great showing for soccer, and sounders too

Posted by yamsmos on July 18, 2009 · Filed Under News 

wifey and i finally got home from the game…. almost 8pm. that is a pretty good day then eh?

i am tired and my memory of the game gets fuzzier as the beer  err the day continues, so let’s get this down in ones and zeros shall we…

i can’t write a coherent piece…. so bullet points it is.

- the first sign that we were in for a 67,000 fan experience was the line to get into the game. boy, that was impressive. i thought we were going to be late, but thankfully, the match was on MLS time and it started almost 15 minutes late.

- did they really hand out 50,000 thundersticks? they weren’t too much a bother were they.. however, i must say that there wasn’t anyone around me that used them, so that helped. glad that it wasn’t terrible… anyone else have a different experience?

- chelsea named almost a full strength squad, which was nice. the only person not to play that was hoped for was drogba. not sure why… injury? anyone know?

- the sounders showed up. we ran at them, we got stuck in and won a ton of 50/50 balls. although none of chelsea’s squad were at full match fit, i am sure that all of them thought at some point…. “wow, they are quite good”. maybe not, but the point is, we were not embarrassed, not by a long shot. our finishing was poor, and we didn’t have a ton of chances, but we did have a few that were solid. if we had a luckier le toux bounce, a touch better nyassi shot, or alex not diving in for a last second save… we could have had a few in the back of the net. iffa could should woulda, i know…. sure we lost, but good showing for sure.

- freddie was immense. one of my contentions about ljungberg is that he is somewhat limited by the talent around him. that is not a knock on any of our other players. but lets face it…. surround him all stars and freddie would be in his element. he doesn’t have the full game changing ability by himself… but he can play with the best still. somehow, that translated to the opposition. he seemed to take it up a notch today didn’t he? he was everywhere and i am sure he was as fast as we have ever seen. interesting seeing him have a long conversation with drogba after the match. they talked for 5 minutes at least. oh, and anyone notice that when he left the pitch as captain, he didn’t hand off the armband to anyone else? had a chuckle at that one.

- although we were 2-0 down and chelsea likely took their foot off the gas a little, during the second half, did anyone else think “crap, we look better now with our C team, playing with a few guys i have never even heard of, than during the first half with our A team”? well i will admit that i did. what a great chance for some of our players to play against that caliber of team. they will possibly never play against that type of skill again and they weren’t afraid. i was impressed with that maturity.

- somewhere around the 70th minute i was sure that belletti and the ref were going to punch each other. i have seen refs tell players to get out of their face, but never have i seen one so eager to get in the face of a player. he was up for it. would have loved to know what went on there. kudos for belletti taking the time to applaud the fans after the match, specifically signalling out the fans at the very very top of the nose bleeds. you could see he was impressed with the turnout.

- zach scott…. hmmm. i really am not a fan. yes i know that is harsh and i hate bad mouthing any of our players. i am sure he is a great guy, but he doesn’t have what it takes. he was out of his element and was made to look terrible. yes, chelsea is a great team, but how is scott the only one that was made to look like he had never played the game before?

- their goals were sloppy… sloppy by our defense. i feel good that they were against the run of play, b/c that is something that we can learn from. it wasn’t that they just ran round us and we couldn’t handle it. it was more that our positioning was poor and taken advantage of. that is something that we can learn from. you can’t really teach a guy to run faster, dribble better, jump higher, but you can teach them to move to a different position etc etc.

man of the match? F the  lampard decision, what was that about? other than his easy goal, did he even touch the ball? his tackle was classless in a friendly… oh, ok who then? well i will tell you,  terry boss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWO FANTASTIC SAVES. 2-0 isn’t a blowout, but 4-0 would sure feel like one. even though it was only 45 minutes, i feel very good that he is our 3rd string keeper.

ok, there are so many talking points i am sure i forgot many of them so please keep the comments coming b/c everyone is going to have something different to add on a day like this.

oh, almost forgot, while we were hosting the FA cup, (yes the actual cup, did you see it?)  the rest of the west was sucking it up. colorado lost 3-1 to DC (their run sure hit the skids), RSL lost to the crew by the same scoreline, but the best result of the day was a 1-1 draw by houston at toronto. they have clearly been feeling the results of such a hard july. the opposition mixed with the amount of travel has been too much for them. if we win our game in hand, we are only ONE point behind them for first. with colorado and RSL cooling off a tad, we might just carve our a run for the top of the table. oh, and don’t look now, but the draw happy galaxy are now nipping at our heals.

going to be a fun last half of the season eh?

COMMMMMMMMMMMME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU SOUNDERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

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