By Sigi Schmid

The past two weeks have been a blur and very busy. Finishing with four wins in our last five games is very satisfying. But we really wanted that one last Saturday against Real Salt Lake.

We played well in the first half and carried the game, but our crossing was off a little. In the second half our crossing was better but we did not make those dynamic runs. Salt Lake was happy to play for a tie and was very compact in the defense. One mistake early in the second half and they got the goal they wanted and really closed it up in the back.

Now we get ready for Vancouver and the first game in the Cascadia Cup series. Having a week between games feels like an eternity. It will allow us to get our energy levels back up, work on some training field things that will help our game and start upon a new streak to get points in our quest for the top of the table.

We still have three games in hand on Salt Lake and one game in hand on San Jose. In the last few games a lot of young players -- Meredith, Rose, Caskey and Cato -- have gotten valuable minutes, as well as Estrada. These minutes will make us better as we move on and allow us to rest players when we have more fixture congestion.

After 10 games and with 22 points I am pleased with our start. But we cannot rest on that and we have to keep pushing ourselves to get better.

We hope to see some if not many of you in Vancouver. Saturday afternoon soccer in Canada -- it should be a great day.

Take care
Sigi