Javier Morales’ return has been one of the few bright spots for RSL this week
If this last week is any indication, Real Salt Lake’s season is in trouble.
Finishing out a difficult month with two matches on the road, at LA and at Vancouver, RSL sustained two defeats to Western Conference opponents. Real will start the month sitting second from the bottom of the conference standings — a real concern when many starters are expected to participate in the Gold Cup and other international tournaments during the summer months.
There’s not much the coaches and players can do about international call-ups, injuries, or the other external factors that will and have already affected this season. What they can do, however, is make some improvements to their approach to matches.
One of RSL’s biggest problems remains speed of play, both on and off the ball. Every team in MLS knows that Real likes to move the ball methodically out of the back, taking multiple touches and trying to build attacking situations from there. Both the Galaxy and Whitecaps took advantage of that, pressuring RSL both in the midfield and in Real’s defensive third; their efforts paid off in the form of goals after mistakes from RSL when it held the ball.
On the other side of the ball, that shows up in runs off the ball. Attacks sputter out too often because the decisions and runs aren’t being made quickly — the player with the ball either has the option of trying to find a teammate hidden behind two defenders, or simply hitting the ball vertically.
That reactive approach often results in the midfield being pulled out of shape as well. Gaps form and the shapes resemble blobs or lines more than they do classical passing “triangles”.
Using diagonal balls and utilizing the width of the field, rather than trying to force the ball through the center with five-yard-passes, could help create more space to operate and reduce the chances of an individual mistake with the ball being as disastrous as it was against both LA and Vancouver this past week.
That’s not to say that RSL’s players aren’t playing hard or not making an effort — there have been plenty of instances where a forward tracked back into the defensive third to atone for a mistake, a defender shut down a key opponent, and so on. Rather, it seems to be a systemic problem throughout the team. Whether that’s a tactical decision, a fitness issue, or lack of mental preparation is difficult to say, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
Right now, Real doesn’t look like a playoff-caliber side. In the very competitive Western Conference, no team can coast into playoff contention this season — if RSL has any aspirations to make the playoffs, advance deep into the US Open Cup, or make it out of the group stages of the CONCACAF Champions League, the team simply has to improve.
While the return of Javier Morales and Joao Plata will undoubtedly give Real more spark up front, Morales and Plata can’t be the only two players to take the initiative and make things happen. In the months ahead, RSL will need a massive change in approach in order to meet the challenges it will face.
