RSL vs. Seattle: Player of the Match

OK, in total transparency I missed the last little bit of the match. I ended up in The Batman, thinking I would have plenty of time to watch the match. However, Mother Nature was NOT HAVING IT. My first though was, THE ORANGE BALL!!!!! YEAH!!! And no, I am not saying the player of the match was the orange ball — but we tend to do well when it shows up. And since orange is my favorite color — well, it was a great thing to see!

So, having finished The Batman (it is long, darker, grittier, and I enjoyed it), I finished watching the match. Let me just say, there was a part of me that wanted to give the nod to the crowd for the relentless boos every time Albert touched the ball. But Brian Dunseth said it best: He isn’t the type of person to care/ That says all that is needed to be said about him as a person. So, we will just let that one go. It was nice to see him get booked for a yellow a couple of minutes after the awesome Bobby Wood goal!

So many things went right on that goal, including some stellar play by Maikel Chang, and there is a part of me that just has to recognize the great midfield play by Scott Caldwell (so glad we picked him up!) and of course Tate Schmitt was playing well. So, it comes down to Zac MacMath (having 2 clean sheets in 2 weeks,) who came up big, or Bobby Wood, who scored the goal.

I am giving the nod to Bobby Wood who officially enters the books as the first player of the week in 2022. We needed to finish and capitalize on the chances we get. We did not do that in the first 45 and Wood did it brilliantly in the 46th. Yes, the team came on with a strong defensive effort — remember Seattle has loads of attacking talent — so the team deserves recognition for a great match. And once again, I thought the game plan was well thought out.

Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Bobby Wood is playing like the player we were hoping we were signing last year. Without our captain (although I thought Marcelo Silva did great,) and without some of our other offensive weapons still out with injuries or waiting to be signed (hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Anderson Julio) we needed Wood to lead the way, and he seems to be back, healthy, and hungry, and it came at the perfect time.

I tried combining the two — Batman and Bobby Wood — and no dice. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there is an RSL fan with the Twitter Handle ‘Chalupa Batman’ who did have a nice shoutout to Bobby Wood in 2021.