At 2-0-2 Real Salt Lake still stand as the only undefeated team in the western conference and one of only two undefeated teams in the league alongside the New York Red Bulls (who have only played three matches on the year thus far).
RSL’s second victory of the season was secured Sunday in San Jose’s Avaya Stadium when ageless wonder Javier Morales scored off of a terrific volley from his own deflected free kick that struck the underside of the bar and beat Earthquakes keeper David Bingham for the game’s only goal.
After the match, head coach Jeff Cassar praised his team’s defensive performance.
“I thought it was probably our best performance all year,” Cassar said. “The commitment from the guys on the defensive end was off the charts. It was something we stressed all week long that think our defensive intensity is going to lead to offensive chances. I think on a different night we probably could have scored some more goals too, but the commitment defensively, the space that we limited them to was unbelievable.”
RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando earned his 117th all-time shutout on the day after returning to the team from international duty and echoed his coach’s sentiments on the defense.
“I thought the effort and commitment from the guys to defend was fantastic,” Rimando said. “On the road that’s what you need to pull out results … I think our chances came from us being a good, defensive organized team today. When we play good defense we get our chances and that’s the kind of team we are.”
Even Morales, who is known for is offensive aptitude more than anything else, had something to say about the quality of the team defense.
“Today, in my opinion, was the best game that the group played together,” Morales said. “I think today the most important thing for us was our commitment on the tackles, on getting the second balls, on the fights.”
Even though this was the first match all season that RSL did not win the possession battle, Morales’ words spoke volumes as to how the club dug down defensively as RSL won 73 of the 139 duels and won 10 more tackles (27) than the Earthquakes (17).
RSL left San Jose with three points in tow, but more importantly they are gaining momentum before one of the most toiling stretches of the season with matches against new western conference rival Sporting Kansas City, the western conference table-leading Vancouver Whitecaps and defending eastern conference champion New England in consecutive weeks.
Like RSL, Kansas City will enter Saturday’s matchup with a two game wining streak and will be fresh off of an astounding comeback against the Philadelphia Union at home where they scored two stoppage time goals en route to a 3-2 victory after looking very shaky on both sides of the ball for most of the match.
Both teams have struggled to grant their forwards many opportunities to score early in the season. RSL and SKC each have six goals to their names but only two from each team have been scored by forwards. RSL had a penalty converted by Alvaro Saborio against Philadelphia and a late winner from Jordan Allen against TFC. SKC’s only goals from forwards have come from Krisztian Nemeth and Dom Dwyer who both scored against Philadelphia Saturday.
So where has the scoring come from?
RSL has relied heavily on Morales to score from set pieces, and he has done just that with two goals and three assists already on the season.
SKC have also done damage from set pieces as well as their secret weapon, the long throw in.
For an opposing fan, there’s nothing more terrifying than watching a Matt Besler throw that whips its way into the box just waiting for a big defender like Ike Opara to get his head on it. RSL is going to have to limit these chances by being surgical in their offensive execution and not allowing too many balls to slip past the touch line in their defensive third.
SKC, on the other hand, will need to do what they did against the Union in the final 10 minutes and attack, attack, attack. On the defensive side, they need to ensure that they do not give Morales any dangerous free kick opportunities just outside the 18-yard box and keep the RSL midfielders from creating chances for themselves.
This might be easier said than done as the 35-year-old Morales has continually run around much younger defenders so far this season and has looked dangerous in every game so far for the claret and cobalt.
RSL star midfielder Kyle Beckerman said that he has the utmost confidence in Morales’ playmaking ability and that he is the catalyst for the RSL offensive attack.
“I believe every time he shoots that he’s going to score,” said Beckerman who materialized that thought when he raised his arms in triumph before Morales’ free kick had crossed the goal line. “He works really had at his craft, he’s constantly working hard in practice and you’re seeing it in the games. We want to get him the ball as much as possible.
Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City will kick off from Sporting Park at 6:30 pm MST.
