RSL had a rough outing against the Rapids on Saturday
Real Salt Lake’s 3-1 loss at Colorado on Saturday night had it all. In terms of highlighting all of the things that are going wrong with the 2015 season, that is.
The list is becoming increasingly exhaustive, but RSL’s struggles were on full display against the Rapids, despite having the extra motivation of a rivalry match. Real had difficulty dictating the midfield, with first touches and passes going wayward; that led to disjointed play and more pressure on yet another new iteration of the back four.
And yet somehow RSL managed to put itself in a position to win behind Sebastian Jaime’s 79th-minute goal. Jaime’s fourth goal of the season came from well-executed play from Javier Morales and Joao Plata during the run of play, putting Real up by a goal with about ten minutes left to play.
That lead didn’t last long, however. Although RSL had dealt with Colorado’s 11 corner kicks throughout the match, poor marking on one of them gifted the Rapids the opportunity to level the match just two minutes later.
The wheels really fell off for Real in the 84th minute when Jaime was sent off for a retaliatory shove while the team was lining up for a set piece close to the Colorado goal. Down to 10 men, RSL conceded two more goals (the third coming at the last gasp after everyone had gone forward looking for an equalizer) — a rather humiliating outcome against Real’s Rocky Mountain Cup rivals and quite possibly a nail in the coffin for the team’s playoff hopes.
Red cards happen — they’re part of the game. Players come in late on tackles, get in altercations on the pitch, and make poor decisions. They’re happening far too often, though, as has been noted in this column previously — Jaime’s was the team’s seventh of the season. Disciplinary issues are gutting a team that has enough issues to deal with this season, and they’re something that are preventable.
The massive injury list is beyond anyone’s control, which has certainly affected team cohesion and chemistry. Nor can the coaching staff do much about international call-ups — that’s a consequence of having a mixture of senior international players and talented young players in the U-18/20/23 systems.
However, it doesn’t appear (at least from the outside) that Real has adequately prepared for, adapted to, and dealt with those absences. Tactically, RSL hasn’t adjusted well when key players are missing, whether it be Joao Plata, Javier Morales, or Kyle Beckerman. In addition, the club needs to make some moves in the transfer window to find some more impact players – while the ‘team is the star’ mentality is great, perhaps there are too many role players and not enough leaders on the current roster.
To add to that point, too many of the players don’t look like they want to fight for each other or for their coach. As a team, Real almost need some sort of external motivation such as a bad foul or refereeing decision to bring their effort up an extra notch. It’s impossible to speculate what is (or isn’t) being said at training or in the locker room at halftime of a match, but the mental aspect seems off — that becomes evident in the number of goals conceded in the last 15 minutes of matches this season.
Making this comparison may be unfair to a certain extent, but Real’s diminishing team chemistry is particularly glaring after having watched the recent Women’s World Cup. In the wake of a tournament in which the knockout rounds saw some excellent examples of sheer effort, team spirit, and focus led to critical wins, it’s hard to watch RSL flounder in that aspect of the game.
Yes, the loss in Colorado was just one game, but it’s a microcosm of so many of the problems that have plagued the team this season. There have been some notable moments this season — the away victories at San Jose and Chicago, the team’s success on free kicks, and the emergence of young RSL-bred players such as Jordan Allen, Sebastian Saucedo, Justen Glad, Boyd Okwuonu, and Phanuel Kavita, for example — but this season is slowly spiraling away from the promising start that it had.
