Real Salt Lake 2 @ LA Galaxy 5
April 23, 2016; Carson, Calif.; StubHub Center
Real Salt Lake (4-1-2, 14 points); LA Galaxy (4-1-2, 14 points)
Man of the Match: With RSL down 4-1 at halftime, Head Coach Jeff Cassar brought Javier Morales into the match. He missed the previous week due to illness and had been limited prior to that because of a fractured rib, so he wasn’t ready to play extended minutes. But in his 45 minutes, Morales contributed to a change in the tone of the match. In that time, he created eight scoring chances and took three shots of his own, including his first goal of the season on a penalty to cut the lead to 4-2. After notching 25 goals and 34 assists in the previous three seasons, Saturday saw his first goal or assist.
Telling Stat: In 11 of RSL’s last 22 road games across all competitions, Salt Lake has allowed three or more goals. That dates back to a 4-0 loss to the New England Revolution on April 25, 2015. In those 22 matches, RSL has allowed 49 goals for a 2.23 goals against average. Before the loss to New England, RSL had three road shutouts to start the 2015 season.
What You Missed: Saturday marked GK Nick Rimando’s 400th career MLS regular season appearance. He is just the second player in MLS history to reach that milestone. He is also the only player with more than 250 matches played with each of his appearances coming as a starter. Tony Meola started in all 250 matches he appeared in and is second on the list.
So What: Cassar was limited in his lineup choices Saturday because of injuries. While Morales and Sunday Stephen were both on the bench after missing last week’s match altogether, Joao Plata missed the match when he suffered an injury in training. He is expected to miss 7-10 days and could be available when RSL hosts the Houston Dynamo on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. Adding to that list was a quad injury suffered by Juan Manuel Martinez after he scored to put RSL up 1-0 over the Galaxy. His status for Saturday was unclear after the match.
