Two winners, six losers from RSL’s 2-1 loss to Vancouver

Winner: Damir Kreilach, I guess

Damir Kreilach scored a nice goal. He is apparently the only RSL player that can score this season. Let’s just put him at forward and give his midfield minutes to Justin Portillo or somebody. He’s the only player we have that can play the forward position, apparently. What a weird year.

Loser: Douglas Martinez

Well, I guess you don’t get to go in the winner column when you score an own goal, and tonight, he scored an own goal. It was quite a spectacular header, though. So that was cool. I guess. Aside from that, Martinez made some good runs down the flank, then he consistently recycled possession after those good runs. It was painful, and it was extremely passive. I’m ready for him to sit on the bench for a while.

Loser: Marcelo Silva

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Marcelo Silva is good for one or two absolutely awful mistakes in any given match. Tonight, he deflected a cross to an opposition player in the box. It is not the first time this has happened. It will probably not be the last time it happens, given RSL is extremely light on center backs.

Loser: Donny Toia

Let’s face it. Toia has no competition at left back. He’s not a terrible player, but I think he needs some pressure behind him. It might help. (But seriously. I’d love to see somebody else at left back, even on a rotational basis. Is that player at RSL? It sure doesn’t seem like it.)

Loser: Aaron Herrera

As our one actually good player in this match, I’m putting Herrera in this column because he deserves better. He’s consistently RSL’s best player, and the rest of the team has continuously let him down. Herrera shows up, match-in, match-out. He defends well.

Winner: Justin Portillo

As long as we’re going to be without Everton Luiz, we should continue playing Portillo. He’s a safe passer, sends in a good free kick, and is generally has made RSL better when he plays.

Loser: Corey Baird

We rested Baird. He came on and was largely without impact. He had one or two nice moments, but he didn’t change the tone, tenor or pace of the game. I would like him to have done that. I think he can do that. Of course, I think the rest of the team has to play to that, too, so maybe the whole team is that way. Which, well. Yeah.

Also — this is not the first time we’ve seen the Baird-for-Meram sub, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen the match completely fall apart after that. I don’t think that’s on Baird, necessarily, but I do think it says something about the heavy lifting Meram is doing.

Loser: Me, for watching it

I am so tired of watching RSL lose matches they could win. I was going to say that Vancouver is ultra-mega-bad, but then I saw that we’re now level on points (and points-per-game!), so. I guess I am also in this column for getting my hopes up.

I just want RSL to be fun to watch, and man, it’s been a long while.