RSL's History in the US Open Cup

Tonight RSL faces Portland in the semi-finals of the US Open Cup (USOC). The winner will host either DC United or the Chicago Fire in the finals in October. There is no question of the importance of this match. But instead of looking forward I thought that I would look back at RSL's history in the USOC. Prior to this year, RSL has had very little success in this tournament.

RSL in their first USOC match in club history against Minnesota
Photo by Brian Quarstad

2005- In the first year of club history, RSL entered the USOC in the third round. They headed on the road to face their opponent, the Minnesota Thunder. They ended up falling to the Thunder in a high scoring affair 6-4. Jason Kreis scored a hat trick in the match and Jamie Watson also had a goal in this match.

2006- Again, RSL entered into the USOC in the third round and played a home match at Rice Eccles Stadium. Their first opponent was the Virginia Beach Mariners. RSL won 2-1 to advance to the next round with goals from Jeff Cunningham and Andy Williams. In the fourth round, RSL faced the Colorado Rapids also at Rice Eccles. The Rapids knocked RSL out of the Open Cup advancing 1-0.

2007- In 2007, RSL had to go through qualification rounds before reaching the tournament itself. Their first match was against the Kansas City Wizards. RSL was able to advance 2-1 with goals once again coming from Jeff Cunningham and Andy Williams. That set up a rematch with Colorado. Unfortunately, RSL once again came up short suffering a 2-1 defeat. Chris Klein was the goal scorer for RSL in that match.

2008- Again RSL needed to go through the qualification rounds to proceed to the tournament. They traveled to Columbus and fell 2-0. 

2009- This season they faced expansion team Seattle on the road in the qualification round.  They were humbled in Seattle losing 4-1. The lone goal was scored by Will Johnson.

2010- The first game of the qualification round this year took place in San Jose. After 120 minutes of play, the game was tied 3-3. Goals were scored by Robbie Findley, Nelson Gonzalez, and Nat Borchers whose 117 minute goal was the needed goal to send the game to a penalty shootout. RSL was able to advance 5-3 in the PK shootout with goals by Johnson, Findley, Williams, Kyle Beckerman, and Robbie Russell. The team next traveled to face DC United. They fell 2-1 with the lone goal being scored by Johnson.

2011- RSL entered the tournament in the third round this season first playing the Wilmington Hammerheads at Rio Tinto Stadium. They defeated the Hammerheads 2-0 with goals being scored by Tony Beltran, and Jean Alexandre. They next traveled to face FC Dallas. They would end up getting beat by Dallas 2-0. 

2012- RSL once again entered the tournament in the third round and would face the Minnesota Stars . Due to the rules at the time, RSL paid a sum of money to Minnesota to switch the game from being in Minnesota to being played at Rio Tinto Stadium instead. The move did not pay the dividends that RSL was hoping for and they were defeated 3-1. The lone goal for RSL was scored by Luis Gil.

2013- Entering the tournament in the third round, RSL has rolled past the Atlanta Silverbacks (3-2), Charleston Battery (5-2) and the Carolina Railhawks (3-0). Already considered the best USOC run in team history, RSL is just two wins away from raising the US Open Cup and receiving one of the precious bids to play in next season's CONCACAF Champions League tournament.

Special thanks to Brian Quarstad (@imsoccernews) for use of the picture.

Man in the Middle Ref Preview- RSL vs Portland (US Open Cup)

Editor's Note- This is the first post in a new ongoing series that previews the referee for the upcoming RSL match by Alan Christensen. Alan is a big RSL supporter and an all around good guy. You can follow Alan on Twitter at @alanchr5412. Going forward, these will be posted the morning of match day.

Referee Preview:

Mark Geiger

Wednesday August 7, 2013

USOC Semifinal Match @ Rio Tinto Stadium

RSL vs Timbers FC

2013 MLS Matches Refed 7

Total Y’s 21

Total R’s 2

PK’s 0

2013 USOC Matches Ref

N/A

2013 Timbers Refed Results: N/A

2013 RSL Refed Results: 3/30 - RSL 2-1 Sounders FC

Geiger has been a MLS referee since 2004 and was named MLS Referee of the Year in 2011. He has also refereed many different international competitions such as the Gold Cup, Olympic Games, and the FIFA U-20 World Cup where he became the first American to referee a major men's tournament final.

When Geiger is not refereeing, he is a high school math teacher in New Jersey

Crunching the Numbers- Rocky Mountain Cup Edition

The Rocky Mountain Cup has been lost for the first time in seven years. I wonder if I were to re-conduct the poll that I did last week if the results would change. But that is a blog post for another time. Now lets take a look at the numbers coming out of the Colorado match.

