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.