Real Salt Lake are getting results, and they don’t much care how it looks.
The Claret-and-Cobalt – fresh off a scoreless draw on the road against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday that gave the team a 2-0-3 record – haven’t been hammering the goalmouth with shots, but the team is playing solid defense and the players are confident that the goals will come.
They’ve also done it in some tough road environments – recording clean sheets in all three of their matches away from Rio Tinto Stadium – while developing a new formation and dealing with the absences of key players through injury and international duty.
“I’m happy with where we stand in the table, and I’m happy with where we are as a team,” RSL head coach Jeff Cassar said after practice Tuesday. “We’re fourth in the league in scoring and third in the league with goals against. That’s pretty good, considering we have a lot of players out, and we’re doing some different things. Our mentality is right.”
Saturday’s match was especially impressive on the defensive end, with RSL holding the home team to just one shot on goal. RSL defender Tony Beltran said it’s not the time to worry about the attack, saying the team is focused on getting better every week.
“Throughout any season there’s going to be highs and lows in terms of attacking opportunities or defensive capabilities,” Beltran said. “You’ve just got to stay focused through those, and I’m sure the goals will be coming soon.”
Cassar also pointed to a lack of precision in the final third as a reason for their offensive struggles.
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“It’s also our passes,” Cassar said. “That final ball has to be a beautiful final ball. It can’t be almost. I think if you look at San Jose [a 1-0 win on April 5], we probably had six or seven, if the pass is just a hair better, it’s a goalscoring chance. So we’re really close.”
RSL midfielder Luke Mulholland said their upcoming home game, Saturday against the high-scoring Vancouver Whitecaps (9:30 pm ET; TSN1), is a perfect time to get the attack right.
“I think we just have to make sure that we’re still in the game at halftime more importantly on the road, but definitely at home,” he said. “Naturally you’re going to be more aggressive as the home team. The away team is coming there and saying, ‘Come at us.’ So there are plenty of positives to take from the away games. We just need to start picking up some wins at home.”
