Real Salt Lake were depleted for their match against the New England Revolution on Saturday night, and it showed.
RSL were not even able to fill out their bench as only 16 RSL players traveled to Foxborough to take on the Revolution. The visitors were unable to withstand New England's offensive barrage, despite an eye-popping performance from RSL goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, and lost 4-0 in a blowout.
Real Salt Lake were missing a handful of regular starters due to international callups, suspensions and injuries and the final score reflected it. The Revs spread the scoring around and peppered Attinella's goal all match long with a total of 25 shots.
Revolution defender Chris Tierney opened the floodgates in the 39th minute when he faked a one-time cross before cutting the ball back inside the 18-yard box and curling a right-footed shot that kissed off the far post and into the net. Four minutes later, Juan Agudelo had the easy tap-in goal after an angled Charlie Davies shot was initially stopped by Attinella.
“Just a bad five minutes,” RSL midfielder Luke Mulholland said after the match. “The first half hour we were playing good football, doing well, connecting passes and looking to score, looking dangerous. But then, out of nowhere, we weren’t able to clear our lines, second balls were falling to them and obviously as soon as the first goal went in, we’ve got to try to get into halftime just 1-0 and we let ourselves down and conceded a second goal within five minutes.”
Things only got worse from there.
Davies and Scott Caldwell each added their own goals in the second half as the Revolution completely outclassed the RSL defense.
RSL head coach Jeff Cassar was at a loss after the match, making it clear that it would be tough to salvage anything from the drubbing. He did highlight the performance of his goalkeeper, Attinella, as the lone bright spot.
“There are not many positives to take away from this game,” Cassar said. “I thought Jeff Attinella’s performance was outstanding.”
Attinella recorded an astounding nine saves throughout the match, which says a lot considering the Revolution still managed to put four into the back of the net. In fact, Attinella’s nine saves in the match are only one shy of Rimando’s season total of 10.
Mulholland felt the same as his coach and lamented that the team couldn’t have rewarded the goalkeeper’s outstanding performance better.
“Jeff Attinella had a great game and I feel sorry for him,” Mulholland said. “The fact that he conceded four goals, you know?
“You just need to look yourself in the mirror," Mulholland continued, "and count yourself as a player for the team that’s going to step up and give it your all every time you get to put the jersey on.”
