Real Salt Lake vs. Toronto FC - Recap

Wow, what a game. This game is another reason people should be fans of soccer. The first half was exciting, but no goals were scored. Then the second half was amazing. In the 63rd minute, Chris Wingert played a free kick right into the box. Olave lost his marker and headed the ball right into the back of the net. It was awesome. There was a huge smile on his face after he scored. Then Olave fouled a TFC player right outside of the box for a free kick in the 84th minute. The TFC player kicked it right over the wall into the top corner. It was a nice shot. All the fans went quiet because a draw was looming. As soon as play resumed, RSL put everything they had into getting another goal, and they did. Beckerman received a nice through ball and shot a rocket at Sutton. Sutton knocked it out of the 18 yard box, right to Findley who juked a defender and nailed it right back into Suttons arms, but it was too hard and it went right past Sutton into the net. The crowd went wild. It was such a great game and a true turning point for RSL. For the first time in history they have a winning record (7-6-6). This win was crucial because we now have an 18 day rest which will allow the other teams in the West to creep up the table and get more points. One other note: My wife became a true fan of RSL last night. How you ask? She lost her voice from yelling so hard AND she listened to the post game show when she didn't have to. AWESOME!

Next up: Real Salt Lake @ Houston Aug. 16

Real Salt Lake vs. Toronto FC

Tonight will be a good game for Real Salt Lake. I see us getting up early and then maintaining our lead. I think we will shut out TFC, but we know that Cunningham can score at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Toronto will be without Marice Edu and Marvell Wynne due to the Olympics, which will hurt Toronto and help us. I think our new acquisition, Robbie Russell, will see no more than 15 minutes.
Predicted Lineup for RSL
GK - Rimando
DF - Joy, Borchers, Olave, Wingert
MF - Kovalenko, Beckerman, Morales, Williams
FW - Findley, Deuchar

Subs
Russell for Joy or Wingert in 75 minute
Nunez for Findley in second half
Cutler if a midfielder needs relief

Real Salt Lake Players in the SLC

On Saturday, my wife and I went to Red Robin in Salt Lake and we saw Nick Rimando getting some food. My wife wanted me to take a picture with him, but I didn't want to bug him. The funny thing is, about a month earlier, my wife and I saw Kyle Beckerman and Chris Wingert at Cafe Rio in Salt Lake. It is cool to see the players because they are so chill and nice and aren't stuck up like other professional athletes. I have a buddy who is a huge Real fan and he said, "I guess I need to eat at restaurants in Salt Lake more often."

Real Salt Lake vs. Deportivo Saprissa - Recap

I thought it was a good game. It was fun to be there and I think RSL played really well, despite the 2-1 loss.
I thought Reynish played okay and was glad Wingert scored. Once I saw him make a run from midfield, I knew he was going to score.
I thought Nimo played really well too. He looked comfortable on the ball.
Can we get Acosta a jersey with his name on it. It's not like this is his first time in a Real jersey, put his name on the back please.
Mantilla, it's time to move on. I think with the signing of Russell, your days are numbered.
I thought we could have won this game, but oh well. I know we will be ready for Toronto.
I love how we have players are every position who can play well and I love our depth. I am not worried whenever we bring a sub off the bench, because he probably started at least a couple of games. I think Kreis and Garth have really done a great job putting the team together. I don't see why we can't win the MLS Cup, or at least get to it. As long as we remain solid at home and are able to draw on the road, we will be in the MLS Cup for sure.

Real Salt Lake vs. Deportivo Saprissa

On Wednesday, Real Salt Lake will face Deportivo Saprissa from Costa Rico at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Here is what I could dig up about Saprissa, most of my info is from Wikipedia so it could be right or wrong.

Keepers:
José Francisco Porras - Captain of the Costa Rican National Team
Fausto González - known as "El Golero Loco" for his attempts to confuse rivals during penalty shots.
Keylor Navas - Promising young player.

