As I left the broadcast booth at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night, I took an elevator down to the main level with a family of four. Bart Starr Packers Jersey . They were energetic, full of smiles and happy with how their evening had gone. The teenage son turned to me and asked where I was from. I explained my reason for being there and he immediately wanted to know if I was surprised at the 3-0 defeat suffered by Toronto FC. His eyes widened when I said I wasnt. "I dont know too much about soccer but I was told tonight I was coming to see Salt Lake play the New York Yankees of MLS," he said. Minutes earlier, they were a part of a crowd that chanted overrated towards the opposition. Real Salt Lake fans know, more than most, what a competitive, perennial MLS Cup contender should look like and the jury in Utah was in. The verdict? Pretenders not contenders. For now. However, it is hard to think the management at the club didnt see this coming. It is, after all, only three games into the season following a massive overhaul. Just as expectations soared to ridiculous heights following the opening game win in Seattle, the reaction since this loss has been equally irrational. The biggest issue with Toronto FC through three games is not squad depth (this can be an issue for all in a salary cap league, plus Andrew Weideman was their fifth forward before Bright Dike got hurt and Kyle Bekker is their fourth central midfielder). The biggest issue with Toronto FC is not Doneil Henry, who was criticized in some quarters for giving away a first half penalty. He would go on to shine once again following the error. The two biggest issues with Toronto FC as March comes to a close is cohesiveness and a lack of tactical versatility. The first point can only come with time. Once again it was another new starting XI on Saturday and the team has yet to play back-to-back games with the same lineup from the start, and because of that, relationships within the team that need to gel for the collective to succeed, will take time. The second point, however, is one worth following closer than any other story around this team at the moment. Formations Real Salt Lake not only presented a good test as a unit on Saturday for the visitors, but also tactically in the shape they play in. Ryan Nelsen has said the formation is only really how you line up at the start but being a manager who wants to play two up top, he got a different look at how a 4-4-2 diamond works against his team. The Game Jeff Cassars RSL get their full backs forward more than most. I said that in the pre-game show on TSN and Nelsen certainly was aware of this heading into the game. This is how they get their width. However, it was the intelligent decision-making and movement from their midfield four that allowed them space to run into. Javier Morales ran the game for the home team. His lateral movement was magnificent drifting into pockets of space unoccupied by TFCs midfield. He made the move into the space to help ignite the play for the second goal. And then on a quick break for the third goal, he again found the space to send the ball over the top for Saborio. Nelsens team has struggled in possession through all three games and that is fine when you can transition and counter as effectively as they did in the first two games. However, against a midfield diamond, the outlets couldnt be found. Alvaro Rey and Mark Bloom were passengers during the first half while the two strikers never got any service. Yes, it can be said they needed to pass the ball better when they got it but the 4-4-2 shape they played really hurt them. Playing two quick, mobile strikers up top means they demand service. Michael Bradleys intelligent balls over the top caused RSLs centre backs some discomfort but the wide players (including full backs) just didnt get into advanced positions to provide crosses enough. Many funds have been given to Gilberto and Jermain Defoe and when they are fit, they will play, but the game was screaming out for an extra central midfielder to make up the numbers and here is the biggest conundrum the coaching staff has at the moment. Games are won and lost in transitions and in Bradley, they have a superior man for that role. However, when he, or his central midfield partner, started one in this game it often began with two wingers and two strikers 30-40 yards away. Defoe and Gilberto will not be left out and can cause massive issues when the game dictates it, matching up 2vs2 in areas, but the use of the wide midfield players can be modified. Bloom and Justin Morrow, just like Salt Lakes full backs, can get forward (it should be noted Bloom did just that when moved back there late in the match) to provide width and away from home, specifically, Toronto would be much better suited playing a narrower 4-4-2 diamond, giving Bradley more outlets around him. The American international is a real difference maker at this level and cannot be regularly concerned about the space in behind him because it pushes Toronto deeper and deeper. Yes, it is part of his job but not at the top of the list. Defoe and Gilberto are also not strikers that feast off crosses, although the Brazilian did excel in a number of aerial duels on Saturday. Bradley, of course, missed his midfield partner Jonathan Osorio on Saturday but the brilliance of Morales, combined with Torontos shape, meant little would have changed had the Canadian played. Once fit, against the leagues strongest