RSL looks to add some German structure to the midfield

RSL finally loaned out Nik Besagno…a move about 15 months overdue in my book.  Fortunately, Nik may well play another 10-12 years, because RSL wasted his first 3.  I’m actually really happy for Nik, hopefully he uses this time in USL to improve his game in an environment with less pressure.  I remember talking with some front office guys in 2005, telling them Ellinger was insane to pick a player who couldn’t possibly play efferctively at D-mid for another 3 years…Unfortunately, coaching, personnel and injury constraints now make that look like 2010 at the earliest.  It was obvious in 2006 as Nik’s u-17 time dropped off and RSL started shifting him out of midfield to get use out of him that Nik wasn’t progressing quickly enough playing for RSL.  After seeing no 1st team time all year, I’m glad they have loaned him out to a team he will have more freedom to make mistakes with.

Along with the exodus of Nik, RSL has brought in Sebastian Schindzierlorz on trial before the upcoming July transfer window.  Schindzielorz hasn’t played in the Bundesliga since 2004, as near as I can tell only started 3 games for Levadiakos in Greece in the 2007-08 season.  To me it looks like a fishing expedition, but only time will tell.  What is clear is that RSL needs a real D-mid…even in their compressed center midfield.  Getting Dema forward of D-mid will only help our weakened wing play.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether you can adapt a German style of play to Kreis’ midfield strategy.  Clearly this news isn’t the news everybody was hoping for in terms of acquiring a solid striker, but D-mid has been a bane of this team’s existence for as long as they’ve been extant, and with Sturgis’ long injury layoff, RSL could certainly use the depth.  At least he’s 6′, which will make him our tallest midfielder by some margin if he works out.

I’ll see if I can’t get out to practice and see this guy for myself…if only Xango field wasn’t so ridiculously far away.  In the interim, I’ll just hope for the best on Saturday

-Heretic

Good News and bad news

This was a frustrating game…I felt this was an opportunity for RSL to show well against an organized defense.  They created more than their share of opportunities, but ultimately failed to finish well.  RSL had some great opportunities 1 v 1 and were ultimately denied.

There were some outstanding minutes of play from an RSL side on Saturday who failed to capitalize and eventually drew with KC.  On the good news side has to be our stretch of play in the first half about 25-25 minutes in…did KC even touch the ball?  On the bad side is that we failed to convert so many chances.  According to the game stats, we had 19 shots in that game…I would have guessed more.  Only 7 of those were on frame, and notably Findley’s brilliant 1 v 1 first half opportunity was not.  In fairness, Hartman made some fantastic saves in that game…unfortunately, that fact doesn’t make the former point any less frustrating.

On the good side our defense was very good…Olave was almost prescient at times, and all of this with Beltran continuously trapped upfield on a run.  I love that he’s tenacious, tireless, and always working for the victory, but he has got to learn to choose his supporting runs a little more carefully.  one or two of those times he was upfield, not involved in the play and put our defenders in a bit of a bind.

On the bad side, Kreis’ substitutions of Cordoba and Nunez were ultimately less effective than Williams and Deuchar, the players they replaced.  Nunez in fact was very nearly invisible, and as much as I continue to want to see Cordoba turn a corner, his contribution last night left a lot to be desired.  It is clear that Espindola will continue to be missed while he is injured, which may yet be some weeks from the look of it.

Our midfield performed well, and I thought Dema was quite effective playing a defensive midfield role.  With Sturgis injured, rotating Dema to DM is clearly our best option, though I like his play off the wing better.  I really hope RSL can come up with a high caliber D-mid in the off season…it would make such a difference for this team.  But then, I’ve been preaching that since they picked up Besagno in the draft…sigh.

Chivas has been something of a boogeyman at the HDC for RSL.  I could be wrong, but I can’t recall ever beating Chivas on the road, including when they were REALLY bad in 2005.  Chivas has struggled a bit off late and look a bit more mortal, experiencing some of their own injury issues.  I guess it will be something of a moral victory if neither Harris, nor Eskandarian score…after all, they haven’t scored since then.  Esky shouldn’t be much of a problem, since he’s out with his perpetual groin strain.  Also good for RSL will be that Maykel Galindo is supposed to be out due to injury as well. On the bad side, Kljestan will be back with the team which should give RSL some fits in the middle.  If RSL can start well and be a little fortunate with some of their scoring opportunities, this is definitely a game they can win, and it would be a great win to take as the first road win of the season.  Perhaps this will be the week that the team doesn’t have their dramamine switched with dopamine on the road.

-Heretic

On 2009, Supporters groups and supporters culture

As many of you know, there has been a lot of traffic on RSL forums lately about “Supporters Groups”, the “Supporters Sections”, and some heavy recruiting going on in cyberspace.  This is because conversations which were begun in 2005-2006 with an RSL front office which bears little similarity to the one which currently exists have finally come to some phase of conclusion.  I am going to give props to Bill Manning for getting personally involved in the process to achieve some workable plan from which RSL and all of RSL’s supporters groups can finally move forward on.  I’m not going to bore you with the laborious tale about how we have finally come to the place where we are today, but instead simply preface the entire issue with the fact that the Sandy Stadium (we really need a better name for this) will have a supporters section…or more precisely, at least 3.

