Makes Me Want To Cry

For those of you who are RSL fans, the images above may be too disturbing to handle. New York came to Rio Tinto Stadium and got the counter attack goal they were looking for. Olave's mistake turned a harmless pass to the slow and lurpy John Wolnyac on the sideline into one of two New York scoring chances for the entire match. They capitalized on the chance through their other slow and lurpy player, Dave Vanden Berg. From there (30th minute) on out, New York lost all interest in attacking or even possessing the ball. As soon as they would win the ball, they would give it the old rec league "boot." They hunkered down and defended the goal box like it was Fort Knox. Somehow this anti-soccer approach ended up working for them as chance after chance for RSL came agonizingly close, but none found the back of the net. Three, count them, three shots clanked off the post. I was completely exhausted after the game, I can't imagine having played in it. It is one thing to lose to a better team who outplayed you, it is a much tougher pill to swallow when the team that ends your season plays rec ball and fakes injury after injury to waste time.

That being said, I will never forget that night. The atmosphere was unbelievable, and the pace of the game was staggering. Kreis has put together a core of players who will be perennial challengers for MLS Cup. I'm excited to see what this group can do next year.