First step to Champions League Title
by Milo S on Aug 18, 2010 8:23 PM MDT
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Here are the starting line-ups for the CONCACAF Champions League Group A Stage game between Real Salt Lake and Arabe Unido.
Real Salt Lake (MLS Cup 2009 Champions)
Starters:
Nick Riimando, Robbie Russell, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert, Andy Williams, Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Will Johnson, Robbie Findley, Alvaro Saborio
Bench:
Kyle Reynish, Jean Alexandre, Tony Beltran, Pablo Campos, Fabian Espindola, Nelson Gonzalez, Ned Grabavoy
Jason Kreis - Coach
Arabe Unido (2009/10 Panamanian Champions)
Starters:
Jose Calderon, Nahil Carroll, Rolan De La Cruz, Eric Davis, Armando Cooper, Luis Jaramillo, Andres Santamaria, Fidel Caesar, Mario Sergio Angulo, Jose Justavino, Victor Mendieta
Bench:
Jose Marin, Reynaldo Anderson, Pual Roderick, Manuel Mosquera, Ismael Menal, Publio Rodriguez, Oscar Londono
Richard Parra - Coach
Defending MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake faces Panamanian titlist Arabe Unido tonight in the first of six Group A games in the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League slate, the fourth of RSL's 14-game, 56-day odyssey between August 7 and October 2. During this run, RSL is 1-0-2 so far in MLS play.
RSL has dropped just one of its last 16 MLS games going 10-1-5 and outscoring opponents 29-8 since May 1, the lone loss coming at Dallas on July 17.
While RSL has posted a 7-4-3 mark against visiting International teams, outscoring them 19-16, this is the first time in the team's 6-year history that more than pride (money, hardware, tec.) is on the line.
On to the game...
At '15 mark...
RSL's Johnson had two (2) great shots on goal at the '11 mark. A lot of aggressive action by RSL in the first 15 minutes. But on a counter attack Arabe Unido's Cooper scores on a deflection off of defender Borchers at the '16 mark, which places the Panamanian Champions up 1-0.
more after the jump:
At '30 mark...
The game is starting to get very aggressive and it seems like RSL is starting to press too much since going down 0-1. They need to just clam down and relax, there is still a lot of time left in the game. A 50-50 play for the ball and a Arabe Unido player was given a Red Card; in which the official thought that Beckerman was what seemed to be high cleated on a slide tackle.
At '45 mark...
Arabe Unido will play a man down for the remainder fo the match due to what the official thought was a high cleat from a Panamanian player on a slide tackle into RSL's Captain, Beckerman. Arabe Unido substitutes at '32 mark, Defender Anderson for Midfielder Jaramillo. It seems Coach Parra is going to play a containment defense on RSL now due to the man down and having a 1-0 lead. At '39 mark, Chris Wingert had a great shot go high over the crossbar off a set piece from 30 meters. RSL's Saborio bangs a header off the right post at '43 mark. At '45 mark, Saborio scores an equalizer with a header into the bottom left side of goal. That brings the score to 1-1.
At half...
What can I say, RSL finally starting playing like RSL knows how to play in the last five minutes before half. Up a man b/c of the Red Card by Carroll at the '27 mark. RSL needed to be as aggressive as ever trying to get an equalizer before half. They finally found the back of the net with Saborio scoring the equalizer with an assist from Defender Chris Wingert at the '45 mark.
Now let's see who Coach Kreis brings in as subs in the second half to allow our starters to have some fresh legs for their next CONCACAF match against the formidable foe from Mexico, Cruz Azul.
What can I say, RSL finally starting playing like RSL knows how to play in the last five minutes before half. Up a man b/c of the Red Card by Carroll at the '27 mark. RSL needed to be as aggressive as ever trying to get an equalizer before half. They finally found the back of the net with Saborio scoring the equalizer with an assist from Defender Chris Wingert at the '45 mark.
Now let's see who Coach Kreis brings in as subs in the second half to allow our starters to have some fresh legs for their next CONCACAF match against the formidable foe from Mexico City, Cruz Azul.
At '60 mark..
