While Joao Plata scored the game-winning goal in Real Salt Lake’s 1-0 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night, the unsung hero of the night was Nick Rimando.
RSL’s goalkeeping phenomenon made five critical saves, including several massive efforts during the first half, to earn his first shutout of the season and preserve Real’s unbeaten 2016 league record. Not bad for someone who missed last week’s match at Kansas City with an ankle injury.
Although RSL would go on to win the match, the first half was less-than-stellar despite having the home advantage. Real wasn’t able to generate much going forward, gave the ball up more than it would have liked in the midfield, and relied on some spectacular individual efforts from Rimando and Aaron Maund to keep the score even going into halftime.
Defensively, Real looked a little shaky early on as Maund and Justen Glad had a little difficulty getting their timing right on the offside trap, but the back four grew more confident as the match wore on. The Rapids would go on to out-shoot RSL 14-11 throughout the match, with shots on goal also in Colorado’s favor at 6-4.
Why was Real struggling so much in the first half? Tactically, the combination of Luke Mulholland, Kyle Beckerman, and Sunny Obayan didn’t seem to work particularly well — using three midfielders who like to sit back without a strong creative presence threw the team balance off a bit. Burrito Martinez kept trying to drop back in order to create, but found himself in a crowded central midfield without many options.
RSL relied on a lot of two-yard passes without much purpose in the first half, keeping possession but failing to create many chances. Colorado did a good job at stifling play in the midfield, and Real kept looking for vertical balls forward — which, considering the height differential between Plata (5’2″) and the Rapids’ Axel Sjöberg (6’7″), went about as well as one would think.
In fact, Plata, who has been one of the keys to Real’s success this season, didn’t see much of the ball at all in the first half. That started to change after the halftime break, but it was the introduction of Javier Morales in the 64th minute that really jump-started RSL’s attack. It was a somewhat risky substitution, given that Morales is recovering from a rib injury and entering a match that was fairly physical and even chippy at times, but the risk paid off.
Morales found the ball in his own half but with plenty of space to operate, saw Plata making a run off to the right, and delivered a through-ball into space that played perfectly into Plata’s ability to create havoc within opposing defenses. Sjöberg attempted to play the ball, while Rapids goalkeeper Zac MacMath came out at the same time. Plata’s presence caused Sjöberg to chip the ball over MacMath, then Plata ran onto the ball and guided it home for a bizarre but critical goal.
Late in the match, RSL probably should have had a second goal when Yura Movsisyan made a great run off the ball and got behind the Colorado defense, beating MacMath. However, the goal was called back for offside in what looked to be an incorrect call in retrospect.
Fortunately, one goal would be enough for Real, despite the Rapids trying to press forward in stoppage time. That’s largely down to Rimando, who earned his 124th career shutout with the victory.
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