• RSL has now scored 38 goals on the season. This averages out to scoring a goal every 54.47 minutes. This is far and away a club record with the previous best being a goal every 60.00 minutes. It is also the highest scoring rate in the league.
• The last time RSL was shut out was a home loss against LA on April 27th. Since that time, they have scored 31 times in 14 matches or a goal every 40.64 minutes.
• RSL has given up 26 goals on the season or a goal every 79.62 minutes. There have been three seasons in the past with a better defensive rate than this.
• RSL midfielders have now scored 17 goals this season. Last season the midfield only contributed 13 goals. 
• Coming into this season Ned Grabavoy had 8 career goals in his 10 year career. He has scored 5 goals already this year alone.
• Grabavoy has only taken 16 shots so far on the season. With the 5 goals he is scoring on 31.25% of all shots that he is taking.
• With Grabavoy's goal, RSL now has five players that have scored 5 or more goals. In club history, RSL has never had more than four players with 5 or more goals.
• Alvaro Saborio has scored 8 goals in 835 minutes of play. That comes out to .86 goals for every 90 minutes he is playing. Not only is that much higher than his scoring rate last year (.64), it is the highest scoring rate in club history. 
• Javier Morales now leads RSL with a +/- (RSL goals minus opponents goals) of +15 when he is on the field.
• This season when Tony Beltran and Chris Wingert have played together, RSL is 6-0-1. When they are not playing together RSL is 5-7-4.

So what can we learn from these numbers? The offense has been on fire for a while now. I was worried about if the offense would continue to roll when Saborio came back. But 5 goals in two road matches shows me that I had nothing to worry about. The great thing about the offensive side of the ball is that so many players are contributing to the goal scoring this year. Opposing defenses can not just concentrate on Saborio to shut down our attack. 

If I could pick out one thing that I would like to see from the attack would be some goals scored by our defenders. Over the past five years, RSL has averaged 4.6 goals scored by members of the defense. This year the defense has yet to score a goal in MLS play.

The biggest problem right now for RSL is coming on the defensive side of the ball. This was somewhat to be expected with the amount of players that were lost on the back line due to international call ups, injury, and suspensions. With that said, the stat above with Beltran and Wingert playing together blew me away. It is so important for those two guys to be playing with the team. 

I took a closer look at the time Beltran and Wingert have played together. They have played 598 minutes together. During that time, RSL has given up 4 goals or a goal every 149.50 minutes. The team has played 1472 minutes when those two have not played together. During that time they have given up 22 goals or a goal every 66.90 minutes. That is a difference of 82.60 minutes per goal!

As the team moves into the busiest stretch of games this year, they should be confident that the defense is back together.

RSL Family Part 3- Brian Dunseth and Andy Williams

In part 3 of my series on the RSL Family (see part 1 and 2) , I get the perspective of Brian Dunseth and Andy Williams.

I spoke with Dunseth about a variety of different topics about a month ago and I also asked him the same question that I have asked everyone else to this point. "What does the RSL Family mean to you?"

Dunseth has a unique view. As a former player, he played on many different teams in the league. In his broadcast career, he has continued to travel around and has a very good understand what other teams are like. And as the color commentator for the team, he has an inside knowledge of the players and what goes on in the locker room. Here is what he had to say:

"It's very unique and I think what it is is an us vs. them mentality at it's core. This is a club that has never had a lot of money to spend off the field until Dell Loy (Hansen) came in. It's a club that you rarely see on national television. You start with a coaching staff that is all former players; the general manager is a former player, the president is a former GM. You have this built in soccer knowledge of how things should be. How things could be perfect.

Then there are the players, the cornerstones, the Rimando's, the Wingert's, the Beckerman's, the Borchers, the Will Johnson's just to name a few. They created a culture and atmosphere to allow players like Javier Morales to quickly come into the group. The culture is right and now there is an accountability. It is one thing for a coach to hold players accountable. It is another for the players themselves to hold the team accountable. I just think that it is the perfect storm."

In continuing to talk to him, I mention that I thought the RSL Family really changed when the news came out about Andy Williams' wife, Marcia's battle with leukemia. He continued on:

"I think the roots were there and I agree that Andy and Marcia were the spark to make everything a little bit stronger. But again, you have good kids in the locker room. You've got guys that keep their nose clean outside the locker room and in their personal life. They are all just good people.

I have played with a lot of teams and have been around a lot of teams and I can honestly say if I were to choose an organization that I would want to be with long term, it is this organization. That is not to play the homer card, not to play the former player card, it is just honesty. I watch the way that Jason (Kreis) runs practice. I watch the way that Garth (Lagerwey) and Bill (Manning) handle the players off the field. The commitment that Dell Loy has shown financially has been fantastic. There is a built in culture at this point that separates this team from a lot of teams in Major League Soccer."

I recently had the chance to talk to Andy Williams about his role as the team's head scout (blog post to come). But I also asked him about his thoughts on the RSL family.

"I think it blew up to a bigger deal with my situation with Marcia. I think as a team we were pretty close, but we kind of kept it in house. Once it became public with her situation, the fans and the front office got more and more involved and they opened up a lot more. I think that really kickstarted the entire RSL Family where you have all the fans consider themselves as family. But like what I said before the team is pretty close internally in the locker room and on and off the field. And now it is like RSL Family 2.0."

I mentioned the fact that it is fun to see the RSL Academy kids also refer to themselves as the RSL Family.

"It starts with Jason. When we are down there for preseason with the academy guys they get to mingle with the first team. They get to practice with the first team. The key is that the first team players don't treat them any different. They don't treat them like kids. They are wearing RSL gear and are representing RSL. The kids love that and buy into it. It is like an infectious disease. The fans have taken into it and the entire kids down there have enjoyed it. That is probably one of the reasons that they have been so successful down there."

I just want to thank both Brian and Andy for their thoughts on the subject.