Real Salt Lake suffered their first loss of 2015 Saturday night when the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps came into Rio Tinto Stadium and secured all three points with a 1-0 victory against a nine-man RSL squad.
There were plenty of missed opportunities for the claret and cobalt early on, none better than a whiffed clearance in the 4th minute that fell to the foot of Alvaro Saborio inside the box, but the Costa Rican striker was unable to beat the lone David Ousted and instead shanked the volley into the crowd behind the south goal.
RSL: Offensive Woes Taking their Toll
After some good defensive adjustments from Vancouver at halftime, the Whitecaps were able to maintain the majority of possession in the second half. Things began to unravel for RSL in the 76th minute when 18-year-old forward Sebastian “Bofo” Saucedo was shown a straight red for a studs-up tackle on Vancouver substitute Mauro Rosales. The Whitecaps worked quickly after the red card and scored with the one man advantage in the 80th minute when Russell Teibert crossed a ball towards Darren Mattocks who flicked the header into the bottom corner of Nick Rimando’s net.
Things only got worse for RSL when Jamison Olave was sent off after picking up his second yellow card of the match for a tactical foul on Mattocks in the 89th minute.
RSL did their best to push the ball forward with 6+ minutes of stoppage time, but the two man advantage for Vancouver proved to be too much to overcome as the Whitecaps became the first Canadian club to win at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Fans in Salt Lake knew that there would be some growing pains when RSL head coach Jeff Cassar announced that he was going to shift the team from the 4-4-2 diamond formation to a 4-3-3, but no one expected to see this many lackluster offensive performances from a club with plenty of offensive talent.
It doesn’t help your cause when your primary offensive catalyst in Javier Morales is out with calf strain like he was against Vancouver, but even with the 35-year-old Argentine in the lineup, RSL has struggled to create many chances in the run of play.
In their last three matches against San Jose, Kansas City and Vancouver, RSL has only managed to score one goal and it was a fluky one at that. Although Morales’ wonder strike against the Earthquakes was “technically” in the run of play, it came directly off of a free kick that hit the wall of defenders and was scored immediately after, so I would really count it as more of a set piece goal.
In those three games RSL was only able to manage seven shots on goal, 11 corner kicks and have only averaged 46.9 percent of the total possession. A far cry from a club that, in previous years, was so used to controlling possession and dominating the scoring chances even in draws and losses.
In the six matches played so far this season, RSL have only scored six goals with half of them coming in one game against the Philadelphia Union at Rio Tinto Stadium. Of those six goals, only two were scored during the run of play, both in a 2-1 victory over Toronto FC at home.
Cassar’s intentions for the formation switch was to take full advantage of the seemingly endless stable of talented forwards he had at his disposal, but injuries, missed chances and the ravages of time have put a damper on what Cassar surely thought would be an offensive juggernaut.
The most glaring negative for this RSL squad so far is the absence of the diminutive Joao Plata. The dynamic Ecuadorian is, by far, the most offensively gifted forward on the team and his combination of speed and shooting accuracy has been sorely missed while he recovers from a broken fifth metatarsal. The team has announced that, so far, Plata is recovering as expected and should be eyeing a return in early to mid-May.
The next thing that is most hampering to the RSL offense is the decline of Alvaro Saborio. While Saborio used to be the most dangerous man on the pitch for RSL, injuries and age have caught up with the 33-year-old striker and it looked no more apparent than it did against Vancouver on Saturday. Missed chances in the box, headers flicked right into keepers’ hands and turnovers in the attacking third have raised serious concerns as to whether Saborio should remain in the starting lineup. If it were up to me, I would rather see a youngster develop and save Sabo’s legs for crucial minutes late in matches.
Finally, the team’s young forwards have to step up and make a difference when they are called upon. RSL has fielded seven different forwards in their attack this year and only two have managed to score, Saborio on a PK against Philadelphia and Jordan Allen on a header against Toronto. That leaves Sebastian Jaime, Olmes Garcia, Devon Sandoval, Luis Gil and Sebastian Saucedo who have all recorded minutes but have scored no goals for their club. It is especially up to the experienced wide forwards like Jaime and Garcia to start creating more opportunities for the center forwards and midfielders with good service into the box. It seems as if the only player who has consistently given good service is Javier Morales and if that doesn’t change soon, the goal drought for RSL might continue for weeks to come.
Things don’t get any easier for the Salt Lake club as they travel to Massachusetts for a road clash against the defending Eastern Conference champions in the New England Revolution who are fresh off of a 2-1 comeback victory on the road against the Philadelphia Union. Kickoff is set for Saturday at 5:30 pm MST.
