MLSsoccer.com continue our look back at the 2014 season that was for all 19 clubs in Major League Soccer, starting with the Montreal Impact and ending with the MLS Cup-winning LA Galaxy. We'll also take a peek at the two new clubs coming in and pour one out for departed friends Chivas USA. You can find the 2014 Year in Review HERE and the club-by-club history of MLS HERE.
2014 record: 15-8-11 (56 points); 54 GF / 39 GA (+15 GD)
After losing the 2013 MLS Cup title in a shootout in frigid Kansas City, it was back-to-the-final-or-bust for Real Salt Lake in 2014. Turned out it was bust, as RSL went out in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs after an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the LA Galaxy in the Western Conference Semifinals.
They said it...
RSL right back Tony Beltran on Landon Donovan:
"He battered me. He was on another level. He is an incredible player, and he had so much desire tonight. He is class. He is going to finish his chances. He is going to punish you, and that is what he did.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando:
"This is not only my record [for his 113th shutout]. My name is on it but there are a lot of guys that should be getting credit for this too. Nat Borchers, Eddie Pope, Ryan Nelsen, Chris Schuler, Tony Beltran — there are a lot of players. Man, I’ve been around a long time. But there are a lot of people that need to get credit for the record that I achieved tonight.”
Team captain Kyle Beckerman:
"We hear from some of the Americans we see in the hotels and stuff. They kind of let us know that it's kind of crazy back in the States, that everybody's been really going gung-ho for the Word Cup games.”
The team made almost no player moves heading into the 2014 season. The big change was on the bench, with Jeff Cassar replacing Jason Kreis as the head coach and bringing an entirely new staff with him.
New faces on the sideline, but the same diamond midfield with Kyle Beckerman cleaning up deep, Javier Morales pulling the strings and emphasis on possession made this feel, in a lot of ways, like the old Real Salt Lake - and they got out of the gates very much like a team that knows exactly what it's about. RSL opened the season on a 12-game unbeaten streak (6-0-6), cruised to their seventh consecutive playoff berth and, for the fifth season in a row, totaled at least 15 wins and 53 points.
But after a loss in their opening US Open Cup game and the early playoff exit, the only thing RSL had to show for their season was the Rocky Mountain Cup after going 3-0 against rival Colorado. The quest for league-wide silverware continues, and this offseason has already seen more movement than fans are accustomed to in the high desert.
Best Moment of the Year
There's a Part A and a Part B to this. After going down a man early in the second half at Colorado on Aug. 2, Real Salt Lake clung to a 1-0 lead for 47-plus minutes, and goalkeeper Nick Rimando fended off the Rapids to claim his 112th career shutout, tying the all-time MLS record. It came only after Rimando saved a 30-yard rocket from Colorado forward Deshorn Brown in the 90th minute. Eight days later, the record was all Rimando's as he recorded his 113th shutout in an easy 3-0 win over D.C. United. He only had to make two saves in the match, but the celebration was big nonetheless.
Worst Moment of the Year
Without a shadow of a doubt, Real Salt Lake's 5-0 loss to the Galaxy in the second leg of their conference semifinal series was the low point – arguably the lowest point since before RSL won the MLS Cup in 2009. Only once in their history have the Claret-and-Cobalt suffered a worse defeat (a 6-0 loss to New York in 2006, RSL's second year of play), and the team that went into the game sounding confident was never in it. It was a high-profile humiliation.
Best Goal
For its timing alone, Alvaro Saborío's game-winning, 77th-minute goal in a 2-1 win over FC Dallas on Sept. 6 was nothing short of surreal. Sabo, who hadn't been in the RSL lineup for 118 days after breaking a bone in his foot training with the Costa Rican national team, entered the game as a sub and, just 13 second later, headed in a corner kick from Morales. It set off one of the loudest cheers ever heard in Rio Tinto Stadium, and felt like a harbinger of things to come.
Team MVP
It was a breakout year for Joao Plata, who lead the team in scoring with 13 goals and added six assists. A constant source of energy while he was on the field, you had to wonder what might have been had he not missed eight complete games (and parts of other matches) with injuries and national-team duty. The diminutive forward – he's generously listed at 5-foot-2 – even scored a pair of goals on headers, showing a knack for finding free space on restarts and from the run of play. Plata was able to provide answers with his on-the-ball creativity and vision, single-handedly making up for what have to be termed as "down" years for the rest of the forward corps.
Best Move
Midfielder Luke Mulholland, who was scouted by Cassar when the 25-year-old Englishman played for Tampa Bay of the NASL, came to Salt Lake and made an immediate impact. He appeared in 31 games and started 24, scoring six goals and adding seven assists. His play wasn't perfect – his foolish, ninth-minute red card at Chivas in a 1-0 loss June 28 cost his team points – but Mulholland quickly became a solid contributor, a tireless shuttler on the side of the diamond and one who kept talented youngster Luis Gil on the bench for long stretches. With Ned Grabavoy off to NYCFC, Mulholland will surely enter 2015 as a starter.
Quotable
“I think we need to win something, to win a cup: Open Cup, MLS Cup, CONCACAF. Something. Because I think if you see this team and the numbers, [they're] pretty good for the last five years. … But I think we need to win something. I hope next year we win something.” – Midfielder Javier Morales, pointing to the fact that RSL has 78 regular-season wins and 276 points since the start of the 2010 season without any silverware
Three Offseason Needs
With Craig Waibel installed as technical director to replace outgoing general manager Garth Lagerwey, his task includes keeping things Real on the field:
1.
Healthy (and available) strikers
: RSL's all-time leading scorer, Saborío, appeared in only 16 MLS games in 2014 because of a broken foot and international duty with Costa Rica. It was the second year in a row Sabo played in fewer than half of RSL's games. Plata, who led the team in scoring in 2014 with 13 goals, missed eight games (and parts of others) with injuries and call-ups to the Eduadorian national team.
Sebastian Jaime
,
Olmes Garcia
,
Devon Sandoval
and the since-departed
Robbie Findley
simply were not able to pick up the slack, and the team suffered for it.
2. A starting left back: The team has re-signed Absdoulie Mansally with an eye toward this position, and Cassar said RSL are close to signing another player. But Chris Wingert's departure for NYCFC in the expansion draft leaves the team without the man who had started at left back since 2007, playing nearly 17,000 minutes. Wingert may not have been a game-changer, but RSL's style demands positional understanding first and foremost – something that's hard to impart upon newcomers, no matter how experienced.
3. Depth: Given the departures of Grabavoy, Wingert and Nat Borchers (traded to Portland, replaced by the re-acquired Jamison Olave), Real Salt Lake may choose to promote players like Mulholland, Gil and Mansally to the starting lineup. But in a 2015 campaign that will see RSL return to the CONCACAF Champions League, depth behind the starting 11 is going to be a requisite, especially at center back, where at least one addition will be necessary. On the whole, that means more production from Cole Grossman, John Stertzer and Sebastian Velasquez in midfield, more matruty from Homegrown Players Jordan Allen, Justen Glad and Sebastian Saucedo, and more smart pick-ups (via draft, USL PRO or international signing) from the front office. Paging Mr. Waibel …
