Thursday, August 17, 2006

RSL in the midst of a real winning streak!

The game that took place in Columbus on Wednesday night looked very familiar. A situation where a team hasn't been able to catch a break in just under a dozen games gets an early goal at home and take the game to their visitors. The effort is valiant, but the end result is cruel. With two second half goals - one in the 90th minute - the home team collapses in disbelief as another match slipped out of their grasp.

The only difference between what happened at Crew stadium and the past is that RSL were the victors. With the 2-1 win over Columbus Salt Lake has an honest to goodness winning streak. For the last three league matches RSL have received the maximum points - good enough for the RSL history books as the longest winning streak.

Just over a month ago RSL pulled off an unlikely 3-1 pounding of the Revolution at Gillete Stadium. Since that game Salt Lake have only lost one league match, a 1-0 heartbreaker given by FCD on an Abe Thompson goal in the 93rd minute. The next result was the Chivas debacle when six goals were scored - four of which were Goal of the Week candidates - and Claudio Suarez snatched the draw with a goal in the 94th minute.

Every game since (three in total) has seen RSL finish on top. It's a good trend that's coming at perfect time for a push to the playoffs. Our only problems are the two teams we're trying to catch: Chivas USA and the Colorado Rapids.

Ironically, it looks to be more realistic to catch up to our Rocky Mountain rivals than our expansion brethren. Chivas have yet to lose since a 3-1 loss to the Dynamo on July 8th. Since then they have tied four straight, and squeaked out a 2-1 win over the Fire at Toyota Park last week.

In that same amount of time the Rapids have lost three, won two, and tied once. Through out their entire 2006 campaign the Rapids have yet to string two consecutive wins together. Their inconsistency and recent trend of loosing badly of late makes them appear as an easier target, although they have one point over the Goats. All of this assumes that the Galaxy can't get their act together, which is historically not the case. The season for LA starts in August.

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I don't know how long this has been the case, but MLSnet.com has started using RSS feeds on their news headlines. I'd like to think my letter was the one that swayed them to do this, but I'm sure many of the other soccer bloggers requested it as well.

1 Comments:

At 9:36 AM, Blogger Allen said...

Thanks for hasseling MLS HQ on the RSS, too. It may have not been just your letter but I do believe it made a difference!

 

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