To all those wishing my wife well, thank you.  The doctors still do not know what's going on, but they figured they could handle everything on an outpatient basis, so she's at least home now.  Gallstones for sure, but the rest, still a mystery. 

First, to RSL.  The biggest news is taht it looks like Clint Mathis has been resigned.  I am going to withhold judgment on this signing until we know which Clint Mathis shows up in SLC.  If it's the Clint Mathis who cares, who scored 6 goals for New York last year and when he played, looked great, in shape, fit and dangerous, I am extremely excited.  If the Cleetus of 2005 RSL shows up, worst move ever!  If Clint decides his job is to mark the referee and be nothing but a locker room poison, I hope the gets cut the next day.  If Clint, however, turns back into a good guy to have around, and puts forth an honest effort ever match, I will be happy.  As I've said before, when Mathis decides he wants to score, he's one of the rare few who can score merely by deciding he wants to.  His touch is still excellent and it will be nice to have someone who has proven they can score goals in MLS and who also can play midfield.  If he can play well with Morales, I am way excited.  If he decides he's going to be Body by Budweiser, well, what can you say, at least this time RSL didn't mortgage the franchise to sign him.  I will just be holding my breath and praying we got Clint Mathis and not Cleetus.

This weekend at Houston is a very scary match.  Houston has lately been looking like they may want to actually defend their championship again.  Ching has really been playing well.  Houston is a very good team and is very dangerous.  Also, playing in Houston, with the heat and humidity is extremely tough.  I think my biggest question will be what sort of affect will the time off have on RSL?  Will they look a bit rusty?  I think the biggest danger, tactically, is a quick score by Houston to start off the match.  I want to hope that RSL will show that they deserve to be at the top of the Western Conference table and they play accordingly.  This match will really show what RSL has this year, if they win I think they can be called legitimate contenders, if not, the improvements are nice, but there is still a long way left to go to get the team to where they need to be. 

Now to the Olympics.  I did not the like veiled political statement that was the Opening Ceremonies.  I especially did not like how Taiwan, or as they were called there, China Taipei, was not allowed to carry their flag into the stadium.  As we demonstrated last year, the communist government really does not like Taiwan and still won't admit that it's a sovereign nation.  Of course, Taiwan is careful to avoid poking too sharp a stick at their much larger neighbor, so is also careful to not make too many waves of their own.  I am at times very sad to see these beautiful venues that are in Beijing.  How many average Chinese will be allowed to use these new facilities?  The communist government of China, like the Soviets before them, views the Olympics as a political statement of the superiority of their system.  I honestly hope that this Olympics, like the Berlin Games, has a Jesse Owens figure.  Isn't it sad just how willing the IOC is to overlook certain "bad behavior" of the places they choose to host.  I guess Salt Lake City proved taht really it's about bribing the right officials to get the games in the first place.

Anyway, I am glad to see some attention paid to sports I truly love.  Must as I like soccer, wrestling, real wrestling is my true passion in sports.  One of my fondest memories is from a camp I went to in high school when Rulon Gardner, before he even became a regular on the US team, was my coach and I got to wrestle with him.  It is too bad that wrestling like so many other sports at the Olympics only gets any attention in this country every four years.  I am really interested to see what Stephen Cejudo, a 21-year-old son of Mexican immigrants, does in this Olympics.  I see in him a real potential to be a repeat Olympic champion and the next great American wrestler.  I think NBC is doing a much better job of televising this Olympics than they did soem of the others, especially 1996 in Atlanta where they tried to make a political statement about women's sports and basically ignored things like wrestling (which women now participate in) and boxing.

Now for the truly chilling events in Georgia.  Make no mistake and do not buy anything Vladimir Putin says.  This has been long in coming and was just a matter of finding the right pretext for invasion (and yes, this is a Russian invasion).  It has been very evident that Putin's long-term goal has been to reestablish Russian hegemony over countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union.  Putin does not really like people standing in his way, anyone who has spoken out against things like his renewal of the Chechnyan War has ended up dead.  Anna Politovskaya was murdered in what was supposedly a mafia assassination.  Alexandr Litvinenko, after publishing his great book Blowing up Russia was murdered with a rare radioactive poison.  The really scary part is that this time the Russians have the money and resources to really be a credible threat.

