For the first time in club history Real Salt Lake will play a regular season home game on a Sunday when Toronto FC comes to Rio Tinto Stadium on March 28th.
Unfortunately, those who were hoping to see a star-studded TFC lineup featuring the likes of Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore will not get their wish as they have been called in by U.S. Men’s National Team coach Jurgen Klinssman for international duty.
Depth is Key for RSL vs TFC
Even worse for Salt Lake fans is the fact that five RSL players have also been called in to their respective national teams. Goalkeeper Nick Rimando will join Bradley and Altidore with the senior USMNT for friendlies against Denmark and Switzerland while midfielder Luis Gil and defender Boyd Okwuonu will join the US U-23’s for friendlies against Denmark and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Star forward Alvaro Saborio will miss time while he joins the Costa Rican national team for a pair of friendlies against Paraguay and Panama and finally defender Elias Vasquez will stay in the US with the Guatemalan national team for friendlies against Canada and El Salvador.
As if a slew of national team call-ups weren’t the only issue, both teams also face some injury woes.
RSL is still without last year’s leading goal scorer in Joao Plata who is still recovering from a broken fifth metatarsal in his foot suffered early in the preseason.
TFC has numerous injuries of their own as defenders Steven Caldwell (calf), Mark Bloom (quad) and Eriq Zavaleta (ankle) are all listed as questionable for Sunday’s game while defender Damien Perquis is listed as probable with a minor calf strain according to an article on TFC’s website.
Needless to say, depth on both rosters will be the deciding factor in Sunday’s matchup at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Over the past five years, RSL has prided itself on having one of the deepest rosters in all of Major League Soccer and has used that depth to continually record results while players are away with injuries or on national duty. Thanks to monetary issues and this year’s MLS expansion draft, the 2015 team is not as deep as it has been in years past, but there are still plenty of valuable players lying in wait for opportunities like this to emerge.
Perhaps the most difficult player to replace on Sunday will be goalkeeper Nick Rimando who has become the glue that keeps this aging team together and gets them out of more than a few tight spots.
Rimando’s spot in the starting lineup will be filled by capable backup Jeff “Agua Gato” Attinella who continues to make brilliant saves in just about every appearance he makes for the claret and cobalt. Attinella’s future was in question when RSL signed goalkeeper Josh Saunders in 2013 to be Rimando’s backup, but a torn ACL suffered by Saunders merely a third into the season gave Attinella the chance to be the hero at goalkeeper during the summer of 2013 when Rimando was away for the Gold Cup.
While not as skilled and quick as Rimando, Attinella has the more prototypical body type for a goalkeeper and has shown the ability to make some fantastic reaction saves between the pipes. He’s had his ups (holding SKC to a scoreless draw in 2014) and downs (allowing four goals at Seattle in 2014), but don’t be surprised to see the young goalkeeper make a few big saves for Salt Lake on Sunday.
While the attacking presence of Luis Gil in the midfield will be missed, RSL has a featured starter from 2014 ready to take his spot. Englishman Luke Mulholland exploded onto the MLS scene last season, recording six goals and seven assists in his first season with RSL after spending two years at the NASL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Mulholland isn’t quite as quick on the ball as Gil, but he’s just as, if not more dangerous when getting forward into the attack. His accurate passing in the attacking third should give some of the backup forwards at least a few chances to get a shot on goal and test the hands of TFC goalkeeper Joe Bendik.
Finally, RSL will have to fill the massive void left by Saborio in the middle of the 4-3-3 attack. This could be the chance of a lifetime for new Argentine DP Sebastian Jaime to score his first goal for the club if he’s thrust into the middle of the forward pack. Jaime will be joined up top by young Columbian Olmes Garcia, who recorded his first assist of the season against Philadelphia.
The final forward spot will be filled by either Jordan Allen or Devon Sandoval. While Allen doesn’t have the minute total of Sandoval, he has made appearances in both of RSL’s matches in 2015 coming in for Jaime in the second half and adding width to the field underneath Saborio and Garcia. Sandoval didn’t have quite the season he would have hoped for in 2014 but he has proven that he can be a contributor up front in a pinch. Sandoval scored three goals in his rookie campaign in 2013 including a goal against Portland in the first leg of the Western Conference Finals.
RSL will need all of these backups to step up their games and still have the continued production of veterans Chris Schuler, Jamison Olave, Tony Beltran, Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales in order to stop a talented TFC squad who will be led by newly acquired Italian midfielder Sebastian Giovinco.
Giovinco, who spent the past decade with Italian power Juventus before transferring to TFC, will look to stay high and attack an RSL backline that looked more than a bit shaky in their last match against Philadelphia where they allowed three goals against the Union.
RSL head coach Jeff Cassar told the Salt Lake Tribune that his squad has to be good with the ball in order to nullify Giovinco.
“He’s intelligent, his movement is fantastic,” Cassar said. “He shows up in a lot of different areas of the field and if you leave gaps open, he’ll find the ball, get it and turn and go at you, so we have to be extremely mindful of him.”
RSL will take on TFC at Rio Tinto Stadium at 5:00 pm MST and the match will be nationally broadcast on FOX Sports 1.
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