Coach Kreis brings in Espindola for Findley to start the 2nd half. Seems like the Panamanian team is running out of gas at this high altitude. That was one of the focal points of Arabe Unido coming to Salt Lake City since they play at sea level. RSL is trying to get some fresh legs out there. At '58 mark, Gonzalez comes in for Johnson. The AU goalie goes down on a hard play in the box at '59 mark.
At '75 mark...
Yellow Card was given to Williams at '64 mark. Yellow Cards are flying in this game. The Canuck officials will not let this game get out of control. AU's GK, Calderon gets a Yellow Card for continuing to run his mouth at the official for (what he thought was) a flagrant foul by Saborio as he and AU's GK met each other in the air on a potential lead goal. Grabavoy comes in for Russell at '74 mark.
At '90 mark...
As Captain of this team, Beckerman needs to take over and command this team to spread out and run the man down Panamanians to death. RSL needs to quit bunching up in the middle of the field and spread it out. Espindola gives up the angle on a shot on goal, he should have shot the ball two steps earlier and he would probably have scored at '82 mark. The Panamanians are pulling out all the stops in the final minutes of this game. Beckerman scores but the officials call him offsides and the goal is nullified. The Panamanians have had four (4) ballers carried off on stretchers to then get u pand run back on the field like nothing happened to them. There has been so much carnage (sarcasm) in the 2nd half that the officials gave this game eight (8) minutes of stoppage time. In stoppage time, an AU defender knocks an RSL player down and Saborio scores on a penalty kick in stoppage to take a 2-1 lead. Santamaria gets his 2nd Yellow Card in a two (2) minute span to make it a Red Card and give RSL a two-man advantage. RSL needs to try and get an additional goal in the remaining minutes to get the goal advantage if needed. Wingert picks up a Yellow Card.
Ending thoughts...
Wow! Just plain wow! I have never in my life seen so many players be carried off the field on a stretcher to then jump up and say they were okay and want to come back in the game. What I have understood the stretcher was for is for a near death experience on the pitch, not to just be carried off and then come back in the game.
It seems with all the Panamanians being carried off on stretchers and Yellow Cards thrown, the officials lost total control of the game. I am happy that RSL came out of this game with three (3) points, I am still not satisfied by their play throughout this game. RSL has such an aggressive goal scoring mentality, you would think that they would have come out more aggressive. Especially, with AU playing a man down nearly 70 minutes of the game.
I am happy with Saborio scoring our two (2) goals in this game, while still displaying why I think he is one of the best strikers in the MLS. We got very lucky that AU defender knocked down our RSL player in the box, so Sabo could have an opportunity to give us the goal we needed to win the match on his converted Penalty Kick.
I do think Kyle Beckerman needed to calm down the team and get them to spread out more and not bunch so much in the middle of the field. RSL had such an advantage because of the altitude and extra man that we should have ran them to death in that 2nd half and that would have opened up a few more lanes to try and score more goals.
To the best of my knowledge (without going back and researching), this is the first win for RSL this year where we came from behind to defeat our opponent. We came back and tied up the game against Seattle at home earlier in the year.
This win gives us a 21-game unbeaten home streak dating back to May 2009. This is the 2nd longest streak in MLS history and we are only one game from tying Columbus' mark of 22 straight.
We need to come back next Wednesday and be ready to face our second foe in the CONCACAF Group A, when we face a very, very tough Mexican squad, Cruz Azul.
I'm officially off my soapbox for the night.
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Attendance
According to the match notes on the CONCACAF website, this match drew only 10,000 fans. I’m curious how hard RSL tried to market this. Did season ticket holders have to buy these tickets separately (like Sounders FC is doing)? While I hope that wasn’t the case (since RSL knew last year that they’d have 3 CCL games this season), that’s the only explanation I can think of for drawing only 59% of their average home attendance (16,755). Mid-week scheduling might have had something to do with it as well, but the LA Galaxy game was midweek (June 9) and that drew 19,513. Help me understand these numbers.
it was part of the season ticket package
This is a small market, it is a week before school starts for most kids, and there were thunderstorms in the area this evening and while they didn’t affect the match a look at the radar or forecast would have scared some people away.
