Real Salt Lake vs. New York Red Bulls: What we learned

We’ve been shouting it around here since preseason: RSL has awesome depth. There’s no doubt about it. We had to reach deep today with all of the absences, but we went on the road, in a week of massive upheaval, to a stadium that is a fortress for RBNY, and we’re coming home with a point. Van Oekel made his MLS debut and logged his first shutout. Not bad.

Our finishing was bad, though. This poor horse is a mess and I’m a bit exhausted with continually beating on it, but we could have won this match had we finished some chances. We had them. Obvious chances. Our lack of finishing kept those extra two points from us. One point on the road isn’t bad, but three would have been a statement.

Can we talk about our defense for a spell? Again and again they’re surprising us. At this point they’re starting to carry the team. Schuler (theme song) and Maund were quite good out there. Wingert showed his experience and wisdom once again. And youth? We have a lot to be excited about and hopefully the front office will fill that glaring coaching vacancy with a tactician who has the ability to develop young talent. Our youth pipeline is stellar.

Overreactions

RSL will score again. Someday. Sometime. I’ll try to predict when. Probably next match against Minnesota, because everyone scores multiple goals against them. We have the talent, but are the tactics right? I think the right strategist as coach will put us on the right path for goals.

Brooks Lennon needs to be purchased from Liverpool. This should be his theme song. Minus the California bit. Keep him here, even if he needs to be locked in a closet when not playing or training. A comfortable closet.

Buffalo wings worked! I ate buffalo wings and, well, here we are. A point. So everyone eat buffalo wings. With bleu cheese.