The Knee Jerk: RSL vs Portland

3-2 is my favorite scoreline. A bunch of goals, and a close match, what’s not to love?

Losing. Again. That’s what’s not to love.

I’m trying really hard here to keep a nice positive attitude. To pick out the good elements. This road trip—that one point out of nine—is making positivity difficult.

But there were nice things. Just not ninety minutes of nice things.

There’s our big problem right now. We need ninety full minutes of disciplined play. None of this starting out slow, then building into the game. No dropping off and getting an injection of “dammit, we need to try harder if we’re going to win.”

Give us a ninety minute performance. We’ve seen maybe one this whole season. Maybe.

Let’s not let apathy take over though, folks. It’s a struggle. Apathy wants to be in charge. RSL is in a weird place still. Will we ever get a new owner? Who’s being hard nosed about this whole sale thing? Why don’t I have a billion dollars lying around?

It’s been some years since RSL was a powerhouse club. It feels like we haven’t had a good season since 2014. We had a kind of okay season in 2019. But really, it’s been since 2014.

Does a new owner fix things?

Could a new coach fix things?

Would a new anything fix things?

No one knows.

Here’s what I think, though. RSL needs some consistency. We haven’t had that since, well, that 2014 season.

Cassar? Nice dude, lousy coach.

Petke? Started us on the tumultuous path of the past couple of years.

Freddy Juraez? Took over during the tumult, weathered the tumult, Covid-19, Beckerman and Rimando retirements. He’s a better coach than Cassar. He’s not a maelstrom of emotion like Petke. There’s no sign of racism or sexism coming from him or his coaching staff. Things just need to settle into a rhythm.

Can RSL start winning? Can RSL start winning at home, at least? We’re about have two home matches to find out.

Overreactions

That Carl’s Jr. sign in Providence Park got a yellow card. I might have gotten one, too. What about your dog? Did your dog get a yellow card?

Do more Wood and Rubin on the pitch at the same time. In fact, no more defending. Just attack. But really, more Wood and Rubin together up top. Some good old days two striker action.