game time

Last Saturday, as we were driving out of Little Cottonwood Canyon after skiing, H made an excellent suggestion:  should we go to the Real Salt Lake game tonight?  It was a beautiful day and so we decided yes, we should go to the RSL game.  Before going home, we swung by the stadium to pick up tickets, getting seats in on the east side of the stadium, upper level, close to midfield.  Since RSL was playing the L.A. Galaxy there was an additional $5 surcharge to the ticket prices, much like the Yankees/Red Sox games or any other rivalry.  We hurried home, got cleaned up, fed the dog and headed out again.

We parked (for $10) in the South Towne Expo Center lot, a short walk from the Rio Tinto stadium that would have us pointed in the right direction for heading home after the game.  There were people tail-gating (whom we later learned were friends of a Porcupine bartender with whom we are friendly) and hordes of folks streaming towards the game, all decked out in the team's claret and cobalt (red and blue).  We found our seats - which were great, giving a fantastic view of the whole field - and settled in to watch the game.

Opening ceremony

The game, quite frankly, was terrible.  L.A.'s two biggest players, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, whom I was looking forward to seeing play, were both out with injuries.  This was probably for the best, as it turns out, because RSL got spanked even so, the Galaxy scoring two goals in the first fifteen minutes.  And after that, it was pretty much all over.  The crowd lost all its enthusiasm (and that's half the fun of being at a game) and RSL never recovered.  They did better maintaining possession in the second half, and there was an exciting flurry of numerous shots on goal towards the end, but they just couldn't put it in the net.

This Saturday we stayed home and watched the game vs. Vancouver on television.  The RSL boys played much better than last weekend, winning 2-0 and nabbing 3 points for the shut-out in the standings.  They still don't have much of a long game, however, preferring lots of little short passes and not switching fields to open up the game.  I think they rely too heavily on Nick Rimando too: yes, he's a fantastic goalkeeper but they should trust their midfield more to move the ball upfield and not pass back to the keeper so much.