RSL vs. Minnesota: What we learned

Holy Shuttleworth, Batman! Why do goalkeepers always seem to stand on their heads against us? Save after amazing save. It was worth watching for those saves, but I think I can only really say that because we ground out a win. And we got a, how do you say this? Khleen scheat? Klin chitt? What is that?

And on to the F word: finishing. Twenty-nine shots and nine shots on goal. A couple of years ago when we were struggling to find the net, my friend Brian used to say that he would be okay with a loss or draw so long as we actually put up double digit shots. With the way we played, I would have been okay with a loss. I’m glad I don’t have to be okay with a loss. It feels good to win. But our finishing is still lacking. We should have had three, four, five goals tonight.

But we have something to build on. I’ve been touting it the past couple of weeks despite the results. We have incredible talent on this squad. The pieces just need to fit together. There was some real beauty on the pitch tonight and it all came from RSL. Except for Shuttleworth. Man.

A couple of interesting things I noticed. First, when talking about Sunny’s injury pregame, Petke gave an eyeroll. It may be for the case of an injury after so many this season, or it may be directed specifically at Sunny. I’m not going to speculate more, but it was there. Second, Yura directed his goal celebration at Petke. He looked at his coach and put a shushing finger to his lips. I loved it. Petke acknowledged post-game that Yura gets to, and I, uh, paraphrase here, shove it in his face and tell him to shut up at training.

We looked really good tonight. There were some issues and this club still has a long hill to climb. But it’s something positive. It’s been awhile. We have San Jose next and an opportunity to take more conference points. It’s what we need. What will be really telling is how we fare against the elite Western Conference teams Portland and Sporting the week of July 16th. That’s the same week we play Manchester United, but that damn match means absolutely nothing to me at this point. The other two games that week are going to be seriously telling. We’ll know what this team really is come about 10p on July 22nd.