The Knee Jerk: RSL vs Vancouver

To quote most Rancid songs and just about anything else written by Tim Armstrong: “Oh yeah. All right. Oh yeah. All Right.” I’ve been waiting weeks to write that reference. Weeks.

But an emphatic win and a clean sheet? No claret socks left in the washer this week. To listen to the Canadian TSN announcers over ESPN+ call it, Vancouver dominated this game and deserved a win and just got unlucky.

But that’s not what happened.

Our game; our game plan

It was not RSL’s intention to dominate possession tonight, and it worked out well. That super early goal was grand, and it gave us a chance to play the match how we wanted to play it. We let Vancouver run themselves out of this match, and we struck them with counter-attacking soccer.

We were bent on playing out of the back, moving our pieces with Vancouver’s possession, absorbing, and thrusting forward when given the chance. It worked.

Whole Team Effort

The whole team played into this one. Glad—who has been one of the strongest players for RSL over the past games—had a few uncharacteristic poor passes that could have led to Vancouver goals. Silva had a great game tonight and made up for any lack.

Not only did the starters perform admirably, but the substitutes that replaced them brought quality and competence to the field.

Kreilach is gold. Whatever we’re paying him, it isn’t enough. It would be easy to spend all night talking about what he’s doing for this team, but you can all see it. Build this team around Kreilach.

Coaching looked competent tonight. The game plan worked. The substitutes worked. The team did what was asked of them. No, we weren’t up against Bob Bradley, Bruce Arena, or Brian Schmetzer. But the coaching was competent, and that absolutely matters. A lot. Now I’m looking at RSL to build on this and gain some momentum. Please.

Overreactions

Damir Kreilach’s probably going to win the Golden Boot and the Landon Donovan Major League Soccer Player of the Year Mouthful of a Title Trophy (I think that’s it’s official name).

RSL is on a one game clean sheet and winning streak! Let’s ride this to MLS Cup, baby!

The altitude must have gotten the better of the Vancouver Whitecaps. It’s hard coming to altitude and playing with strong, professional athleticism for ninety plus minutes. What’s that? They’re not new to altitude this year? Whatever. They’re the Vancouver Whitecaps. Vancouver (and here’s to hoping they finally get to go home soon!!!).