An already emotional day for Real Salt Lake coaches, players and fans Saturday just became a whole lot more interesting.
Nearly four months (118 days to be exact) after suffering a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot on the first day of preseason workouts, dynamic striker Joao Plata is hoping to make his long awaited return to the field at Rio Tinto Stadium Saturday against former teammates Chris Wingert and Ned Grabavoy, as well as former head coach Jason Kreis when the claret and cobalt take on the baby blues of New York City FC.
The 23-year-old Ecuadorian international first leaked his possible return with an Instagram post Thursday that featured the 5-foot-2 forward striking a curling shot in training with the caption “Saturday will be an amazing day for me.”
The optimistic photo on Thursday was followed by confirmation from RSL head coach Jeff Cassar on Friday that Plata would be available for selection into Saturday’s 18.
“He’s going to be available,” Cassar told ESPN 700 radio Friday afternoon. “It’s no surprise now. He’s worked extremely hard to get to this point. He still has some room to go with fitness, but he’s looked sharp and bright in training.”
A source close to RSL said that it is the club’s full intention to get Plata some playing time Saturday night against NYCFC, but that game conditions will affect exactly how much playing time that is. They are hopeful for 20 to 30 minutes at least, but that road games against the LA Galaxy and Vancouver Whitecaps in the coming week might also affect Plata’s minute total.
Coming into this season as the previous year’s leading goal scorer for RSL (13 goals, 6 assists in 26 games), Plata was supposed to lead the club into the 4-3-3 era as the forward pack’s most dangerous distributor and goal scorer. The injury and consequential surgery threw a major monkey wrench into Cassar’s plans as he had to try and go ahead with the formation change without his most important piece. The forward combination of Alavaro Saborio, Olmes Garcia and Sebastian Jaime didn’t exactly start a symphony of sound from the goal gong at Rio Tinto and when Jaime went down with a leg fracture early in the season, things looked bleak for the RSL offense.
Thanks to the efforts of midfielders Javier Morales (who will be missing his fourth straight game due to a concussion), Luke Mulholland and Jordan Allen, the club has been able to scrape by with some solid defense. Unfortunately, that defense has begun to crumble in recent weeks (i.e. a 4-1 defeat to Montreal last Saturday) and the team is in dire need of a consistent goal scorer.
With the return of Plata, some questions arise as to what exactly the club will do tactically. After sticking with the 4-3-3 early on in the season, Cassar and RSL have begun to experiment with their old 4-4-2 formation. The diamond formation didn’t exactly help when it was employed against the New England Revolution (a 4-0 defeat), but that was with a shorthanded 16-man roster for RSL. In recent weeks Cassar and company have been having mixed success by pushing wing-midfielders Luke Mulholland and Jordan Allen up the field closer to Luis Gill at the top to create a 4-1-3-2 with Beckerman anchoring the back and Saborio and Devon Sandoval up top.
It’s unclear whether RSL will start Saturday night’s match in the 4-1-3-2 or the 4-3-3. My best bet would be that they start in the 4-3-3 in hopes that Plata will be able to come in and get his first game feel in the new formation and create some scoring opportunities. The subtraction of Jordan Allen from the roster thanks to U.S. U-20 national team duty will also be a factor in the starting formation since the club will be minus one attacking midfielder.
Either way, Saturday night will be an entertaining one for the home crowd at Rio Tinto as they hope for the trifecta of three points, Plata’s return and a trouncing of Jason Kreis and his pretty, new expansion side.
Real Salt Lake and New York City FC will kickoff from Rio Tinto Stadium at 8:00 pm MST.
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
