horst holding down the backline, I knew we were in for a sound whooping. The Kirby/Horst duo combined for the first goal. Kirby with the assist and Horst putting the ball in the net. Unfortunately, it was their own net. Had Seitz been out of position, like he was the rest of the night, he might have actually had a chance to block the own goal. Reiman was the other rookie sensation that came on in the 2nd half. Sucks too. He refuses to use his left foot. Good thing he's playing left wing. Nimo was the only representative from the new guys that played good. That being said, I didn't mind seeing all those guys play last night. It was a good opportunity to get them some playing time. Heaven knows we don't want to see them in a game of any significance. It was a bit embarrassing to lose 4-1 at home, even in an exhibition game. We don't need that stain lingering on our formerly undefeated home field. Saturday needs to be a win. Not a tie. Not a "really good effort" or an "unlucky result". A win.

Alex Nimo

If there was any bright spots for RSL last night, it was Alex Nimo. He did quite well last night. He is a crafty, tough, quick player that looked more comfortable than most of the new RSL faces that were on the field last night. He had some great skills and some dangerous crosses (which RSL needs to be sending in to Dr. Goals to get him back on track) throughout the game. Even though he was by far the smallest guy on the field, he held his own physically too! Back when Freddy Adu was around, he'd fall over from the breeze if someone ran too close to him. Alex Nimo would fight for every 50/50 ball, stand his ground when people twice his size would be battling for a header... he did great. He uses his size to his advantage too. His defender lost him on the corner that he scored cause he couldn't see him! Alex has been in the 18 a few times this year for regular season games, and after a performance like last night he probably has earned an opportunity to make an appearance in a regular season MLS match.

Club Santos Laguna

Last night's game sucked. It was exactly like I was expecting it to be. RSL fans were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 and the game experiences for loyal RSL fans sucked. I've had my season tickets for about 3 years and have pretty much sat near the same season ticket holders for all 3 of those years. If the normal people would have been sitting in my section, the game would have been much more enjoyable and we would have had at least a little section of RSL fans. But that wasn't the case. When I arrived to the game about 10 minutes before 8, there were nothing but green Santos jerseys in MY section. All of the season ticket holders for RSL had green-jersey Mexican people in thier seats!! Even on my own row, in my own seat... there were Mexican fans! I couldn't believe it! We made our way to our seats and invited the intruders to move to thier own seats, as did many other season ticket holders nearby, but many Santos fans remained in my area. There were a few failed attempts to start an "Oswaldo... Oswaldo... Oswaldo... you suck!" chant for the opposing goalie, but the RSL fans were so far and few between that there was no way that that chant was going to work. The soccer itself on the field was pretty exciting. RSL's defense sucked worse than it ever has, due to the fact that we had Dustin Kirby, who sucks, playing on one of the sides and David Horst, who was scared out of his mind to be playing, in the middle of the back. The Santos subs clearly were more experienced, faster, and way more technical than RSL's subs. I have no complaints about the product on the field, but it was just a crappy gameday experience for the true RSL fan.

MLS All-Star Game '09

There is an announcement that is going to be made this morning by Dave Checketts and Gov. Huntsman at the stadium site in Sandy this morning. The event starts at 10:30. They will likely be announcing that the '09 All-Star game will be here in the new stadium. Lets hope that they get a sweet team to come in to play against.

RSL vs Santos

This Wednesday, we'll get to see a non-home game for Real up at Rice-Eccles against the reigning champs from the Mexican first division. For those of you who don't know me, I don't like Mexican teams. I don't like most Mexican soccer players. Jorge Campos was perhaps the one and only cool Mexican player. I'm not really excited to see the game Wednesday, but I'll be there in order to get my money's worth out of my season tickets. I just hope that the butt that plays goalie for Santos doesn't hurt one of our players after we score on them like he tried to do when Mexico played the US and he tried to sweep the legs of Eddie Johnson.

