RSL Soapbox Mailbag: Bobby Wood, Anderson Julio and more

It’s always weird when we play an opponent twice in quick succession (see: July 2021 — yuck), but here we are playing Minnesota United once again.

To help us prepare for this illustrious battle, let’s take a peek inside the famed RSL Soapbox Mailbag, which is really just Twitter.

This week, we’ll talk Anderson Julio, Bobby Wood, RSL and goalscoring exploits, and a bit more. Enjoy!

Ian: I hope he is able to do all the things that Joao did well while also avoiding those being the only things he does well. Joao was a big spark, but he was also very one-dimensional and it didn’t take long for the rest of MLS to figure him out. From what we’ve seen from Rubio thus far I don’t believe we need to worry about that.

Ian: We can only hope so.

Matt: I’ve watched a bunch of his highlights, and I didn’t see him take any corner kicks. Maybe he’s actually good at them? I don’t know. But he can score a very crafty goal. That’s an interesting thing to me.

Ian: There are so many options, but I think a lot of it is going to depend on the illusive center-back signing. You can’t muck with the formation too much when you’re lacking depth at the defensive core. My guess would be that Wood, Rubio Rubin, and Anderson Julio will become a rotating trio when Albert is around. When Albert is at the Euros, I can see the forward four being those three plus Damir Kreilach.

Ian: I hope so. I want to see Zac MacMath start chirping at their attacking players.

Matt: Definitely not. Sorry, Ian.

Ian: In the words of Douglas Adams;

Don’t Panic.

It’s too early in the season to panic and it’s still too ownerless in the season to panic. We might as well enjoy it what we can.

Matt: I’m with Ian here — it won’t be time to panic. That said, one home win from four matches isn’t good enough, and I think we should be critical of that fact. I’m hopeful it doesn’t come to that — but there’s definitely time to turn things around, and I don’t think we’ll need to panic.

Ian: I don’t think it was a concern. I don’t think there’s a big enough contingent of Minnesota supporters traveling to Utah this weekend to make a big deal of it. The Minnesota squad proved at the end of the earlier match that they’re a lot of bark and no bite. Just in case though, let’s hope Everton Luiz is on the bench. For some reason, everyone calms right down when he joins the fracas.

Matt: This is a hard one for me. I do think that in our best moments, we’ve been incredibly fun to watch, and that’s down to individual skill. In our worst moments — and we’ve had a few already — we’re not at all fun to watch, and it becomes a bit of a slog. I have to discount 2020 as a terribly weird season when I consider how fun we are to watch, and I’ve got to say, we’re a long way from the latter years of Jason Kreis at RSL. There’s joy in good defending.