Seattle Sounders Vs. Real Salt Lake: Amazing Ride Comes To Abrupt Halt

carrasco and hurtado for sure…
anyone else?

who takes our PKs now?

but why are they distributing their most inexperienced officials to some of the most important games. A few weeks ago we got to witness a whistle/foul fest in a game featuring the #2 vs #3 teams in MLS and today we had a game where the referee had way too much impact in the game with the #2 team taking on the #3 team in the league. I know these guys need to get experience somewhere but how about a steady diet of teams like Vancouver and New England?

WHAT A DISGRACE! Seeing as the red card happened right in front of my section (140) I saw absolutely no elbow then live, and the replay on MLS only confirmed that. How does the ref give a straight red for that?? Talk about poor officiating, I mean c’mon.. IF Saborio should be fined for that crap.

We didn’t play particularly well, had several gaffes, some bad officiating, and some questionable strategy, and at least one sheer fluke play (Wahl’s drive hitting their keeper in the face.).

But, in terms of a “for want of a nail…” factor, I’d say the injury to Friberg may have been the turning point of the game. First off, with Evans unavailable, the need to go with Carrasco meant a return to the “bucket” approach of last season, which I don’t think fits this team all that well. Also, if we hadn’t needed to burn a substitution early on, I think you would have seen Sigi bring on Ianni after Hurtado got sent off and gone to a 4-3-2 or 4-4-1. Not wanting to use up two subs by halftime (and those two on essentially defensive players) led to the decision to try to stick with a three-man backline, which left us vulnerable to the counter and probably cost us the decisive goal.

It’s a shame this game is probably going to cost us our chance at the SS, but the fact is, this was more of a fluke than anything else, as the chance of all those random factors playing out the way they did is something that probably wouldn’t happen again in a hundred matches or more. We can grouse about the outcome, but I wouldn’t put too much store in this afternoon as being an indication of the state of our team or a sign of what’s to come the rest of the season.

Perhaps this was due in part to the loss of Friberg. I thought we were having a lot of trouble winning balls in the midfield and distributing effectively, and this includes, oddly and notably, Alonso the honeybadger. It seemed to me that RSL worked really hard to be generally disruptive and pain in a rear, physically and mentally, and it worked out against us in the end. Yes, we didn’t finish a few chances, but really, there could have been more. Of the 20, few were quality.

it was off a quick restart that was taken 10 yards away from the actual incident of the foul. The ref never should have let that happen. Maybe the sounders didn’t do enough to win, but we definitely did enough to not lose. And although we may not have deserved the pk we definitely deserved one when a player was obviously shoved midair in the box. Make up no call. I hate blaming refs but this one definitely did enough to allow a fair result either team as his mistakes dictated the match.

This guy is now on my list of chronically injured, undependable. He’s now missed most of two years.

Does anyone know what went on in the Herediano-Alajuelense game this evening? It looked like Herediano were 4-0 up with 5 mins left and then the ref called the game off…

Poor choice of words, I know, but… I just felt that a two-minute-long remembrance of 9/11 from the 9th to 11th minute just marked the beginning of the end. It cast a solemn tone to the game, RSL scored immediately answered, and the game was not the same afterwards. Is it just me, or did anyone else notice the same?

There are always a handful of these a year. Honestly though this puts the supporters shield out of reach. It was going to be tough even 4 points behind now 7 points in 6 matches seems a bit too far out with how well LA is playing. This should allow us to focus on the CCL which if we win in costa rica we will have locked up a spot in the knockout stages.

It was just bizarro world out there today. I hate to say it, but we don’t play well after long rest and we don’t usually play as crisp in afternoon matches (crew match aside.)

Saborio flopped, sure there was a little contact which was exaggerated and therefore deceived the ref. Im not going to perscribe to the make-up call theory even though the ref didnt realize it was a 2nd yellow when he originally gave the 2nd yellow to Beltran, it was funny to see our players go talk to the ref and then the ref to a double take and begrudgingly take out the 2nd yellow though.

And the important thing to remember Montero has two goals in the last two matches. And im over that game now.