        

Been a while since I posted, but been hectic.  My wife has spent the last two nights in the hospital, so not fun.  She was in a lot a pain the other day, so took her to the ER.  She has gallstones, which is where the pain was coming from, and also her liver functions were way off.  So they admitted her.  Can't do much about the gall stones until she delivers, so just have to watch that.  The liver function though was starting to get better, but then her platelettes started to go down, they thought she was starting into HELLP syndrome, which is very bad, especially at 20 weeks.  Well, that's now starting to look up again, so probably not the HELLP stuff, which is excellent, but the doctors still have no idea what's going on.  Guess that's what happens when you practice medicine.  Maybe they need to step off the practice pitch.

I guess I will say something about the TFC match.  First half, scary how many chances RSL wasted.  Hitting the post twice is not a good thing.  So still the finishing problems that have plagued RSL for the entire history of the team.  It was good to NOT see one of our former players score on us, I don't know what I would have done if Cunningham would have put one away.  I guess he's in the doghouse in Toronto now too.  Not sure why every team he plays for seems to not really like him, but after 4 teams have stopped putting up with his shit, i would guess that it has something to do with his personality/attitude.  I think he thrives when he was in a situation like he had with RSL in 2006 where there really wasn't much to speak of as far as the rest of the team, and he could be a one-man show.  I don't have any first hand experience with his work ethic or anything, but there has to be something for him to end up in the doghouse with 4 different teams given his talent level.

The encouraging thing with the TFC match is that for once it was RSL scoring in the84th minute for the win.  The lads showed a lot of heart in pulling that one out. 

Now as for RES, glad i wasn't there for this match, seems the Orange Shirt Gestapo is stil out in force and still as dumb as ever.

        

I have little excitement for this game.  I don't want to spend the time and money to get to SLC for what will in effect be a glorified reserve game.  I completely understand why it will be a reserve game, why risk someone important to the team getting injured in the middle of the season during a meaningless friendly when you have a very meaningful game this weekend.  Really, who cares if you win every friendly when you can't win the league? 

I still don't want to go to RES either, but the next couple of games are during the week, which makes it near impossible for me to make it unless they do a late start.  We'll see what happens.

I also know this is going to be another RES security disaster.  Thankfully there aren't enough Saprissa fans here to make it into a Columbus/West Ham incident (still find it funny that 30 Hammers beat 100 Crew fans, but that's beside the point).

Security seems to think that the most loyal fans want to cause trouble all the time (China was the only time we intentionally caused a bit of an incident). Please!  They are putting locks on doors to keep honest people out and pissing off the ones who are there week in and week out spending the most on merchandise, concessions, etc... the ones who reliably fill the seats.

Meanwhile Juan Douchebago (who supports Cruz Azul) just showed up and decided to support Santos Laguna for the day (even though he normally hates them) in a moment of jingoistic pride. He's never coming back again (unless another Mexican team is playing the gringos), probably spent nothing in the stadium and he's picking fights, throwing shit on the field and no security people care about him, because a kid holding a scarf, standing and singing who's dropped a few hundred on his seats, jersey, scarf etc. could maybe possibly be a hooligan (even though there is no logical reason to think that is the case)

Stupid.

New England had a supporter group member thrown out for flipping opposing fans the bird, btw, security got the wrong guy....way to go dipshits. Started threatning other fans and actually escalated into a situation where there were multiple ejections. There were security staff taunting fans. Stupid.  Similar things happened here last year when Chivas came and all their fans tried to cause problems with RCB.  One guy was thrown out, because he got punched in the back and when he turned around to confront the problem, security threw him out because all the Chivas fans said he was the problem.  The campus police officer even mentioned he to this member that he knew that our guy wasn't responsible, but he didn't want to have to take on 40 Mexicans.

Almost makes you wonder if MLS wants an major incident the way things get handled league-wide.

        

Ok, I'm going to largely rip this off from my friend Denz, because he writes about Leo's Pride better than I do, but still, I second what he says other than the parts about winning as I never have won any of the drawings (not that I really care, it's not about whatever swag gets passed out). 

For several seasons RSL has featured a charity drawing as part of Carnival Real before all home matches. It is a great group of people who raise money for various local charities in need of funds, I have just found out that for the next several matches they will be raising money for family of James Taylor. If you are not aware of the situation, here is a brief summary:

James Taylor was the sole survivor of a medical helicopter crash in Flaggstaff, Arizona. He was a flight nurse on the helicopter transporting a patient from the Grand Canyon when it collided with another chopper taking a patient to a northern Arizona hospital on June 29th. Six people died at the scene. James was taken off life support and passed away on July 4^th.

