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The Pitch
Showing entries for Category: Real-Salt-Lake
Showing entries for Category: Real-Salt-Lake
Goin' to Salt Lake City...
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Salt Lake City here I come. I mean, who wouldn't? They've got a brand new stadium, and it's going to host the 2009 MLS All-Star Game. Speaking of All-Stars, the 2008 First XI -- whoopie, they get to play West Ham -- gets announced tomorrow morning. No signs of any D.C. United players.... |
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Craving something sweet after D.C. weather wreaks more havoc
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Just got back from trying to catch the U.S. Open Cup first round match between USL-2 newbie Real Maryland and USASA's Pancyprian Freedoms. NO DICE! Lightning scares people who don't want to be sued. So the match is moved to Friday at 8, again at Maryland SoccerPlex. The Monarchs will have to get Saturday's league match at Harrisburg rearranged... With that done, ponder the following for some sweet dreams: - Fred is a daddy. So sweet. - My personal affinity for Spain -- which thanks to David Villa's hat trick, thumped Russia, 4-1 -- due to my sweet semester abroad in Madrid back in the 90s. - Zlatan Ibrahimovic's super sweet strike in Sweden's 2-0 win over Greece. That was the vaunted inside-out forehand of soccer -- way harder than the tennis shot made famous by Jim Courier. - The U.S. roster for Barbados. Sweet? Only if Freddy Adu and Landon Donovan both start. And at the risk of getting in trouble and with all due respect, is Michael Bradley already untouchable? Just saying. - A shout out on Grant Wahl's blog. Sweet. |
D.C. United 4, Real Salt Lake 1: déjà vu much?
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2007: D.C. United disappoints itself in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, starts the regular season 0-3-1, changes formations, then Jaime Moreno flummoxes Brad Guzan with an audaciously chipped penalty kick in a 2-1 home win over Chivas USA, and all turns right with the world in D.C. as United wins six of its next eight games to move back atop the standings by July. 2008: D.C. United disappoints itself in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, starts the regular season 1-3-0, changes formations, then Jaime Moreno flummoxes Nick Rimando with an audaciously chipped penalty kick in a 4-1 home win over Real Salt Lake. Guess we’ll have to see what happens over the next two-plus months. Some things that jumped out: -- It took D.C. nearly 20 minutes to get Fred replaced after he banged legs with RSL’s Carey Talley in the fourth minute. Combined with Dan Stratford’s unfortunate debut in the midfield, the visitors dominated this portion of match and even longer, essentially until they fell behind. -- Speaking of Stratford – and I bring this up only because multiple people pointed it out to me during and after match – the timing of his substitution (41st minute) was less than ideal. Getting pulled before halftime in his first start is brutal on a rookie’s ego. Would five more minutes on the field really have done that much harm? At least at halftime, the substitution can be explained away easier. To be fair, DCU head coach Tom Soehn said he told Stratford to keep his head up when he pulled him off, and Rod Dyachenko made an immediate difference (more on that later). -- First penalty kick: call couldn’t have been easier. -- Second penalty kick: call couldn’t have been more questionable. It appeared that Chris Wingert tugged Luciano Emilio but outside the box. Talley’s contact looked far less egregious. -- Santino Quaranta’s goal was brilliant, but only for 13 minutes. Marcelo Gallardo’s was simply superb -- narrow angle, muchisima velocidad, so sublimely struck. Admit it, you swooned, too. Moreno gets assists on both, finishes the night with two goals and two assists. Dare you call him washed up? -- Dema Kovalenko mixed it up with Gallardo all night, drawing the sweet double-yellow in the 86th minute as the two jawed at one another. -- Dyachenko also got an assist on Quaranta’s goal. His placement alongside Clyde Simms was a revelation. Until now Dyachenko was always the playmaker (fill-in for Gallardo/Christian Gomez) or a forward. But he said he likes to play both sides of the ball, and he showed both bite and fight in the middle. More on this in print this week… Other notes: Gheorghe Muresan is tall, really stinkin’ tall. |
Craig Stouffer
The Washington Examiner's Craig Stouffer blogs about soccer.
The Washington Examiner's Craig Stouffer blogs about soccer.
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