CHESTER, Pa. — After going winless in six straight heading into Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Union, Real Salt Lake figured they might need something to bounce their way to snap the skid.
Turns out, they got two of the best goals of their season. And after RSL's 2-1 win at Talen Energy Stadium, their coach, teammates and opposing players alike all pegged Joao Plata’s and Javier Morales’ golazos as “world class.”
“It was just [about] keep believing because over the last month we’ve played some of our best soccer ever and we haven’t been rewarded,” RSL head coach Jeff Cassar said. “They were world-class [goals] in my opinion from Joao and Javi, and sometimes it takes that to break the dam open.”
The goals came within six minutes of each other in the second half as Plata delivered the equalizer with a perfectly placed curler from just outside the box that hit off the crossbar and into the net — a strike that Union winger Chris Pontius called a “goal of the year candidate.”
Morales then netted the winner when he caught Union goalie Andre Blake off the line and floated it in with a perfect shot of his own.
“Those were two world-class goals,” RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando. “And with our special players, we expect them to do that.”
Rimando once again proved to be pretty special himself, making a big save late in the contest to preserve RSL’s first win since June 22. He also set the MLS record for career regular-season starts with 412, passing Kevin Hartman. He now needs to play in just five more games to break the all-time MLS record for appearances, which Hartman currently holds with 416.
“I think this year I don’t want to say my focus is on it, but it’s so close that I do want to have it,” Rimando admitted. “I want to have those records and put my name on those sheets. And I believe I can get there.”
Rimando also tied Hartman for the most wins in MLS history with 180.
Cassar praised Rimando’s performance, saying the 37-year-old “looked really confident tonight” before predicting that “there’s a lot more wins for him to get” following his record-breaking night.
And the RSL coach believes that Sunday’s win — the first of a two-game road trip with RSL heading to Toronto on Wednesday — can be the springboard they need to get those wins after struggling to get results for much of the past month.
“The way things have been going for us, we’ve been getting ties and we said we want to get wins,” Cassar said. “We’d rather get one win than two ties [on the road trip] and we came in aggressive. We felt that this would be our game with the best energy level.
“I love the goals, they were beautiful,” he added. “But the one thing I’m so excited about is guys just sacrificing themselves — and that’s what you need to get results on the road.”
