May
09
Picture Perfect? No. Picture of Progress? Yes.
tags: XanGo Soccer
The strongest start to a season in Real Salt Lake history has recently lost a little bit of its luster after a stunning draw at home and 360 minutes of utter road ineptitude (zero goals in 4 away games). A few heads are starting to hang down and a few fingers are flirting with the panic button. But I say, “NO. Not yet.”
Every team, every person, every business and every organization is looking for one thing every year—and that is improvement. In my opinion, no one can ask for more than that without being greedy.
Look through the numbers below and see what I mean. Last season was a watershed year for RSL that saw us enter the MLS Playoffs for the first time and advance to the Western Conference Finals. It wasn’t a simple procedure, and it wasn’t decided in advance by any means; but, to not be happy with improvement over our best season yet would be illogical (which fans tend to be, myself included).
2008 THROUGH EIGHT GAMES . . . . . . . . 2009 THROUGH EIGHT GAMES
(4 home games, 4 road games) . . . . . . . (4 home games, 4 road games)
shots taken: 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 (22-shot improvement)
goals scored: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 (3-goal improvement)
percentage scored: 11% . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.47% (0.47% improvement)
shots allowed: 92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 (13-shot improvement)
goals scored: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 (3-goal improvement)
percentage scored: 15.22% . . . . . . . . . . . 13.92% (1.3% improvement)
Wins//Losses//Draws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wins//Losses//Draws
2—4—2 :: 8 points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3—4—1 :: 10 points (2-point improvement)
VERDICT: improvement.
I’ll leave it at that.