In my normal sphere of rugby (I'm a rugby blogger, but I still love my RSL) there has been a lot of recent chatter regarding equality between men and women. Recently, U.S.A. Rugby announced that they would be giving full-time rugby 7's contracts to 15 men and 8 women. To put this all in perpective, there are only a handful of professional women in the world, while the men have many established leagues. It would seem intituitive to give the men more slots (they have a higher profile) but it is the women that have been the better performers internationally and with the Olympics coming up in a short time, the women probably have a better shot at winning a medal. So to some, only giving the women 8 slots wasn't fair, thus the controversy.

But what does this have to do with Real Salt Lake? While they don't have any kind of controversy even close to what rugby does, they do have the opportunity to follow the example of other MLS teams and form a women's side.

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Andy Williams has had a fantastic career by any account. He has made every Real Salt Lake fan proud. Personally, it was a priviledge to watch him work his magic on the pitch. Nothing gave me more pleasure than to watch Andy whip in the perfect ball. I still remember his awesome pass to Robbie Findley that capped off RSL's 6-0 against New England a few year back. Pure perfection and pure class by a great man.

This is why as RSL fans, we need to urge the front office to honour Andy Williams (and Jason Kreis for that matter) with a testimonial match. I know that idea of testimonial matches are a little outdated, but if there is anyone in the history of the club that deserves the honour, it is is Andy. The game should be played in pre-season as a warm-up. All the proceeds from the match should go to cancer research, a topic personal to Andy. The club should also televise the match and fans should be encouraged to bring signs supporting Andy.

Some of the possible participants could include Andy himself, coach Kreis, C.J. Brown, Robin Fraser, as well as his old MLS and RSL teammates. It would be a terrific way to send off an RSL original.

What's up RSL fans?

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Below is a list of the players being waived by teams. Any names stand out that you think RSL should jump after?

Complete list of waived players:

COLUMBUS  

Santiago Prim
Dejan Rusmir

DALLAS   

Edson Edward

HOUSTON   

Francisco Navas  Cobo
Evan Newton

KANSAS CITY   

Jeferson Goncalves
Scott Lorenz
Craig Rocastle
Milos Stojcev

NEW YORK   

Alex Horwath
Mychel Jones
Tyler Lassiter
Marcos Paullo
John Rooney
Theodore Schneider

NEW ENGLAND   

Alan Koger
Otto Loewy
Andrew Sousa

PHILADELPHIA   

Juan Diego Gonzalez
Thorne Holder

SALT LAKE  

Tim Melia

TORONTO  

Kyle Davies
Matthew Gold
Leandre Griffit
Javier Martina
Demitirius Omphroy
Eddy Viator
Eddy Zavarise

VANCOUVER   

Bilal Duckett
Nizar Khalfan
Alexandre Morfaw

Last night I attended the last media event of the season.  It was checkout time for the players. 

Javier Morales and how he felt about the season:  We were very close to winning the game (LA).  This team is tough it was a long year with lots of injuries and problems.  The team kept going and we gave it our best.  I credit LA for a good game and I look forward to the next one.  Being qualified for CONCACAF again is a gift and an award for the future.  We are sad about the last game and will try to improve this.

The fans were unbelievable this year, one of the best in the MLS.  That first evening I came back was unbelievable.  Thanks to everyone, without your support I would not have been able to do it.

Javi is going to spend some time in Italy with family and then go back to Argentina for a while.

more after the jump:

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Please read Denz's post about this already. I don't know how you can write so much Denz you are a magician.

It is time to worry and stress and argue about this. My list will follow the jump

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Pls do not take my poor note taking summary as quotations.  Thanks.  Here is what I got from the teleconference with Jason Kreis today:

It is not really acceptable for the #2 and #3 team to play each other in the first round but we will deal with it.  Seattle is worse off than we are as they should have been playing a wild card team and instead they have to face us.