RSL actually did $15 tickets for everything but the club seats for the match, but unless people are soccer fans that know about Champions League soccer, this match would have had zero appeal. You have to remember that Seattle is 4-5 times larger than Salt Lake City, even Columbus draws from an area double what RSL does. I do think the midweek matches are always tough in this market as there are a number of church activities going on as well, but tonight I would point to the start of school and the potential for bad weather.
Seattle isn't doing that great on CCL attendance either
That interesting. So I wonder how many RSL season ticket holders actually didn’t care enough to use the tickets they’d already paid for. How many season ticket hoders does RSL have? More than 10,000?
In raw numers maybe Seattle’s numbers are higher, but if you look at percentages, Seattle only got 49% of their average attendance out to the preliminary match. The reason everyone’s using for the dropoff is that the tickets were not part of the season ticket package (which I think has some merit). Hopefully the numbers will be higher in group play.
Toronto hasn’t sold out either of their two CCL matches yet (they sell out every league match), but at least they drew about 85% of their season average.
I guess I am just hoping for a lot from Seattle, Toronto and RSL with their CCL attendance. Columbus has proven that their attendance will suck regardless of whether they win the MLS Cup, the Supporters Sheild, or whatever. But Seattle, Toronto, and RSL are new blood in the CCL, new markets, new fans. I want to see MLS taking CCL more seriously, but in order for that to happen, the fans need to take it more seriously.
Seattle, Toronto, and RSL are indeed drawing way more than DC, New York, and Houston did last season, so this is a step forward in that regard. Hopefully we’ll see as many MLS teams advance from the group stage as possible. So far MLS teams are 3-0 in group play.
Another question… I’m curious if the RSL owners have given any indication as to whether being involved in the CCL has helped or hurt their pursuite of profitablity? It’s obviously too early to tell, so this may have to be a question for a future interview.
It is a tough sell
With the league usually putting so little into the tournament it doesn’t surprise me much that attendance and teams struggle. RSL has about 7-8,000 season ticket holders, but I have to imagine a number of them probably forgot it was even part of their package and will end up using those tickets as part of their trade in.
Salt Lake really is a tough market for midweek matches, between the church stuff and just the difficulty of dealing with midweek life stuffs, attendance almost always low but when it is matches that many people don’t understand or know the opponent it is even harder. I do think the matches being on TV at the same time as the UEFA Champions League is underway helps explain it to soccer fans, non-soccer fans are still a bit confused about it.
I haven’t talked to anyone about the impact of the tournament on profitability yet, but I would think it probably won’t make much of an impact unless you get far enough into it to make some money. Since they don’t have to pay the costs of the teams coming in, but do pay their own travel, I can see it ending up a wash.
MLS' Fault
I blame the league. They have no been pushing the CCL at all. This blog had a great write up on it.
As far as locally and the team, I thought the marketing was decent. There have been numerous local articles in both newspapers. There is a huge billboard on I-15. I guess I was wrong as despite these efforts it is surprising how many fans still don’t understand the CCL. I talked to a fellow season-ticket holder on Monday and he didn’t even know about the game, even though it says CCL tickets in the season ticket package. There have also been many emails to season ticket holders.
At any rate, there are 2 more games in the group for this to be figured out.
by Nussdorfer AC on Aug 19, 2010 7:52 AM MDT up reply actions
Fans need educated!
I agree…in a sense with all three of you.
Is very difficult to get people here during the week b/c of other activities that are going on. The city is very, very family oriented and during the week there are lots of functions for the people/fan’s kids are doing. So, it is hard for people to place their butts in the seats.
I have not been a soccer fan for a very long time. Actually, I have just gotten crazy about soccer over the last three to four years and even i didn’t know what the CONCACAF or the Champions League was until this past year.
And all my friends and people I have talked to these past two weeks had no idea what I was talking about and that was from two Season Ticket Holders too.
There was a fantastic pamphlet up in the press box last night that should have been given to damn near every person in SLC to help educate them on what is at stake in this Cup.