Defense:
Víctor Cordero - Plays for Costa Rican National Team
Gabriel Badilla - Rumored to be talking with the New England Revolution. Young player who is on the Costa Rican National Team.

Midfield:
Walter Centeno Corea - Played for AEK Athens FC who participated in the 2002 Champions League. Has 107 Caps for the Costa Rican National Team.

Forward:
Rónald Gómez - Has 83 caps and 24 goals for the Costa Rican National Team.

It seems about half of the team plays for the Costa Rica National Team. Saprissa has fans which call themselves "The Purple Ultra"
Saprissa has two major highlights, one being the fact they finished 3rd in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup behind Sao Paulo FC and Liverpool FC and the other highlight was when Saprissa became the first Latin American soccer team to travel around the world.
The team has been dubbed "The Purple Monster" by Costa Rican press.

It should be a good game for the RSL Reserves. I see Kries using a similar lineup as he did with the Santos game - a few starters start the game and most of the reserves get action.

I think if we go up 2-0 after half, Reynish will get some time in goal.

I wonder if the atmosphere in the stadium will be similar to the Santos game.

Real Salt Lake v. Chicago

I didn't get to watch the game because my dad bought a fishing boat, so we went fishing at Strawberry Reservoir. I was relieved when my phone finally got service and I got a text saying we drawed, 0-0. Judging by the recap on the RSL page, it sounded like we played an awesome game, both offensively and defensively. Since I was not there, it is hard to comment on the game, but I do have to say I love Beltran either starting at defense or being subbed in as a midfielder. I love how dynamic he can be. I also love starting the game with Yura and Nunez up top and then subbing Findley and Kenny in the second half. I think Findley plays harder when he is a sub and I don't think Yura has time to get into the game when he comes on as a sub.
When I came home from fishing, I watched the Galaxy versus Red Bulls highlights. It seemed it was a constant shot fest. I loved Donovans goal though, he is quality. I know a lot of people don't like him, but there will come a day when he does something HUGE for the U.S. and people will have to like him.
Up next for RSL: some Costa Rican team on Pioneer Day!

Real Salt Lake v. Columbus Crew - Recap

First Place....Finally.
It has been a long time coming for Real Salt Lake and I am glad it finally happened. They will need to continue to play tough, especially on the road, if they want to keep first place. I think they will make the playoffs for sure, regardless of what place they are in.
I think Rimando had a great game. I like how he thanked his defenders and gave them credit in his post-game interviews.
My new favorite player is Jamison Olave. He is unstoppable. He reminds me of Onyewu, big, fast, strong, unbeatable. I love Borchers too, him and Olave are unbeatable.
I think Joy played well, and I thought Beltran could have done a little better. I think he did an awesome job of shutting Robbie Rogers down. I really like how Joy ran to the North Goal after the game and applauded the crowd, what a class act.
The midfield played really well too. Morales free kick in the opening of the game really set the tone and didn't allow Columbus to come back. It was a welcome sight to see Stugis back. He was so solid in the first couple of games he played.
Yura and Nunez played okay. I think Nunez needs to shoot more. The decision to bring on Findley and Deuchar was amazing. I knew one of them was going to score when they came on and they both almost did. Findleys speed and Deuchars post up ability and height really make a difference, especially when they are playing against tired guys.
The decision to make Kries sit in a box and have communication almost seems like a reward, rather than a punishment. I think it would be a huge advantage to get a birds eye view of my teams formations and posistions and then tell the guys on the bench what to do.

Next Up:
RSL at Chicago Fire

Fly-Fishing

My dad called me at 5:45 on Friday and said, "we are going fishing in thirty minutes, are you coming?" I said sure so we went. My dad, my brother and my nephew went to the Weber River and I was the only one who caught a fish. It was my nephews first time fly-fishing and he said it was fun.

Chivas USA vs. L.A. Galaxy

Just a quick post.
I think the Galaxy will beat Chivas 3-2.
Also, I heard on World Soccer Daily that 4% of the Brazil GDP is from exporting soccer players. I don't know if that is true or not, but it's an interesting thought.