What is the feeling in Salt Lake?  Is there much excitement and what are you expecting having the game on the same day the University of Utah has a PAC 12 game?  JK-I don’t really pay much attention to the sport scene outside of ours, but we had a game on the same day that the University played BYU and we sold out.  We have a specific base of soccer fans that support us.

more after the jump

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Tomorrow night is the 98th annual U.S. Open Cup Final.  It will be played in Seattle between Sounders FC and the Chicago Fire.  So why am I creating a fan post (my first) at RSL Soapbox?  To explain to RSL fans why they should be rooting for Seattle to take home their 3rd trophy in 3 years.

Jason Kreis recently commented on how important it was for his club to finish second in the Supporters Shield (SS) race (since RSL can no longer win the SS):

In particular it would be nice to finish second in the Supporter’s Shield race because then we give ourselves a little insurance policy to qualify for CONCACAF.

He's, of course, referring to the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) which you are all familiar with since RSL became the first MLS team to make it to the championship round of the tournament earlier this year before losing to Monterrey.  That was the 2010-11 edition of the tournament.  RSL did not qualify for the 2011-2012 edition.  Clearly Kreis wants to get another shot in the future (next year if possible).

US based MLS teams can qualify for CCL 4 different ways: (1) win the SS, (2) win the MLS Cup, (3), win the U.S. Open Cup, and (4) be the MLS Cup runner-up.  Occasionally, the same team will achieve one or more of those in the same season.  The most recent occurrence of this was in 2008 when the Columbus Crew won both the SS and the MLS Cup.  When this happens, the available spot goes to the next team in the standings after the SS winner.  As a result, in 2008, the Houston Dynamo qualified for CCL.

So why does Seattle winning the U.S. Open Cup have anything to do with this?  If Seattle wins, they'll seal their entry into 2012-13 CCL.  LA has all but clinched the SS (Seattle still has a remote chance of winning it they're perfect and LA falters repeatedly).  This means that if RSL remains in 3rd place for the SS (or passes Seattle to get 2nd), then they will qualify for CCL if either LA or Seattle make it to the MLS Cup final since both will have already qualified via other means.  Obviously if RSL makes it to the final they'll be in anyway.

I know denz has mixed opinions on CCL, stating both how proud he was of RSL making it to the final and also stating that teams who compete in the CCL group stage have poor performances in the MLS Cup playoffs. Nevertheless, RSL players, coaches, ownership, and many fans have made their desires known at various times and they want another shot at CCL.  If Seattle wins the U.S. Open Cup tomorrow night, this can only help RSL achieve that goal.

So even if it's sanctimoniousness (something I was accused of this weekend), RSL fans should root for Seattle on Tuesday.

For those of you who follow Denz’s Twitter feed, you may have noticed a call for Chris Wingert to paint or tape the cast on his left hand (an unfortunate freak injury sustained against Toronto FC earlier in the year) into a red color. Not only would this better match the Claret portion of the Claret and Cobalt, but as Denz pointed out, would give Chris the appearance of the fictional character "Hellboy" due to the appearance of a massive club for a hand.

Though the character of Hellboy has the "Right Hand of Doom" (and Chris’s cast is on his left hand) the appearance would be menacing for the defender. It would also give Chris a nickname to fit in with the duo of "Borlave." However, it would never happen, right? First of all, Wingert would need to go along with it and ask for the paint job or taping of his cast. Second, the referee (in this case, Kevin Stott) would also have to be ok with a taping of the cast. Surely the idea was a pipe dream.

After the jump: turning a dream into reality

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Entering the final quarter of the season is a bittersweet thing to me.  It's great that we are moving towards the Playoffs and the MLS Cup, but also it means that a lot of my Saturdays are losing something to look forward to each week.  The other thing that begins to happen is that we all start speculating on things such as awards and also where the teams will land in the final standings.

This is one such speculative post, but obviously with an RSL focus.  How does RSL get the Supporters Shield?

More after the jump. 

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