RSL vs Houston Reaction

Bull crap. The game was bull crap. Real Salt Lake can't buy a goal. They are the unluckiest group in the entire soccer universe. Dr. Goals is especially unlucky. They dominated the game and had the lions share of the chances for the first 80 minutes of the game and couldn't break through that dorky keeper, Pat Onstad. There was one sequence in the second half where RSL had chance after chance after chance and couldn't put it in!! You can't fault these guys for lack of effort though. All of the previous years of this franchise's history, they would roll over and die at half time or before when they were going through a frustrating time. But this team hustles and keeps creating chances even though they can't find the back of the net if their lives depended on it!

The game was an exciting one though. The fights at the end of the game were not surprizing at all. The entire game, RSL was all over the place and Houston was fouling our aces. Every clear break away or coutner that we had, some butt on Houston would come in late from behind and stop our progress. The ref handed out plenty of yellows, but never accomplished anything by giving the yellows. He never had control of the match. Then Weenert gets shoved and a little bit of chaos ensues and Weenert gets slapped with a red? It may have been alright to give a red, but where in the crap is the red for Corey Ashe? Or where is DeRosario's card? That was bull crap. And then, after showing 4 minutes of stoppage, the game ends in the 92nd minute?? Bull Shiz.

There were some bright spots of the game I thought. I'll quickly name a few of them here:

• Ian Joy did well in his return. He looked more confident and composed than any of his previous appearances and he made some really good decisions. I like Beltran's speed a little more back there, but Ian Joy clearly is more experienced and makes better choices back there.
• Olave, Borch, Rimando are awesome. The best defense in the league. There is nobody in the league that I'd trade for any of those three.
• Like I mentioned above, the effort and emotion is oozing from this team. They are much easier to cheer for despite their bad luck when you can easily see them trying as hard as they are.

Anyways, now that this post is over, we can wipe this game off the books and focus on scoring a fetching goal this Saturday against Columbus.

Borch will take the torch

Last week, Kreis gave all 4 of the available forwards a chance to put a ball in the net. None of them did it. If the soccer Gods are just, Borch will put one in the net. He always "books" it up there on corners and zooms back just as fast. He works hard. Borch has had bad luck heading the ball on the offensive end. He gets his melon on some crosses, but his faux-hawk gets in the way. He will score a goal tonight with a flying knee chop. Mark my words.

RSL vs Houston

Tomorrow evening we've got a match-up of the two second place teams in the West at Rice-Eccles Stadium. With a win, either team can take over sole possession of the top spot in the West, at least until the LA Galaxy have their game on Saturday. Just like every home game, this is a must-win situation for RSL. Here's some key points for tomorrow's game:

• No Dema Kovalenko - Cutler will probably get the nod because Stugis is still out with his fetching injury. We need Sturgis to get better ASAP. However, Cutler has not made too many mistakes, so it is not the worst thing that could happen to RSL. Remember when the "Mane Event" Kenny Cutler ripped a rocket at Joe Cannon towards the end of the San Jose game? Lets hope that's just a taste of what we'll see from the "Mane Event."
• Dr. needs a goal. So do a lot of people on the team, but Dr. is in the most need of a goal. He's only got two all year, has hit the post a dozen times, and works way too hard to not be scoring. He better get on the score sheet.
• Thug aka Andy Williams is playing well. He was the difference between the crappy team that we saw settle for shots from 30 yards away against San Jose and the bad ace team that was dangerous all night and owned the New England Revolution. He is the best player in the league on that turf field, and he needs to bring his "A" game tomorrow night.
• It's awesome nowadays that we don't have to worry about the defense sucking. Borch and Olave are bad aces, and Weenert is exactly what we need on the left back. Beltran is a good soccer player, but is kinda stupid and dribbles way too much. He's got a lot to learn. Ian Joy has had some personal problems with his family in addition to his injuries, so I'm still not sure what I think of him back there, but from what I've seen so far, Beltran is a better option. That said, I hope Ian Joy gets another shot sooner rather than later once he gets his shiz together.

There you have it. RSL has always had sweet games when they have fireworks following the game, so lets hope tomorrow is no exception! See you all there!

The Newest RSL Blog

Hello,

I'm pleased to introduce to you the newest RSL blog. There will be some commentary on everything RSL along with some multimedia that will make it's way on to this blog as time allows.