Point/Counterpoint: Everything will be fine/we’re hosed

Everything’s going to be fine. It’s a long season!

RSL still have a lot of time to right this ship and dozens more points to earn. We’re only nine games into the season, we have a lot more matches yet to play, we have an awesome home crowd and group of supporters, and RSL’s a team with the depth to overcome our plague of injuries. It takes time for a new coach to develop his system and get the team bought-in and managing the match to his expectations.

And the days, and the days they seem like forever. But it’s not time to panic. There are some true bright spots on this team. Look at how Bofo Saucedo has been playing. There’s some serious energy and drive in that kid. Albert Rusnák beat my April 29th deadline to start making an impact on this team. I’m confident Matt VanOekel has what it takes to mind the net while Rimando gets healthy, especially if we can get some healthy defenders in front of him to support. Plus, with it being Mutton Chop May I’m certain that VanOekel sporting some chops will force dread into the hearts of opposing teams; hopefully he’ll climb on board with a killer muttonstache! You should, too. Especially the ladies if, you know, you can grow the chops and all.

And, I’ll say it again, Petke needs time. There are some obvious fitness and training issues that he has to solve. There are conceptions and perceptions that he must overcome and instill. These things do not happen overnight. They don’t happen in a span of a few weeks. It’s a cultural shift that RSL needs, a new identity as we’ve been touting for months now at the Soapbox. We owe him some patience and support.

We’re going down and there is no hope!

They’ll try to tell you that it’s all okay, but it’s not. We’ve only won two matches of nine! We’re more than a quarter through the season and we only have eight points. Eight. On that trajectory we’ll only have thirty-two points to end the season and there’s no getting into the playoffs on thirty-two points. I can’t stop staring at the tick-tock clock and wondering when this team is going to pull itself together.

Where are Plata and Yura? These guys should be bagging assists and goals left and right. Yet match after match they’re quiet and ineffective. I know, Plata has been injured and needs time to acclimate. You know that’s only just the way that it goes sometimes with strikers and goal-scorers, but this team has got to start scoring. We only have nine goals for this season and fifteen goals against. If we can’t plug the leaks in the back and start banging out goals, we’re never going to get anywhere. Yura probably just needs mutton chops.

What is wrong with our passing? Why are there so many soft turnovers? Where are our key passes in the final third? How can RSL make something out of anything if we’re not completing passes and playing with intelligent, meaningful possession? We’re lost and jumbled and disconnected. RSL needs to start putting on a pretty show, scoring goals, and winning matches. I think something is going on with another professional team in Utah. I’m not sure what, but I keep hearing things.

Trust me I’ve been there before

If you’re like me, these losses, this lack of culture and identity, it’s left you melancholy. You’re running around, you’re living a life that’s empty in the end, my friend. We love RSL. We’re here through thick and thin, through good and bad. We’re not leaving, not abandoning. But score some goals. Win some matches. Do it for me. I dedicate this Mutton Chop May to you, RSL. May my chops bring you success. May your own chops bring us all happiness and joy and excitement and tons of other really good stuff like wins and points and a Supporters’ Shield and an MLS Cup Championship and toss in the US Open Cup, too.