Well Earthquakes...It Could Have Been Worse...

...Like say if there was an actual earthquake during the match and all of the San Jose fans at Buck Shaw "Stadium" were put in to harm's way. On the other hand, a real earthquake would have probably saved San Jose from some real embarassment on their home pitch. Real Salt Lake when into the Bay Area Saturday night and maybe answered a question or two about whether last year's playoff run was some sort of cutesy fluke, winning 3-0 on the shoulders of a Superman performance from everyone's favorite Argentinian, Javier Morales.

Full disclosure: I only watched the first half of the match (The Weasel was performing in West Valley) but the game was over by the time I left. Before the match could really start to establish itself, Joe Cannon was digging a Javi Mo rocket out of the back of the net. It was the 14th minute, Kyle Beckerman received a ball on the wing 40 yards out, he takes a touch forward and then takes a little touch inside. A challenge comes, so Beckerman is forced into sending a skipping ball to his sidekick Morales. What happened next was pure magic, as Morales controlled the ball just enough so it still came off the grass a bit and swung into it with a volley with the outside of his laces. The ball sailed into the back post's side netting past a hopeless, sprawling Joe Cannon. No goalkeeper in the world would have saved this shot.

Thirteen minutes later it was Javi again, this time in his more familiar facilitating role, putting a little through ball to fellow Argentine Fabian Espindola, who calmly lobbed it over poor Cannon. The rout seemed to be on and Javi seemed to have done enough to silence the doubters and make everyone forget his very forgettable 2009. He wasn't done.

After an offense just outside the box in the 53rd minute, causing Earthquake defender Chris Leitch to be red carded, That Man stood over the 18 1/2 yard free kick, took aim, and buried the ball into Cannon's goal, top corner side-netting style. The game was ended mercifully with just a 3-0 score and RSL collected it's first season opening victory ever. Now we shouldn't get too excited over this win, it was San Jose for heaven's sake,but seriously: BEST TEAM EVER.

Player of the Game: Duh

Other Results From Saturday:

Columbus WTFC'd Toronto 2-0 (you know you liked what I did there).
Dallas and Houston wrangled up a 1-1 draw.
New York opened up Red Bull Arena in style, beating Chicago 1-0.
KC destroyed DC's se;f esteeem with a 4-0 blowout.
And The LA Galaxy beat New England 1-0.