He worked for Intermountain Health Care for 17 years. At the time of his death he worked as a registered nurse at St. Mark’s Hospital and as a flight nurse. He was a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve. He served as a physical therapist during Operation Desert Storm.

He is survived by his wife, Traci, and three young sons.

I have made it a point to stop by and donate some money before each match, and I have won my fair share of items in the drawings, in fact sitting in my cubicle at work is a great autographed T-shirt I won a couple weeks ago, it is signed 26 RSL players.

This is a great cause and I recommend that everyone stops by and donates a dollar or two, you not only will be helping a great cause, but you just might win some cool stuff as well.

This is a very worthy cause and well worth sticking a couple of dollars in to help.  Also be looking out for what they are planning in the future, as they are always helping with worthy causes.  Remember, they are at Carnival Real before home matches, so stop in, drop off a couple of dollars and help someone who needs it.

        

OK last night was an emotional roller coaster.  The one time I manage to lose my ticket stub between the gate and E38, RES staff won't let me in.  They wouldn't let in the FCB either, even though they had been assured that their tickets would be fine.  It's one thing if stadium staff check EVERYONE, but to single out one or two groups of people is nothing short of discrimination.  If I had been wearing my Juventus jersey instead of my RCB shirt, there would not have been a hassle.  Instead, I stopped at the concession stand and must have dropped my stub when I pulled out my money to pay.  Thankfully Davey from the Front Office came and straightened it out.  Davey, thank you, I owe you one.  You're ok for a Celtic fan!  Unfortunately, because of the hassle, I missed Morales' goal.  Thank god for Tivo, what a brilliant strike.  Also thanks to that and RES' staff's handling of supporter's groups I am done going to RES for anything.  My season tickets for Ute football are going to be canceled on Monday.  Singling out a a group of fans for any reason bothers me, but most of the reasons they have pointed out really bother me. 

At the Houston match, there was very few things that were thrown from E38, the majorty of items were from E36, two sections over.  What was thrown on the pitch from E38 came from at least 4 rows above us.  It really bothers me when security can even tell you that it came from someone in row 7 and they can also say that none of our people were above row 5.  When we can identify whoever threw something, we  even point them out and report them to security.  Would that not help serve to indicate who is actually responsible?  The language issue, ok fine I can understand that to a point; however, my Ute football tickets have been in E37, and during football season E38 is the MUSS, the Mighty Utah Student Section.  The MUSS is at least 3 times worse than anything RCB does, but they are not constantly harassed by the Orange Shirt Gestapo.  That bothers me, the obvious double standard here.  I know that there have been complaints about the MUSS, but what happens?  Really, nothing much.  I have a major problem with that.  They have also complained about alcohol being found in the section; ok, but don't you check bags for that sort of thing on the way in?  Besides, why punish an entire section for what one or two fans do?  I didn't like group punishments in the army, I still don't like them.  They have the ability to pinpoint whoever is really causing a problem, why don't they do that?  Either the rules apply for EVERYONE or they apply for NOBODY.  If everyone was getting their tickets checked I would not be upset, but at the same portal, those who didn't have a scarf or t-shirt were not checked.  That's like a police officer pulling someone over for the offense of not being white. 


Now for the match.  I do not understand why Nunez and Movsisyan got the start.  The team was a much better, more dangerous team with Deuchar and Findley in the game.  Most of our true scoring chances came with those two in, not before.  Yes we were up a goal, but that was not due to the play of the forwards.  As for Findley's goal, that is exactly what you get when you play to Deuchar's head.  He's a prototype of the Scottish striker and that's what he does.  Play to the strengths.  Findley's move on the keeper and the finish were highlight reel material, but with the play going to Deuchar's head and Findley making a run to play off that, that is where the goal came from.  Too often the play either doesn't go to Kenny's head or it does and nobody makes a run to capitalize on what Deuchar does.  If a striker himself can't score, it's the mark of a good striker to make it so a teammate can.  It doesn't matter WHO scores the goal, it matters that they actually score.  That said, if Kenny would have went top corner instead of low post on his wide-open shot, it would have been 3-0.  Instead, the save was made.  I was also amazed to see Kenny finally get a call, it only took getting wrestled to the ground by two Crew players to get that whistle, but hey, maybe that will finally open up some calls to go his way. 

