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Sandy • Coach Jason Kreis said he wanted to make it a "special night," not a night when the dedicated home fans trudged away after a disappointing shutout loss to a previously winless rival.
Alas, there might have just been too many of them.
While RSL has been mostly a dominant force at home over the past few seasons, it has not fared so well when sellout crowds arrive at Rio Tinto Stadium. In the nine home games the team has played in front of 20,008 fans or more, it's just 3-4-2 in all competitions, including the 1-0 loss to Chivas USA in front of 20,415 last Saturday.
The team won't have to worry about that this week, when it travels to play the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on Saturday.
Oh, wait … maybe it will.
RSL is also just 3-10-4 in front of crowds larger than 20,000 on the road since its stadium opened in late 2008, with two of those victories technically draws in the Major League Soccer playoffs that RSL won on penalty kicks, en route to the MLS Cup.
In fairness, RSL's overall regular-season road record in that span is just 12-23-14 — its overall regular-season home record is 32-5-14, with a 37-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, at one point — but against the Timbers it will be facing one of the league's most fanatical fan bases.
"It's an awesome place to play," Kreis said.
The Timbers averaged 18,827 fans per game last season (RSL averaged 17,594), and won the meeting last year just days after RSL was devastatingly eliminated from the Champions League — in front of a sellout crowd at home.
Reserve judgment
Midfielder Will Johnson played a season-high 73 minutes, but the RSL reserves lost 1-0 at Chicago on Tuesday, falling to 0-2-1 for the season while Kreis voiced his displeasure with new reserve league format.
"Ridiculous," he said.
In its original incarnation, the reserve league scheduled games the morning after senior games. Now, in the ostensible effort to make them "more professional," games are scheduled on their own, in the middle of the week when players must often travel on the day of the game and miss regular team training.
"How is that professional?" Kreis said.
Injury report
Defender Nat Borchers said he feels as good as he has since offseason knee surgery, and will be "ready to go" when RSL plays the Timbers.
In all likelihood, he will start while fellow center back Jamison Olave gets a night off because of the artificial turf at Jeld-Wen Field that does his touchy knee no favors. Kreis said he's not sure whether forward Alvaro Saborio or midfielder Javier Morales are 90 minutes fit yet, or whether Johnson will feature against the Timbers.
Maybe next time
Midfielder Luis Gil acknowledged he was disappointed not to have been selected for the U.S. U-23 team that attempted to reach the upcoming London Olympics, and said the team's failure to qualify will motivate him for the next four years.
"For sure, it's just going to make me work hard for the next cycle," he said. "I have to be prepared for that."
The 18-year-old Gil is regarded as one of the jewels of the American youth system, but perhaps was seen as too young to help enough now. Of course, maybe there's an argument, now that the Americans were eliminated on a last-second El Salvador goal on home soil Monday.
In any case, Gil still will be eligible for Olympic selection when the team attempts to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
Twitter: @MCLTribune —
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