Real Salt Lake made some calculated decisions this week regarding the CONCACAF Champions League, MLS play, and the US Open Cup that could affect the rest of the team’s season.
Prioritizing the two knockout competitions, head coach Jeff Cassar and his staff made some tough roster choices that resulted in two very different results — a solid if unspectacular 1-0 CCL win in Guatemala over CSD Municipal, followed by a rather embarrassing 4-0 shellacking at the hands of the Vancouver Whitecaps in league play.
Going into the month of August, the club made a lot of its upcoming schedule, even publishing an infographic detailing all the miles RSL will put in during its long away swing. Clearly, Cassar would have to make some difficult lineup choices in order to balance the demands of competition with the wear-and-tear it would take on the aging core of his roster.
Running out a standard lineup in Guatemala was no surprise, as the club places a lot of stock in the CCL. That move paid off with a crucial win on the road, a result made even more significant by the fact that Real has often struggled away from Rio Tinto Stadium this season.
However, the lineup that Cassar fielded on Saturday night in Vancouver was surprising, comprised mostly of young players and reserves. Only two players were held over from Tuesday’s match in Guatemala — Elias Vasquez and Olmes Garcia.
Three homegrown players — Justen Glad, Phanuel Kavita, and Sebastian Saucedo — were in the starting lineup. It was Saucedo’s first MLS start (although he has come in as a substitute on several occasions), Kavita’s second, and Glad’s sixth. Luis Silva also got his first start after joining the team late last month in a trade from DC United.
Although Aaron Maund, Luke Mulholland, and Sebastian Jaime were on the bench (all three went unused even as substitutes), several regulars didn’t even make the trip to Canada. Javier Morales, Joao Plata, Kyle Beckerman, Nick Rimando, and Tony Beltran remained in Salt Lake City, as the coaching staff looked ahead toward a US Open Cup semi-final in Kansas City next Wednesday. Given the history that RSL has with Sporting and the fact that the Open Cup is Real’s best chance for a trophy this season, that upcoming match has taken on even more weight.
The initial decision to go with such a youth-oriented roster in Vancouver — and the subsequent decisions that kept the likes of Mulholland on the bench throughout the match — did indeed give the core of the team a rest, but it also set a precarious precedent.
Ultimately, following this strategy is likely to be disastrous for Real’s playoff hopes. The remaining regular season schedule is fairly even between home and away matches against Western Conference opposition — there are no long home stands to rely on to rack up points and avoid travel ahead. Crucially, only two of those are against teams that currently sit below RSL in the standings (San Jose and Colorado).
Real has two more CCL matches to play in September (one home and one away) that are nestled in between meetings with Houston, LA, and San Jose. Throw in the possibility of a US Open Cup final on September 29 or 30, and the madness continues up to an October 4 fixture in Colorado.
Obviously, balancing all three competitive fronts equally is impossible given MLS roster sizes. But Saturday’s match took on a tinge of throwing the reserves to the wolves — the Whitecaps are certainly playing well enough to earn the comparison this year — one saw no natural leadership, a lack of team cohesion (the kind that comes from playing together and trusting each other), a lot of nerves, and the appearance of a laissez-faire attitude from the coaching staff.
On the other hand, Tuesday’s win in Guatemala was incredibly important to the club and to many of the players. RSL managed to score very early and hang onto its lead for essentially 90 minutes — no easy feat in any match, but particularly on the road in a competition where some element of national pride is involved.
Plata’s game-winning strike seemed to catch Municipal off-guard, and RSL was able to capitalize on that to keep the Guatemalans at bay in the first half. Even the infamous former MLSer Carlos Ruiz couldn’t quite find an equalizer, with Rimando and the woodwork conspiring to preserve the scoreline. Both sides had chances in the second half, but Real earned the victory in the end.
However, the Vancouver match was another matter entirely. Apparently, the hope would have been that Real could replicate the result it earned in a September 2013 visit up north. In that match, RSL fielded a side of primarily reserve players and managed to pull off a 1-0 victory; the result dealt a blow to the Caps’ playoff hopes and has stuck in the Canadian club’s collective memory ever since.
Clearly, it’s not 2013 anymore. For starters, Vancouver currently sits atop the Western Conference standings, while Real is in danger of missing the playoffs.
Then there was the match itself. There were some glimpses of good soccer from RSL early in the first half; Silva was connecting passes well, and Real managed to find a few half-chances. However, things started unraveling for the visitors in the sixth minute when the Whitecaps converted a penalty kick and took a 1-0 lead.
The early penalty put RSL in a bad position — it was a dubious decision by referee Chris Penso, as Octavio Rivero’s legs seemed to get caught unintentionally as everyone was looking away toward the incoming free kick — but the young side seemed to handle the situation at first.
Once Vancouver scored its second goal just before halftime, however, things deteriorated very quickly. The Whitecaps took RSL’s midfield completely out of the match, defended well, and could have scored several more goals if not for a few great saves from both Jeff Attinella and the woodwork. Most significantly, though, the Caps were strong throughout the match, keeping up the speed and quality of play even after getting a multiple-goal lead.
Meanwhile, RSL went into a total meltdown. Cassar was ejected from the match in the 29th minute; although he claimed after that it was “totally uncalled for”, it’s the second time he’s been dismissed from the field in the last month. He was ejected — albeit after the final whistle — in RSL’s 3-1 loss at Colorado on July 11 and subsequently missed the team’s victory over Houston on the 18th.
As the second half wore on and Real grew more frustrated, it seemed almost inevitable that someone would lose it and get themselves sent off. Sure enough, Abdoulie Mansally was given a straight red in the 88th minute. Although it didn’t have an impact on Saturday’s result other than piling onto the embarrassment, the resulting suspension will keep him out of another critical Western Conference match against Portland next weekend.
To be fair, if the regulars have had meltdowns of their own on the road throughout the season (see New England, Montreal, Colorado, DC), it seems unlikely that the kids, with little experience to draw on in these situations, would fare much better against one of the best teams in the league. Saturday’s outing rang pretty true in that regard, with midfielders giving the ball away, defenders failing to mark, and mistakes piling on top of each other as the match went on.
Two moments that the camera caught demonstrated just how bad things had gotten. First, Attinella was shown shouting desperately at the players in front of him to mark up defensively, as it appeared that particular skill had been forgotten. Second, the broadcast lingered on the look on Justen Glad’s face as he was substituted and jogged off the field in the second half — he looked bewildered, beaten down, and angry all at the same time.
It was obviously an awful night for RSL both in terms of the standard of play and the result. The club will need the youngsters who featured in Vancouver to handle it well and not let the experience affect their attitudes or their confidence. With few of them expected to play much on Wednesday, that won’t necessarily be easy as just “getting back out on the pitch again”.
A lot hangs on the outcome of Wednesday’s match in Kansas City. Will the sacrifices that Cassar and his staff made in league play pay off? Will it be worth the embarrassment in Vancouver? Worth dropping three points as the likes of Portland and Houston gained them, making the playoff race even more complicated?
Wednesday night will certainly be telling.