teams, Osorio and Bradley should play just ahead of a more defensive-minded midfielder allowing them to have a much clearer job defensively and in transition. In the end, it was just one loss in March but as the club goes through a transition off the field, they need to find a way to ensure they can transition better on it. Eddie Lacy Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Tim Masthay Jersey . Doneil Henry, the man who scored Toronto FCs last-gasp game winner Saturday, knows that probably better than anyone.PALMERSTON NORTH, New Zealand -- Georgia brightened its third campaign at a Rugby World Cup with a 25-9 win over Romania on Wednesday, only its second win in 11 matches and one enriched by the long and spirited rivalry between the teams. In front of the Georgian Prime Minister and a capacity crowd of 14,000, Georgia scored the only try through man-of-the-match, flanker Mamuka Gorgodze. Flyhalf Merab Kvirikashvili landed a conversion and five penalties for 17 points and Malkhaz Urjukashvili added a late penalty. Marin Dumbrava kicked two penalties and Florin Vlaicu one for Romania. Both teams cited this as their match of the tournament, the one they not only hoped but desperately wanted to win. Their rivalry has been as close as it has been fierce, Romania having won eight and Georgia six of their 14 previous matches. Georgia, which faces Argentina in its last pool match on Sunday, has now won five of its last six matches against Romania. Romania fullback Iulian Dumitras likened the rivalry to the one between France and England while vice-captain Cristian Petre called this "a reference match, the match we have to win, a mans match, of life and death." Georgias only previous win at a World Cup was against Namibia. "I think as I said yesterday, I had fears that the game might develop into a local derby today, and at times we were so busy trying to win that we forgot to play our game." Georgias Scotland-born coach Richie Dixon said. "When we did play our game we were obviously very strong and we did get our reward for that. So well be looking for a much improved performance from our own team (against Argentina), adhering to how we play the game and obviously we would like to go out on a high. "We came here to gain the respect of every team that we played. We have showed were making progress." The match which likely decides last place in Pool B -- Romania has only once previously finished last in a World Cup pool -- might not have been seen as one of the great attractions of this World Cup. As the tournament gears up for its knockout stages, enlivened by a series of must-win matches between teams on the verge of playoffs qualification, the contest between Eastern European rivals might have been a footnote. But the match galvanized this rural township of 75,000 which last hosted a Rugby World Cup match in 1987. Spectators grabbed every vantage point at the Manawatu Arena, expanded beyond its normal capacity by temporary seating, and a further 12,000 watched the match on large screens in the towns main square. Jamari Lattimore Packers Jersey. The Arena serves part-time as the home of the Manawatu provincial rugby team, at other times as a venue for speedway racing: the rugby field surrounded and separated from the grandstands by a narrow dirt racetrack. The Bucketheads, fervent fans who show their support for Manawatu by wearing on their heads plastic buckets painted in the green and white colours of the local team, instead sported buckets in the Georgian and Romanian colours. There may not have been a deep-seated expectation that the match would rise to heights of spectacle. Both teams have a style of play centred on their powerful forward packs, built around set pieces and often emphasizing pick-and-go rugby at breakdowns. Instead, the contest held the crowd enthralled through its physical forward play and its occasional, if not always effective, forays from both backlines. There was a good deal of kicking, not always to effect, and the ambition of both sides was often undermined by poor execution: there were eight handling errors and 14 penalties in the first half. Kvirikashvili managed the Georgian team well in the first half, sending reaching kicks into both corners. Romania chose a more direct approach with kicks through the middle of the field which, too often, it wasnt able to reclaim. Penalties streamed from breakdowns and while they reduced the game to a staccato tempo, they provided opportunities for flyhalves Kvirikashvili and Dumbrava to demonstrate their goalkicking prowess. Kvirikashvili kicked four out of four, Dumbrava two out of three as Georgia took a 12-6 lead to halftime. Romania had heat on the Georgian scrum for much of the match, though it was always able to turn that advantage to any tangible benefit. Georgia, in fact, exerted steady territorial pressure on Romania through the second half. Gorgodzes try came in the 56th minute at the end of a sustained attacking movement in which Kvirikashvili, always willing to take the ball into contact, handled twice and Gorgodze on three occasions. Kvirkikashvili and Vlaicu exchanged penalties and Urjukashvili added the last points five minutes from fulltime. "I want to say to everyone for this night I feel at home," said Romania captain Marius Tincu, who played his 50th test. "Its bad because we lost. We worked very hard for this game but we didnt win. That is rugby, that is the game. The best team won." cheap jerseyscheap jerseys from china ' ' '
