RSL vs LAFC: What we learned

So, um, is this what we do, then? Lose hard against brand new teams in the league? This was a pathetic performance all around. We (barely) scored off a penalty kick because Plata got lucky and the ball bounced back at him for a redo. I hope Petke pops a blood vessel all over the locker room because this performance was garbage.

Defense

We gave LAFC too much time on the ball in our defensive third. Our defense failed to track opposing players and there was a general loss of communication. We gave them too much space and too much time. When they hit us fast and hard, they left us behind sucking on our thumbs.

For those calling for Marcelo Silva to never again play after last week’s fluke own-goal, I hope you realize just how stupid you sounded. It showed that he was not on the field. We missed him.

Phillips did okay that one time today.

Midfield

The midfield was not sharp enough: passing wasn’t clean, possession wasn’t meaningful. Had we showed an ability to control how the ball flowed through the midfield and transitioned into our attacking third, this match would have looked much different. We just couldn’t transition. It was ugly.

Attack

When we had chances, we couldn’t finish. That stupid F-word coming back again. We had shots. We had shots on goal. And we were only able to put one in the net—and that was pure luck. If we’re going to hold our own, we’ve got to finish.

Crowd

The highlight of the afternoon. Without a doubt. The crowd was big, loud, on time, and raucous. It looked and sounded awesome. Consistent and continual booing of Benny Feilhaber? Yeah. Nice crowd, folks. Well done!

The goal that broke our backs

There were shouts of offside on the goal that put LAFC ahead.

Image 1) It’s very close, but I’d say Horst kept Beitashour onside.

Image 2) As you can see by the line, Blessing was absolutely onside. No complaints on that goal from me. I’m glad that the mechanism of video review that’s basically supposed to review all of the goals was able to see how clearly that line kept Blessing onside.

Finally, I really liked the DKM (that’s Dropkick Murphys, not decameter) RSL commercial. Well done, RSL communications. Well done.

Overreactions

PKs are now P Diddy Ks. You’re not allowed to call them anything else.

Did they paint the field so the brown grass looked green? LAFC players all looked like they had diarrhea.

Look! I did the GIF thing (and I pronounce it correctly, using the rules of the English language. It’s not peanut butter, folks. Not. Peanut. Butter. You don’t get to rewrite the rules of language just because you make a new image file type.)