Author: Liam

This season is just getting from bad to worse for the Real Salt Lake FC. Yesterday night, they lost to FC Dallas again in an away fixture.

The margin of defeat, however, was not as big as it was when they had hosted the Hoops at the Rio Tinto Stadium at the end of May. They had lost 0-4 back then, while, this match, they lost only by 1-2, but, a defeat is a defeat nevertheless and its 5^th this year now for Real. It’s slowly turning into one of their worst seasons in the Major League Soccer ever.

What makes this loss against Dallas even more embarrassing for Real is that the opposition played with only 10 men in the last 45 minutes.

Jeff Cassar, the Royals boss, did not look amused at all at the end of the proceedings and rightly so. His boys let him down big time.

Speaking in the presentation ceremony after the game, Cassar said, “We didn’t do anything today which we can be proud of. We were very, very ordinary.”

“We knew that they would counter attack and we had our plan in place. We had spent a lot of time in the practice sessions working on that, still, we were not able to handle that corner.”

“We could have shown a lot more maturity. But, as we went down 0-1, we panicked and that’s never a good sign playing at this level. You’ve got to learn fast how to deal with tough situations. I hope the boys would have learnt from today’s experience.”

Real had a great time last season as they had finished second in the Western Conference grabbing 56 points from 34 matches with 16 wins and 8 draws. They had been left behind by just one point by the table toppers Portland Timbers.

Former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has said that winning the Premier League title in the first season will be difficult for Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman was recently appointed as the new manager of Manchester United. The Premier league giants finished in a disappointing seventh last season, but they are expected to challenge for the title under the stewardship of Van Gaal. Ancelotti is one of the few managers who has won the league title in his first season in the Premier League. Jose Mourinho did with Chelsea in 2004 while Manuel Pellegrini achieved it only last season.

Van Gaal comes into the United team with a lot of experience of having managed top clubs across the world. This is unlike David Moyes, who came with a lot of scepticism after having won no major trophies in the last decade. Van Gaal recently showed his expertise at managing a team by taking Netherlands to a third place finish at the World Cup 2014. Ancelotti’s assumption is that the Premier League has gotten harder in recent years, while United also need a major rebuilding job. The 2008 European champions recently brought in just two players for less than £ 60 million.

In contrast, the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea have already spent close to £ 100 million. Arsenal have also spent a lot of money in improving the squad.

“He is a very good and very experienced manager, he has fantastic experience and he will do a fantastic job at United. He is a manager who has nothing to learn. After Ferguson, it was more difficult for United, but they now have to rebuild a team. They have signed good players but building a team is not easy and the Premier League is a very competitive league,” said Ancelotti about Van Gaal’s chances of success in the first season.