Real Salt Lake 1-1 San Jose Earthquakes
Real Salt Lake drew 1-1 with San Jose Earthquakes at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, with Luke Mulholland cancelling out Chris Wondolowski’s first-half lead.
While not a must-win game, both teams could have done with three points here, given their respective form and Conference standings. RSL were coming into this game after not having won a game in their last five, their last MLS game a dull 0-0 against New England Revolution. The Earthquakes snapped their own winless streak of seven games with an unlikely win over Toronto FC last weekend, after having gone down to nine men.
Here are the key takeaways from the match:
Dawkins stretches RSL in opening minutes: Earthquakes coach Dominic Kinnear played an old-school, flat 4-4-2 against RSL’s 4-2-3-1 and enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges. The midfield four dropped deep to deny RSL any space between the lines, and the outside backs Cordell Cato and Jordan Stewart often stuck tight to RSL wide-forwards Plata and Martinez. Cato and Stewart rarely bombed forward in the first half after SJ got the early lead, although Cato did show his dynamism more in the second half.
The width, instead, came from the wingers, and particularly from Simon Dawkins down SJ’s left-hand side. In an era where inverted wingers seem to be the vogue, Dawkins is a left-footed, traditional-type winger who likes to hug the byline and get crosses in to the box. Dawkins got the better of his counterpart Tony Beltran in the first-half, and earned the corner in the 9th minute that resulted in Wondolowski’s opener. Alberto Quintero on the opposite flank, albeit relatively narrower and deeper, maintained the Earthquakes’ midfield shape.
Mulholland and Morales step up in second half: The RSL performance was lackluster in the first half, partly because of a disconnect between the front and the midfield three. Things improved in the second half – Mulholland made more forward runs from his deep position and Morales got himself on the ball closer to the opposition box.
Morales, in particular, started the game off poorly – unable to reproduce his usual quality in his passes or set-pieces. As the game wore on, however, Morales found more space in the final third, and produced a sublime pass to produce RSL’s equalized in the 64th minute. The introduction of Garcia and Philips (more on that in a minute), allowed Morales to get himself in central positions higher up the pitch.
Morales touches in the first half (left) and second half (right). Courtesy: WhoScored.com
Garcia and Philips make impact: RSL coach Jeff Cassar made two key substitutions that made an impact in the second half. One of them was forced – Olmes Garcia came on for injured Yuri Movsisyan in the 44th minute, while Demar Philips came on for Chris Wingert in the 72nd minute. While Movsisyan is a more complete forward, Garcia provided the raw pace that allowed RSL to get in behind the San Jose back four and launch attacks quickly.
The introduction of Philips, on the other hand, provided RSL with some much-needed width – at least on the left flank. Beltran and Wingert took up conservative positions in the first half, forcing RSL to play narrow and allowing SJ to keep a compact shape. Philips is a much more offensively-minded full-back, and almost played as a wing-back in the final 20 minutes, taking up advanced positions. The additional width allowed RSL to unlock the San Jose defense, and probably could have clinched the game in the last quarter.