I talked to some friends today concerning the game last night and told them how important this Cup was and what was at stake; all of them stated that they would have loved to have gone if they knew the premise of the match.
Milo S
Agreed.
I feel the same way. I was shocked when the season ticket holder didn’t know what the tournament was. I’m assuming that’s why so many are ambivalent to it. They probably view it as another friendly. I do think the local media covered it fairly well and so maybe more of the blame could be on the fans for not spending a few minutes to learn about it. It seems like an easy concept as the structure is so similar to the Uefa CL.
by Nussdorfer AC on Aug 20, 2010 9:17 AM MDT up reply actions
I'm not sure I'd say the ref lost control of the match
I guess he did to some extent, but between having possibly limited communication with many of the players (I don’t remember seeing him speaking to the AU players much) and the sheer amount of crap that AU was pulling, I think he managed it as well as humanly possible. Once he made it clear what level of crap he was going to take and the AU players kept exceeding that, he kept the cards coming. I’ll be surprised if AU has enough players to field a team in the next game. Sheesh.
Congrats on the win! If you can get at least 7 points at home and even a couple on the road, you guys should be through.
A tough situation
It is a tough one, once they went up a goal they changed to a more defensive style, then when they went down a man and our attacks were really causing them issues, they began playing the stall game.
I think it is hard to card a player for a potential injury, but I do think at the end the ref was a bit slower in allowing players to re-enter the match after being carried off. I would say after the 3rd instance he should have pulled them to the side and said to their players and coaches “any more and players will be held off the pitch for 3 minutes anytime they require medical attention” It seems that if a player is so hurt that they need either trainers or to be carried off that it should take at least 3 minutes before they are able to rejoin the action on the pitch.
If they try those tactics again, I can see an equal number of yellow and red cards which would really cause them some issues. TFC will get to face them without at least 2 players as that was the number of reds.
I was truly embarrassed to have friends at the game as it was such a poor showing of what as RSL head coach Jason Kreis said after the match “everything that is wrong with the game”.
Yeah, but...
although it may be difficult to card for injury, this is where the 4th official needs to earn his money and see how the guys jump off the stretcher to get back in and either keep them out (following Kreis’ idea as well as some fans) for a longer period of time, or speak with the head official to give the player a card if it happens again. This way the head official doesn’t need to keep track. It’s the same ploy as others use to stall the game which has been deemed card worthy.
by Nussdorfer AC on Aug 19, 2010 7:56 AM MDT up reply actions
He lost control of the game.
The official was making questionable and inconsistent calls which often resulted in the stretcher being called out. Luckily, RSL was benefited by two major calls and it saved the game (although RSL did have a goal called back and I couldn’t see what the call was).
However, the sign that the official lost control of the game was that every time he saw a AU player down he immediately called for the stretcher. He knew what they were doing and he was unwilling to regain control of what was happening. It was a shameful display and AU deserved to lose.
by Nussdorfer AC on Aug 19, 2010 7:59 AM MDT up reply actions
He called for the stretcher to save time
Each time they laid down and waited for him to stop play and go through the whole injury cycle, towards the end he got tired of it and just called for the stretcher right away, because he knew it would be two minutes of laying there, then a minute for their training staff to come out, then another couple minute until the normal call for the stretcher would take place. He simply started calling for the stretcher without even letting their medical or training staff on the pitch. I thought that was well played.
Clear up my statement
Guys-
Let me try to clear up my statement concerning the official lost control of the match. I should have been more clear and explained myself fully. Sorry, I wanted to get this out as fast as I could after the match was over so people could enjoy it before going to bed.
The official did somewhat lose control of the match but he tried his best to regain control back but those dang Panamanians just kept flopping and floppin the entire night.
I do agree with one comment that he should have started throwing Yellow Cards as much as possible. Before the night was over…AU had eight (8) anyway. It was the poorest display of legitimate futbol that I have ever experienced.
RSL could never get any momentum going throughout the match b/c of all the flopping of AU.
The next games from here on out, the officials need to talk to each other and have a game plan for something such as this again. They also need to talk to each of the coaches and say that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated or even more Yellow Cards will be thrown next time.
Milo S
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