Kyle Beckerman celebrating the winThey just barely got into the playoffs on the last day - and EVERYTHING fell into place for them that day (including Colorado getting bumped completely :-D ). They had to GO to Columbus in the 2nd leg of their first round matches, and yet they won 3-2 there and 4-2 on aggregate. For those who don't know, in the first round they play a home and away "tie" to determine who moves on by aggregate. RSL won at home 1-0 - the boys were there, I think I posted that pic in my birthday post, and then RSL won in Columbus against the #1 seed (RSL were the 8 seed out of 8!) Next they had to beat Chicago IN Chicago, and did so in miraculous fashion after 90 minutes of scoreless regulation time, 30 minutes of scoreless extra time they won it in Penalty Kicks when Nick Rimando saved 3 straight attempts from Chicago to seal the win! Sean and I watched this together at his house and we were jumping up and down and screaming and loving every second of it, it was pretty funny.
Then the finals last night! I put together a Facebook event and had 60+ people say they were comingto watch the match...and then the snow hit. The roads were miserable and we ended up with about 25 people or so at Sky Box in South Jordan to watch the game. This time RSL were facing the LA Galaxy as pretty big underdogs. Yet again, RSL played great in regulation and it ended 1-1 after 90 with Robbie Findley getting the tying goal after LA had taken the lead in the first half. After 30 minutes of pretty even play and no scoring in the extra time (though RSL really should have scored right at the last second, but Andy Williams missed a cross in the box that he surely could have put away for the win. I think his legs were really tired.) RSL were off to PK's again! Needless to say, the tension at the Sky Box was palpable! My heart was jumping into my throat! Amazingly, Nick Rimando came up HUGE again and saved 2 PK's while Landon Donovan of LA, the league "MVP" whiffed his attempt up and over the cross bar to miss as well! RSL's guys came up big under a lot of pressure and Robbie Russell, a defender sealed the victory and the championship with a lovely PK into the right corner while the LA keeper dove to the left.
The Sky Box went CRAZY. There is video of the last few PK's and the final victory celebration, but I can't copy it from Facebook for some reason. It's hilarious because it is sheer pandemonium, hugging, yelling, cheering, I think there was even some crying, it was surreal. I wish I could hit rewind and do it all over again, it was that cool.
So, here are some pics, and congrats to RSL!!!! Finally Utah has a professional sports championship!!! (maybe the Jazz will take notice and step up for #2, eh?)
Fish tacos with Ben during the first half. Pretty crappy, but I was starving and they didn't have the bacon-wrapped shrimp. I almost left because of that. SO glad I didn't.
We thought Robbie Findley had scored the game winner late in regulation...
Alas, it was just side-netting and I was like WHAAAAATTTT????
This is during PK's - there wasn't much tension, can you tell???
PURE JOY after the win. I really don't think I've smiled this big in a VERY long time - it was AWESOME!!!! Russ is ALMOST smiling as big, not quite though.Oh and this is from when I met Nick Rimando last week to get my Nick is my Homeboy t-shirt that you see in the pics above:
1 comment:
Mom: Gosh Ryan maybe your real calling is as a sports announcer!!
or a movie reviewer. I felt kind of bad you couldn't go to Seattle with Paul and Sean but it looks like you made up for it. The winning smile was GREAT.
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