Real Salt Lake vs. Santos Laguna

So RSL lost 4-1 to Santos last night. I think that is an okay result. I wasn't mad or anything that we lost because it gave fans and coaches the chance to see how reserve players have progressed. With that said, here is a few brief notes and ratings for each posistion:

Goal - Chris Seitz - 7 - played pretty well. I thought he was hesitant to come off his line sometimes. Had some really good saves. The goals that went in were great shots that any keeper would have had trouble with.

Defense - 5 - Woeful. Possibly the worst defense all year. I think a combination of factors played into this one. I think they did to us what we want to do to other teams - that is play a long ball over the top to Findley and have him juke his defender to be one on one with the goalie. The own goal looked like it took a bad deflection off our player. In the second half, I couldn't tell if Wingert or Beltran was playing on the right side, it looked like they kept switching. I think we were slower than their guys so they made us pay for it. I didn't like how whenever one of our defenders got the ball, they would send it back to Seitz.

Midfield - 6 - Also Woeful. I think if we would have had better possession, we would have slowed them down. I don't remember any good or bad plays from the midfield, which is bad.

Forwards - 6 - Okay, we probably had 5 or 6 really good chances, but other than that, the forwards didn't play that well.

Overall - 5.5 - Poor performance compared to Santos. I didn't expect much though. We did get to see most of the reserves which is good and I think they played okay.

Next up - Columbus @ RSL

MLS All-Star Game 2009

So it was announced today that the new RSL Stadium in Sandy will host the 2009 MLS All-Star Game. AWESOME. It will be a great event for sure. My only question is, who will they bring in? Someone from the EPL? Most likely, but I think more fans would get involved if Inter Milan or Barcelona would come to play. I think it will sell out regardless of who comes. I think if the MLS brings in another middle of the high end EPL team (like Everton), it will get boring. They need Man U or Arsenal to come, then it would be crazy! I have faith the MLS will bring in a big name.
The 2008 All-Stars will be announced tomorrow. It will not surprise me if no RSL player gets to play because we don't have any big stars, like Beckham or Blanco, but yet we are still very close to the top of the Western Conference. It will take a few years for an RSL player to get recognized.

Web Design

So I recently have been checking out company web sites for work. I am amazed at how many sites are outdated. I laugh every time I see a site that says "copyright 2007" at the bottom. It is nice to know that site hasn't been updated since 2007. I ran across one today that was 2005. So much has happened in the past three years in the web design/development field. If you are the web master of a site, please make sure the copyright is up-to-date.
I am also wondering how much companies rely on their web sites. There is so much a company can do through their web site, but do they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to use software installed on their computers, rather than using the web to do the same thing?

Real Salt Lake

So many of you may already know that Real Salt Lake is my favorite MLS team. It is great to have an MLS team here in Salt Lake City. I think there is an interesting situation on our hands because everyone assumes RSL sucks this year, just like the past three. I will have you know they are tied for third in the West with 20 points. We have won 5, lost 6 and tied 5 times. The first place team in the West is the LA Galaxy, and they have 21 points and are tied with Chivas USA for first. Chivas and LA play on Thursday. Say they tie, and get one point each, that would leave them with 22 points total. If RSL wins on Saturday against Columbus, RSL would have 23 points and be in first place in the Western Conference. Columbus however, is the second best team in the entire MLS, (they have 27 points). We played Columbus earlier in the year in an U.S. Open Cup game. We lost 2-0, but I am not sure who exactly played for either team, it is possible many subs were placed into the starting lineup. RSL plays on Wednesday against Santos Laguna who are the Mexican Premera League Champion. It will be a good match. It is always interesting to see the demographics of the crowd when Mexican teams come to play here, or when Blanco comes to play here. Most of the time, people in the crowd are NOT cheering for RSL. Crazy. I will try to give a preview of the Columbus game if I get time.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. My other blog will provide a good update for things relating to the Tim Haslam family, and this blog will be mainly about sports, web design, etc.