I didn't go to the match live Saturday night, so I was able to watch it on Match Day live with a different perspective. This was a game RSL had to have all three points from. This next week they're going on the road to two of the better teams in the East, Columbus Crew and Philadelphia Union. Not to mention the 'Caps suck, and they just fired their coach, so it was certainly a winnable match at home.
Really the first 15 minutes were spent feeling people out. Most of this was RSL feeling out the 'Caps defense, trying to find the key to unlock it. They were also doing a pretty good job of being confident in their possession and passing. Right at the end of this period Jay DeMerit earned a yellow card for blowing up at the ref after he took down Fabian Espindola.
Then the shots started coming. Beckerman hit one just high in the 16th. Wingert got forward from his fullback position and bombed one in that didn't miss by much. Joe Cannon started to look worried in goal. In the 24th minute Jean Alexandre, playing up top because of RSL's injury and International Duty problems, got his first shot off, only to have it blocked.
Fear not though, fans of the Haitian Sensation. In the 32nd minute Kyle Beckerman slipped a nice ball in to Jean, and he slotted it home past Cannon for his first MLS goal, and gave RSL the 1-0 lead. The very next minute Tony Beltran got forward and smacked a shot in on Cannon, who made a great reaction save to keep it 1-0.
Vancouver woke up a little bit right before the half. Well, Camilo woke up a little bit. The Brazilian managed to get a couple of shots on target in the 41st and 45th minutes, but Rimando saved them both without much trouble. 1-0 RSL at the half.
Vancouver's manager obviously didn't like what he saw in the first half, so he made two subs at half time. One of them was 17 year old sensation Omar Salgado. He didn't do much, Borchers and Schuler handled him really well.
Things continued in much the same fashion for RSL. In the 52nd minute Beckerman had a shot the just squeaked over the bar, like just barely. Grabavoy had a couple of nice looks too, his first forcing a save of the week candidate out of Cannon in the 56th.
Despite a ton of pressure and a ton of shots, it started to look like RSL wasn't going to find that second goal, and you could feel Vancouver just waiting for that one mistake that would let them hit on the counter. Fabian Espindola had other ideas though. In the 79th minute he got one on one with Cannon after a great ball from Alexandre and scored in the bottom corner to give RSL the 2-0 lead. Huge goal for Fabi, as the Monterrey loss has been weighing on him a lot. Vancouver went on to force a couple of saves from Home Boy late, but nothing got in, and RSL held on for the 2-0 win.
I already talked about why RSL needed the three points, and they got the job done in all phases. Nice to see the clean sheet and the multi goal game. Vancouver is in trouble. Honestly, I think they need more than a new coach. They need Hassli to stay on the pitch, and they need Harris back from injury. They also need to sure up their defense, which was pretty awful.
No comments:
Post a Comment