To summarize everything:We're in first place!!!!!

        

Why can't RSL suddenly find the back of the net?  I for one amd getting really sick or moral victories.  Much as I agree with what Kreis said about the refs against Houston, two pointer I wish to make.  First, Wingert should know that any time a player retaliates, he will get caught.  It always happens that way, much as his shove was probably warranted, it was also rash and stupid and he did deserve a red card for doing it.  Second, when Kreis starts his diatribe about the refs by basically saying he knows he's going to get fined and suspended, it's robably not something that needs to be said. 

Now for the Santos game.  I really think it was a disservice to not have the first team play.   I understand with the reasoning as to why they didn't, especially since Cowlumbus is coming Saturday and that match actually means something and Santos didn't.  But if you want to get the respect of Mexican fans (which in my opinion isn't going to happen until MLS teams consistently beat Mexican teams in meaningful competition and the USMNT doesn't keep kicking the shit out of Mexico every time they play), have enough respect for their champion team to play your best lineup.  Oh and Horst, please buy yourself a one way ticket to USL 2 and never set foot on the pitch in an RSL jersey again. 

Now I'm going to talk about what's really frustrating to me: double standards.  Why is it ok for Steve Nichols to criticize the referees on national television but not for Jason Kreis?  Just doesn't seem right to me.  The league obviously knows there are problems with officiating but yet sees fit to ignore Nichols but punish Kreis.  Fine.

Now the biggest thing I have a problem with.  Why is it ok for Mexican fans to use profanity, but not ok for RCB and FCB to use profanity?  Is it because the Mexicans at the the Santos game did it in Spanish?  If that's the case, I'm going to teach the RCB Czech.  I'm just getting really sick of the orange shirt Nazis always hassling us and the FO, despite years of promises to the contrary, not doing a damned thing about what's going on.  They know the problems, they have promised to do what they can but then consistently do something completely opposite.  If they want to censor things, all that will happen is that RCB will go into double meaning things, or we will just get worse where every chant will be nothing but "fuck, fuck fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck."  They promis us that when we are in the new stadium, things will change, to be honest, I highly doubt that.  If they still can't figure out that sell 4 bonus games and then only giving 3 won't piss people off (and then telling them that because one of those games was Real Madrid that really it's like getting two games), I highly doubt the lessons that should be learned from REs will carry over either. 

        

Ok, fews good points few bad and a total WTF point with play on the pitch.  RSL looked pretty good, Olave handled Ching and between Borchers and Wingert, De Rosario was shut out too.

With the offense, I noticed that it seemed the team has become obsessed with getting that perfect shot.  There were plenty of times that a driven volley or one timer was open.  What that opens up, even if the shot isn't on target is rebounds which are a great way to catch a keeper out of position.  For example, when Beckerman had a wide open shot thanks to Findley catching Onstad off his line and out of position, instead of just shooting and putting it in, he played with it, which allowed enough time for the defense to get back and clear the ball off the line.  Drive the shot, score the goal. 

As for the crowd, I don't know what to think sometimes.  The dynamic between RCB and the FCB and add in the surrounding crowd and it's not a good thing.  I don't really know what to think, to those who were rightly offended, I apologize, too many were out of line and too many don't understand where the line is.  I can't wait until we will be the ones who have control over our section. 

Now as for Wingert's red, totally warranted because he was dumb enough to retaliate.  I just hope the league does the right thing and suspects all involved.

        

I don't know what to really think of the creamsicles coming to town.  I do think it's great that ESPN will be broadcasting and of course there should be a good crowd because of the fireworks, but Houston always seems like such an enigma to me.  The win the Cup, but yet don't seem to play terribly well through the year.  That may just be my impression, but they don't seem to just destroy their opponents like you would think they should.  The just seemt o get by and then win in the playoffs.

They have a lot of solid players, a great core to their team.  I just checked the stats and it seems the mighty Hawaiian forehead (Brian Ching) has six goals this year.  I was surprised by that, it has seemed that even though he's been playing pretty well for the US on the international level, he's sort of back-burnered MLS.  Guess not.  De Rosario as well.  DeRo can shred a defense and do some pretty amazing things, it just seems that he doesn't do that as often as he's probably capable. 

