Licked by Salt Lake

Despite extreme jet-lag, I managed to stay awake for the entire Dynamo game. Question is: should I have?

I have to say I was extremely worried before the match. Then, during the pre-game, I cringed every time Charlie Pallilo would say "RSL is just plain bad" or "Coach, I suppose you don't expect to be tested much by this" or the dozens of times he mentioned that it was the "Best playing the worst." To me, comments like that just beg the Lords of Karma to amass their armies.

Not long after we heard for the sixth or so time that the Dynamo haven't allowed a goal in the final 15 minutes, while RSL had allowed about 2 dozen over the same period, Barrett mis-touched a ball around E-Ro. Birthday Boy Robbie Findley pounced on the ball and drove into the box. With Cochrane indecisive until too late, Findley was able to slot the ball under Onstad for the game winner. That left us with only 6 minutes of regulation to find the equalizer, and we didn't have the legs, touch, or inspiration to do that.

The goal was flukey, and I thought a bit soft. (Onstad can get those usually.) But it was, unfortunately, a pretty good reflection of how the game went. RSL, which has the worst offense in the league, moved the ball around confidently and maintained possession throughout the game easily. In the back, our defenders seem to have trouble with the "third man running" routine, and RSL seemed to be able to free up a man in our defensive third at will.

Going against one of the worst defenses in the league, Dynamo were able to generate a few threats, but couldn't get into the net. Our flanks were shut down pretty effectively, and our crossing was completely random. When we got into the box, we seemed stumped. Ching and Mulrooney each had opportunities that were completely fluffed (their shots looked more like passes to the keeper). Although I call RSL's goal soft, they could have put the game away much earlier had they not had atrocious finishing themselves. It was truly a sad game to watch from both sides.

But I give the boys credit: they worked hard, just not well. Dom kept trying to generate offense by putting in attacking options for his subs. With our defense gassed, Dom probably should've put Ianni in earlier, perhaps for Cochrane.

So we allowed RSL to double their wins, and we allowed the rest of the Western Conference to stay within reach of us.

I hope to chalk up this loss to being a mere hiccup in the season (and perhaps revenge by the Lords of Karma for our hubris). We need to turn things around with a victory at altitude over Colorado next weekend. This is our chance to show that we aren't suffering another post-international malaise. We've had troubles when facing inferior teams (Toronto, Chicago, and now Salt Lake), but we've got to reverse that trend and snare the full 3 points. Anything less and we keep the rest of the Western Conference too close -- and we might even be overtaken by FCD.