Real Salt Lake blog

Real Salt Lake signed versatile “midfielder” Robbie Russell from Viborg in Denmark today, fortifying its depth in the midfield for its Major League Soccer playoff run.  from sltrib

I added the quotations around midfielder, as Robbie is a right back.  But Real Salt lake announced him as a midfielder, so i assume that is where he will be playing…

So who is he?  from what I have read he is an American player, drafted by LA years ago, but refused, and went to Europe, where he did really good, played in a UEFA cup, then got injured, and benched.  After which he transfered to his current club, and now comes to RSL, where he will play out of his natural position.

Two good things that I see from this…  1) He is fast.  2) If he is a def mid, we will never have to worry about seeing Cutler again, and 3) (I did say three good things will come of this right?) RSL has said, now that they have him, they can get a new forward in the next month…  And everyone knows that is the position we really need.

As we all know Jason has been suspended for another two games for making comments about the quality of the ref’s in MLS.  This will be three total games missed now due to his comments.  Should he just shut up?  Or does the MLS need to hear it?  And if someone is talking, WILL they hear it?

Plain and simple the MLS ref’s stink, badly.  They don’t have enough of them, so they have to take low quality ref’s that do not know how to do their job.  That is not an insult, it is just simply the truth.  I do not know that there is a good solution, because if you look around the world, most of the FIFA refs stink too.

I find it interesting that the official MLS position is asking coaches to change, as opposed to them fixing the problem.  I have always learned that you can not change someone else, you can only change yourself.  Also, when faced with criticism, at least some of it is probably true.  Ivan Gazidis said “We asked for the continued leadership from coaches, seeking their support in particular to improve bench behavior and public commentary about officials”.  Sounds great, but why not at the same time work to make it better?  Why not say, we wish that the coaches would bring their complaints to us, as opposed to the media?  The answer…  They are not planning on fixing anything.

So should Jason keep talking?  I don’t know.  I do not think that anyone is listening, but sometimes it takes extremes to get heard.  Any great change comes at a cost, usually.  Personally I hope that Jason does it again in two weeks when he is back, and gets a 4 week suspension…  The MLS needs some negative press about their refs.

Recently Sturgis and Seitz were named as Olympic team members for Beijing.  Findley was named as an alternate.  For me this is great news.  Real Salt Lake gets a presence at the games, doesn’t loose any key players, and we all get to watch a few guys from our team playing this summer!  All positive!

The only bad that could come from this is if Findley does get called up, and RSL has to start with Tino again!  Have I said that RSL needs to get another forward recently???

As I am sitting here watching SuperLiga, and seeing Atiba Harris, and Carey Talley taking guys down it is hard not to reminisce a bit.  Both players have really knocked around a few of the Santos Laguna players quite a bit, and we are only in the 10′!  It is fun seeing some of our old favorites getting to enjoy play in a meaningful tourney.

Lets hope that they play well, and represent the MLS well!

Clint Mathis has reached an agreement with RSL… for training. He needs to get fit before returning to Europe after his contract with his old team in Greece ran out. He played for the RSL reserves in their 3-0 win against BYU last night (a game that we were wanting to attend, but had to miss due to some sick babies!). Rumors are starting that he will start playing for RSL in their MLS games, but some people are skeptical, as LA Galaxy still owns his MLS rights.

The SL Trib had a short article about this this morning. You can see it here.

Honestly, I don’t think that we should use him in MLS games.  He never performed for us when he was here, and Morales is Much Much better.  Clint would not really have a spot.