Three things to do better after a wild night in LA

You know, for a team with nothing left to play for, LA put on one hell of a show against Real Salt Lake! See, this is why everybody thinks LA are jerks. They could have gone out there, laid down and let us romp home but noooo! They had to be professionals and care about their fans. Stupid LA....

Is this season over yet?

There’s nothing really that can be done “better” here, but Real Salt Lake looks ready for this season to end. I think the the roller coaster that is “RSL 2k17” has gone on just a little too long and when you get a 14 minute red card thanks to VAR and a 90 minutes and change goal from your club captain, well I think “King of the Soapbox” Matt Montgomery said it best:

So many tired legs out there, not in the physical sense but mentally. Having your team tank to the bottom to then surge back into the play off hunt must be a mentally torturous thing for a player, adjusting to one expectation to then have your hopes built up for it to keep coming crashing down it a lot to ask players to take on when they are as young as Real Salt Lake are at the moment. It’s showing now because instead of dominating, we’re back on receiving end of all the stats. Our possession, our passing and our accuracy has dropped quite badly over the last few games and I think any fan would look at this LA Galaxy team and quite rightly think we should have finished them off. Our fate hasn’t been sealed yet and so the guys will have to soldier on into the next game, but post season is waiting for you guys and you’ve all earned it!

Die VARd 2: Die VARder

We all like tortured puns about 90’s action movies, right? Well, probably not Marcelo Silva who last night fell victim to this years new toy in MLS, Video Assistant Referee. In the 14th minute Silva was called for DOGSO and, well, I won’t make any comment on how a ref with only 2 games under his belt as head ref got totally not bitter rivals LA vs Real Salt Lake game assigned to him, but what I will say is that this was a bad call and he should feel bad.

What can we do better, you may ask? Well, take away the bad call for a second and look at the two chances before this incident. In the 8th minute Silva loses Jamieson IV while trying to play offside while nobody else moves and 2 minutes later he gets caught ball watching while Dos Santos and Bradford move him to create a big space to exploit. A bad 6 minutes might not reflect on the kind of player Silva is, but in his debut game he gave up a PK and actually wasn’t part of the squad through injury in out back to back 4 goal games. He’s still playing a very different style and MLS has very trigger happy refs at times, it’s something a lot of players are used to but new players struggle with. Even I find it wild sometimes the number of plays called back because I’m used to the English games and with VAR giving a whole new perspective on things, I think sometimes MLS staff need to be more aware just how different Soccer and Football is.

Silva is a talent player, maybe he just needs time to grow in the style of MLS games. I think him and Glad could grow to be a strong pair. Perhaps he just needs a little extra attention to get him ready for the way MLS plays.

Boy, I’m going to get slaughtered for that one...

Rotation

When is saw Savarino was reported to be limping around on the field I panicked because I think he’s been the biggest difference maker this season, well beyond Albert Rusnak to be fair. If Rusnak is the fuel for the car that’s Real Salt Lake (and I’d debate that still too) then Savarino has been the spark that set this motor going. He’s galvanised the attacking squad and added the dimension we’ve long needed. The only missing pieces now are a target man to open the spaces for our young attack to exploit, a 3 week course to show Rusnak the difference between the frame of the goal and the back of the goal and a 4 and a half minute video montage of Plata and Mike Petke on a bonding weekend set to ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ by Thin Lizzy. Silva will likely be suspended thanks to his red card unless the MLS Disciplinary Committee decides it want’s to undermine PRO and tell them their computer got it wrong too and there are plenty of guys who are just in need of a break. I’d say perhaps it’s time to roll the dice a little with our new young signings. Let’s give Besler and Sparrow a shot in the first team. If not away at Colorado then the final home game of the season, Besler at least deserves a run out! Put Schimdt on the field for a while so the fans can thank the kid for stepping up when we needed him, give Lennon a chance to say goodbye in what may be his last RSL game. Hell, if we somehow make it to the playoffs we may even be thankful for a rested senior squad. We’ve done all we can, it’s in the hands of other at this point really.

I want it put on record here and now that I called Jamieson IV becoming a good MLS talent a while back and routinely bought him on FIFA for RSL. I also would like it put on record that David Horst can come sleep on my sofa whenever he want’s after this game. I’ve no idea how this season is going to end for RSL and I dare not place a bet because it changes minute to minute. Whatever does happen will go down history as one of the wildest seasons in our history.