Friday, June 08, 2007

Chinese National Team and the FBI in SLC

It's not every day that you pull into the Rice-Eccles parking parking lot for a game and see a Federal Bureau of Investigation Mobile Command Unit situated across several parking spaces. I'm still trying to figure out why it was sitting there so conspicuously in front of the stadium.

The fun part of the game was that with the extremely young RSL line up, and even with the well known players in uncommon positions - Harris at holding midfield, for example - it really felt like I was watching a game between a couple teams I've never seen.

The Chinese defense was not into high pressure or high intensity. Most of the time when an RSL player received the ball he seemed to have a moment or two to think through his next move.

However, their attack was always quite organized. For me, when ever they were bearing down on the RSL goal I was nervous. With that in mind, I do like Chris Seitz. That kick has no fear and made some fantastic saves. I hope that RSL can hang on to him for a while.

Watching Esky trot onto the field in an RSL uniform gave me chills - no wait, that was because my coat wasn't properly buttoned and a breeze cut through.

Seriously though, I like seeing Esky up top. Atiba Harris has no business playing in the center of the park. Ball control in tight spaces combined with quick intelligent passes are things you will not see from Harris, and we did not see from Harris against China.

Even though I initially rolled my eyes to Freddy Adu's over-dramatized dribbling antics on the ball, it was fun to see. He was very relaxed and loose. Tonight, he kept trying to pull off the fantastic - and that's rare in this league. It'll be nice when he's successful at pulling that stuff off.

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