Well it will be a busy few weeks for RSL fans and players, first up in Saturday's huge match against the LA Galaxy.
Did you know that RSL has done rather well against LA the last couple year:
- 3/26/2011 RSL 4 - LA 1 Rio Tinto
- 6/09/2010 RSL 1 - LA 0 Rio Tinto
- 4/17/2010 LA 2 - RSL 1 Home Depot Center
- 11/22/2009 RSL 1 - LA 1 RSL wins MLS Cup on PK's Qwest Field, Seattle WA
- 6/13/2009 RSL 2 - LA 0 Home Depot Center
- 5/06/2009 RSL 2 - LA 2 Rio Tinto
Yes in the last 3 seasons we have only lost to LA once. Now we know that RSL will be without Kyle Beckerman for at least the LA match, but yesterday he was called in the USMNT Camp for the upcoming friendlies in October. Kyle released the following statement about both:
"As always, being called up to the U.S. National Team is a great honor; I'm very much looking forward to working with Coach Klinsmann and his staff once again," said Real Salt Lake Captain Kyle Beckerman, a 12-year MLS veteran who incurred just his second red card in 269 career games (and his first in 121 RSL matches) in last night's home loss to Chicago. "Unfortunately, I'll be leaving my team on a sour note after my actions in Wednesday's game. I'm very sorry to my teammates and fans across Major League Soccer for losing my composure in the game against the Fire, it was very uncharacteristic of me. While I take full responsibility for the red card, I look forward to moving on for both my club and my country."
Kyle Beckerman
On the USMNT front, I know that RSL could be without a number of players for their Thursday match at Vancouver, but I was told this morning that Nick Rimando will remain with RSL for that match and report to US camp after that match. In that match we will also be without Will Johnson (Canada), Jean Alexandre (Haiti), Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica), Arturo Alvarez (El Salvarod), and Kyle Beckerman (USA). We will also still be without Nelson Gonzalez, Tony Beltran, and Kyle Reynish who are all still dealing with injuries
So Vancouver instead of facing RSL back on July 16th, we will face them with 5 of our likely starting lineup from the original match gone on national team duty or out injured. They sure got the better end of the Vancouver version of "waterpitch".
OK, my RSL vs LA match preview will be up later tonight, we are still waiting to hear from MLS on any additional punishment for Kyle's headbutt on Wednesday, so until then.
OFF MY SOAPBOX