I’m apparently unable to get the seating map image to come up here, but I’ll put the link in and you can imagine that the image is represented HERE

http://www.rslstadium.com/seats/seatingmap.pdf

The sections in question are sections 8-12 behind the south goal.  As it stands, RSL has allocated seats in the following sections for each of the 3 supporters groups to sell.  Sec. 8 and 9 RCB(Rogue Cavaliers Brigade)…Sec. 10 FCB(Frank Castle’s Brigade)…and Sec. 11 and 12 Loyalists.

I’m not entirely sure where to start.  I was reading some of the posts on http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=702378&page=8

and it seemed like the tenor of the conversation was starting to get a little divisive.  I don’t think people’s passion for RSL is in question here.  I can appreciate why people may or may not want to sit with supporters groups.  The main thrust of having a section in the stadium for SGs is to have a place where the kinds of antics SG’s are prone to are not just tolerated begrudgingly, but acceptable and encouraged.  My heart goes out to every family who has unknowingly bought tickets in or near the RCB, thinking they’d have great seats to quietly enjoy the game, only to discover 15 minutes before the game that they were likely not going to hear anything but screaming chanting and singing for the next 90 min.  The MO of American soccer fans has not yet reached the same level of fan participation which exists elsewhere in the world.  I remember as a young 11-year old watching the US nats play Cruz Azul at UNM stadium in Albuquerque.  Cruz Azul was represented by a small hardcore following with a few drums and the US was represented largely by kids and their parents.  I remember my mom telling me it was unsportsmanlike to join in when the stadium took over a Cruz Azul song turning it into a USA chant.  This attitude about stadium etiquette is something which stuck with me for a long time and the attitude is really prevalent in America today.  Having a supporters section will solve some of the immediate unpleasant interactions, but it does mean that the supporters groups will need to gather like people to their cause and actively recruit people to stand with them in 2009 and on.  Having the SGs separated from the rest of the fans will mean people who just happened come to hang out with one SG or another for the atmosphere will be need to make a more active choice to do so by buying tickets in the supporters section.

Prolific and Plake are making a huge effort to actively recruit season ticket holders to the South End because they understand how many seats need to be filled, and the burden this agreement places on all the supporters groups.  I personally feel like there are SGs outside of the RCB, FCB and loyalists in the stadium who didn’t get represented in the SG meeting (SLElite, among others), and would like to find a place for all groups who want to be in that section.  I’d also obviously like to grow the RCB in the south end, and I hope to see the Loyalists and FCB also reach some critical mass.  More voices, more approaches, more minds coming up with songs and stadium wit is what we’re all really after in any form that takes.  Of course there will be individual groups who have a different approach than others.  That’s part of what makes the environment exciting to be around…but the masses of voices and drums and pipes and instrumentation capable at any moment of coming together en masse is the potential driving force in the stadium that we’re all after.  There are many different visions in a group of supporters 3000 strong, but together they have a life of their own.  For anybody who’s never experienced the phenomenon, I highly recommend it.

Come be part of the experience…

-Heretic

Toulon!!!

As I sat at the pub last night, soaking my ego in Guinness after playing a miserable match earlier that evening, I noticed a game on the tube that featured a US side I barely recognized playing against Turkey…As I often find myself watching archived games, I didn’t give it much thought as I watched the US go down 1, then 2 goals in the first half, with some very disorganized play in midfield and a painfully bad read by some young keeper I didn’t recognize.  Surprisingly, it was the multiple replays of this second goal which finally clued me in.  I kept looking at how tall the US keeper was, and it occurred to me it looked a lot like Dominic Cervi…the keepeer that Chicago drafted but couldn’t come to contract terms with.  Holy Crap! it’s the U-23’s in Toulon!!!  I exclaimed to the bartender who started to eye me as a more significant threat to his peaceful Wednesday night scene.  The US finally pulled one back after the half on a goal from Eric Brunner assisted by Kamani Hill.  If you don’t recognize Brunner’s name, don’t feel bad…He played central defense for Ohio State, and currently plays for…ummm Miami FC (USL first Div) I think.  According to the ussoccer.com roster, he’s currently “out of contract”.  He was drafted by NY, but didn’t make their roster, and I remember reading a bullet the other day about how he was playing for Miami FC.  However, a quick perusal of their roster didn’t show his name, so he must have been signed very recently.

The US looked pretty lackluster out there for most of the match, though Ochoa’s 72nd minute goal was fun to see, and dropped their first game of the tournament 3-2.

Tournament groups are as follows

Group A

Japan

Netherlands

France

Chile

Group B

Turkey

US

Italy

Ivory Coast

The US play their next game on Friday against the Ivory Coast at 10:30 MST, and play their final opening round game on Sunday against Italy at 10am.

Other results from the first round included Chile’s 5-3 drubbing of France, Italy shut out the Ivory Coast 2-0, and Japan surprised the Netherlands 1-0.