What can be said about Houston is that they have a sold defense.  They always have.  Vanilla Onstad, even if he has that hairstyle is still one of the top keepers in the league.  Their backline is solid, but maybe a step slow.  I don't know if they can both body up with Deuchar and deal with Findley's speed, but more telling than anything will be whether RSL can finish their chances or not.  Ching and DeRo, if given an open shot will both bury them.  I'm just glad they no longer have Nate Jaqua.

Houston just played a 120 minute match on Tuesday against the Charleston Battery in Open Cup play, losing on penalties.  Hopefully between the long match two days ago, travel and then the carpet and altitude of RES, RSL gets a distinct advantage and comes away with 3 points.  I am going to call this one 2-1 for RSL.

        

What happened to our midfield?  When you want to play the possession style game that RSL does, the midfield needs to keep possession.  This of course didn't happen.  RSL had some chances, but KC controlled the run of play for the most part.  It really comes down to the midfield, and for the most part, the problem as at defensive midfield.  Dema didn't do well at winning balls or keeping them.  Beckerman as well.  Williams and Morales, when they did get the ball from the back, did well with it, were creative and made some chances, but again, RSL needs to put the ball in the back of the net when given a shot.  At times, our backline looked a bit suspect this game as well, but I think that was mostly a function of the defensive mids not doing their jobs and allowing KC space in the attacking third.  Findley looked to be just watching the game, it was great to see him subbed out, but I did not understand taking Deuchar out.  I think Deuchar with Nunez would have given us a distinct advantage in the back that Movsisyan just didn't bring to the table. 

The team just looked flat coming out.  I still do not understand why they do that on the road.  KC was a very beatable team, that should have been a win, but the way RSL played, they at best deserved a draw.

As to the end of the game, how typically RSL was that finish?  I told my wife when the foul was called, which was a good call, even if it was one that the ref was not consistently making throughout the game, that KC would score.  It just sucks for Beltran, who I think did a good job getting a head to the ball, but was just unlucky in which way it went.  I have been impressed with Beltran's progress thus far this season.  He's still making rookie mistakes, but they are getting fewer and farther between. 

I also have to question the sub of Cutler for Williams, Willams was playing well, was playing offensively, and should have stayed on the field.  The sub should have been Dema, he was gassed, not playing well and an by taking out an offensive player in Williams and putting in the defensive Cutler, all you got was a failed attempt at bunker ball.  How many times will RSL get beat when they bunker at the end before they learn that it's not a good tactic? 

Now the last thing I want to touch on, that field sucks.  I can only imagine what the sight lines are like especially for those along what would normally be the first base line.  KC needs to get a real stadium, or at least try to do something with the infield and play on that end.  Instead, the only seats with any sort of proximity to the pitch are the ones right behind the goal along the third base line.  Even the empty Arrowhead is better than that garbage.  Also, it was sad to see any time someone took a step or the ball bounced, sand kicking up. 

        

It was such a wonderful experience to wake up this morning and find out that there are plenty of people who can think in the 3rd Congressional District and do not like getting constantly lied to.  It was great to see Chris Cannon lose his primary, especially after his blatant lies about Chaffetz not living in the district (he would not be even eligible to run if he didn't live there) and even after being confronted about the lies, not backing off of them.  I hope now that Cannon (the Troll) will finally go back to living under his bridge and not bother anyone again.

On a local level, I am currently (mis)represented at the Legislature by Glenn Donnelson.  He has been on the wrong side of about every issue that has come up in the Legislature from what my stances are.  For those who don't know, he's the one who, every year, presents the bill to take away in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants who would otherwise qualify for resident tuition at the state's public universities.  Thankfully, that bill has been beat down every time he's tried to present it.  For you RSL fans, Donnelson voted against the stadium bill and when I tried to contact him regarding his vote, I was told by his intern, "Mr. Donnelson doesn't feel he needs to justify his vote to you."  Well this is exactly why he is no longer going to (mis)represent me.  The best part is, he got his ass handed to him by a political newcomer.  I like Ryan Wilcox enough that, even though I'm a Democrat, I will probably vote for him in November.  New blood is exactly what we need in the state legislature.