The Knee Jerk: RSL vs Seattle Sounders

It wasn’t another vomitous outing, not really, but Pablo Ruíz can’t be the only guy to show up for ninety minutes. It’s a team effort.

On that team effort note, I just don’t think Sam Johnson should play for RSL anymore. It’s time to offload the dead weight. Not only was he not dangerous in attack, it looked like he was responsible for marking Gómez on that second goal. Glad probably could have done better, but that looked all Sam Johnson to me.

What I really learned tonight stems from watching the ESPN+ stream with Sounders commentary (which is incredibly unpleasant; Kasey Keller is just not my favorite at all).

With our impending restructure, we should really model ourselves off of what the Sounders have built. They’re an organization that spends in the right places, but also inspires loyalty from their players and staff. It’s an organization they love.

Their head coach and two of three assistant coaches are all former Sounders players: Brian Schmetzer, Djimi Traore, and Gonzalo Pineda. Their commentary team also has three former Sounders: Kasey Keller, Steve Zakuani, and Brad Evans.

This is an organization that obviously values its staff. It’s an organization whose staff values it. This is how you build a club. This is how you create a franchise.

As RSL moves into a new era, this is the type of value, loyalty, and atmosphere we should strive for. They win because they are all bought in to what they’re trying to accomplish.

Overreactions

Does Brian Schmetzer have an orchestra, do you think?

According to the Sounders commentary team, it’s not a foul to wrap up an opponent’s arm, then drag him down by his shirt so long as you get the ball! That’s good news. We should teach all young players about this.

Give Ruiz a raise for that match. Maybe a car and a nice bottle of bourbon.