For the second time this season, Real Salt Lake is left licking its wounds after a blowout road loss, this time in a 4-1 loss to the Montreal Impact Saturday at Saputo Stadium. Now with another challenge ahead in New York City FC making its lone trip to Rio Tinto Stadium this season on Saturday, RSL has an opportunity to right the ship if it can make the proper adjustments this week.
“We’ll just regroup. The spirit of the team is good,” Head Coach Jeff Cassar said after the match. “We have to focus on ourselves first and then focus on the strengths of NYCFC. And then go from there.”
Through the first six matches of the season, defense had been the hallmark of the club. Even with a 3-3 draw against the Philadelphia Union in the mix, RSL had allowed just five goals through April 18 before a 4-0 loss to the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.
The team recovered quickly from that defeat though and came back with a three-match unbeaten run in which it allowed just two goals in going 1-0-2. So while there is reason for optimism, it is also clear that allowing a big number on defense cannot be a trend that continues if RSL hopes to keep its streak of seven straight playoff appearances alive.
“We’ve just got to do better. Look at ourselves in the mirror and keep moving. We’re far from perfect now. We’re far from good. So we just have to fight first and continue to improve because it’s a long season,” goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. “We know how good we can be and what kind of team we can be. It’s about getting these games together and being consistent with it.”
That consistency on the defensive side goes beyond Rimando and his back four, though. Rimando pointed out that when they have found success defensively it has been when the team defends as an 11-man unit. When things get disjointed, that’s when RSL has struggled to keep opponents off the board.
“It’s a great teaching tool. You can’t throw caution to the wind and have five players in advance of the ball and then turn the ball over cheaply,” Cassar said. “It doesn’t matter what formation you’re playing or what opponent you’re playing. That’s a problem. We’re still working. It’s still early in the year and we have things to improve on.”
After a travel day on Sunday, RSL had the day off on Monday and will return to training on Tuesday to prepare for Saturday’s match with NYCFC.
