Real Salt Lake takes on the Houston Dynamo tonight at Rio Tinto Stadium in a battle of Western Conference powers (9pm, ESPN2).
The teams are meeting for the first time since the Dynamo posted a 2-1 victory courtesy of two Brad Davis penalty kicks back on April 1st.
Real Salt Lake comes in having won two straight matches, and will look to catch the Dynamo on points with a win tonight.
If you will be watching tonight's match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
“lucky little streak”?????
That is getting old.
With luck you make the playoff because other teams lose (thank you KC Wiz).
With lots of luck upset one team (sorry Cbus).
With a ton of luck you upset a second team (sorry Chicago).
By the time you upset a third team (bye-bye Galaxy) then you have to realize that it was skill that brought you the good luck.
No fluke…
No excuses…
RSL Champions 2010!
Period.
One thing not mentioned was the rain that had been falling throughout the day.
RSL has a huge family-based crowd and not too many parents want to bring kids to a potential rainy game.
I actually see Ching starting, possibly along side Altidore. The few games they started together during qualifying, they had good games. Especially the game against T&T when Altidore got his hat trick.
Actually, the way the Salt Lake valley is arranged it doesn’t really matter. Rio Tinto is actually probably easier to get to for most people than Rice Eccles. It’s right off the freeway and close to light rail. As for population, there’s only approximately 180,000 in Salt Lake City proper and about 100,000 in Sandy. The whole valley is basically one big city, so stadium location is not the issue. These aren’t the stereotypical suburbs where there’s a big difference in population density. The reason the attendance was only 12-13k was because it was a Thursday when kids are still in school, adults have to work the next day (the reason I wasn’t there), and it was a cool day (and week for that matter) and had just rained before the game. Considering all that, the attendance was pretty good in my eyes.
These two aren’t likely to be counted on for significant minutes in SA anyway. And I really don’t think there’s any way Findley makes the 23 anyway (this coming from and RSL fan). If Bob Bradley was counting on these two for goals in SA I’d be worried, but he’s not, so I’m not.
But RSL is not playing like they did last season, so last season was a fluke. Last season they were a crappy, scrappy, mediocre team that had a lucky little streak in their final games to get through the playoffs and win the Cup. They didn’t deserve to be fighting for the top spot, but they earned it through good form at the right time…a fluke you might say. This season they’re playing some good, creative ball and could legitimately deserve to play for the top spot.
Angry, very angry.
Now that you’ve seen two of Bradley’s strikers in this game, how do you feel?
Ching played alright, didnt get a ton of time to make an impact, but made some decent passes. Findley scored a goal, but it wasnt pretty, and he should have two or three but his finishing was very poor
I came away impressed with Cruz as well.
The reason the attendance are so low is because you cant cater your sport to the Suburbs. Suburbs and soccer stadiums=Fail. Stadiums need to be in the cities where 2,000 people live on a block not 15 people living on the blcok like it is in the suburbs.
They look good because RSL took their foot off the gas with a 3-0 lead. Houston looked horrible in the first half and the first 15 minutes of the second half. They got a bit of a boost when Ching came in for Waibel and they pushed more numbers forward
Weeknights are brutal during the school year, RSL also ends up with very late arriving crowds (heck people here are late to movies).
The supporters aren’t behind the goal because in a couple weeks they will be putting in a stage(which will stay for a couple months) and the groups chose to not have to change locations on a match by match basis.
True. I am a season ticket holder for my team.
The reason RSL’s attendance tonight ticks me off is b/c my home team (quakes) got moved to houston a few years back even though we averaged 14-15k per season, far more than showed up to Rio Tinto stadium tonight.
So I got home well after the game was over. I’m thinking I’ll just replay the match on ESPN 360. Boy was I wrong. The link on the site says ‘Watch Live’ so I click it and it just sits there. I thought it was my connection at first, but I was able to watch any of the other games via the ‘Replay’ option. I finally had enough and jumped on here to see the score and comments. I guess I wasn’t the only one with issues judging by the comments. And I thought Direct Kick had problems.
Can anyone tell me how Findley and Ching performed?
Real Salt Lake just made a statement to the rest of the league. “No last season was not a fluke! we are really this good and will again be in the MLS cup”
See you all in Toronto!!
The attendance drones are starting to get on my nerves. Look, it’s really hard to sell tickets in most markets. Believe it or not, most of the people in this country dont want to pay to watch soccer, thats why the attendance numbers are low.
I think a cool SBI poll question would be, of readers in MLS markets, how many are season ticket holders?
Is it just me or does the Houston Dynamo logo look WNBA-ish?
Game over… The Mexicans have defeated mighty Angola !!!!!!!!!!!!! They have done it!!!!!!!!
Mexico is defeating mighty Angola 1-0
Findley and Saborio should both have had hat tricks. Findley had two golden chances and Saborio nailed the post.
well, Houston played poorly until it was too late. Serioux gets the award for WORST MOTM. They get to continue their rebound pattern against DCU at home on Saturday.
cruz looks promising
agreed
Findley is rubbish.
look at that one touch ball by ching! nice
Wow, I don’t watch MLS much, but damn, Houston’s offense looks DAMN good. Give and go’s, wing use, and really quick play. Awesome stuff. How are they losing so badly?? (I came in at 65 mins).
man….if Findley had ANY touch……man….
Good point about Buddle v Findley, but I’m not sure if Buddle would have the same speed to make that run. Buddle has strength and finishing while Findley has speed. I haven’t seen much of Gomez but what I have seen, he has some speed, strength, and, most of all, is one heck of a finisher. I’m partial to Gomez right now. I’ll take finishing over speed any day, especially when talking about the Stars and Stripes.
I think I could have buried that chance.
Can’t help thinking that Edson Buddle would have buried that chance Findley just had.