SAN JOSE, Calif.—If there was a silver lining for Real Salt Lake during their dismal opening half to the 2017 campaign, it was that the club’s crop of promising youngsters is being given valuable experience. Take Saturday, for example.
Six of the club’s 11 players on the pitch at the conclusion of RSL’s 2-1 defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night came through the franchise’s vaunted academy program, with five of them signed originally to Homegrown Player contracts. That group included Jose Hernandez, the 21-year-old rookie midfielder out of UCLA who scored his first MLS goal with what was basically the final kick of the game. He took a pass from fellow Homegrown product Sebastian Saucedo into space at the top of San Jose’s area and hit a grounded shot past onrushing Quakes goalkeeper David Bingham.
“It’s a very joyful moment for myself,” Hernandez said. “Bittersweet, because of the result, but I think it’s the beginning of something good, hopefully …; I think [playing the half-dozen academy grads] speaks very highly of the club’s focus on young guys. I think the future is bright.”
Keeping up that optimism in the face of more poor results might be difficult. After another road defeat, RSL (5-11-2) sit last in the league in terms of points per game, at just 0.94. Saturday’s loss officially opened the second half of RSL’s MLS slate, and time might soon be running out for a move back into playoff contention if the results don’t turn around.
“I think we’ve just got to stay focused and be mindful that this is the sport we play. This is what we signed up for,” Hernandez said. “Sometimes things don’t go exactly the way you wish or want, but it’s all part of it. It’s just keeping your head up and knowing that things will change and come back around.”
Even though the performance Saturday was much improved from RSL’s previous road trip – a disastrous Texas tour that featured a 5-1 loss in Houston and a 6-2 spanking at Dallas – it’s little surprise that coach Mike Petke hinted at changes to come in next month’s Secondary Transfer Window.
“I’m a competitor, I’m always looking at the standings,” Petke said. “We have our first transfer window [under me] coming up. Hopefully, maybe, we’ll be able to make a couple of additions. Since I took over, it’s been a very big evaluation for me. It was a team with quality, but essentially it was built before I got here.
"So we have to take a deep look and make some adjustments in the transfer window, but also start really instilling the way I want to play, a little more stern and a little heavier.”
Petke reinserted forward Yura Movsisyan into his starting lineup after the Armenian international tallied the game-winner against Minnesota the previous weekend as a sub. But the 29-year-old attacker was kept mostly under wraps by a San Jose defense that needed only two saves from Bingham to keep a clean sheet.
“A couple of key players had an off night, and that happens here and there, but we worked on two main things this week in training: defending their wide crosses, because that’s what they like to do, and our shape defensively, and transitioning quickly and effectively, exploding out there,” Petke told reporters. “And I just didn’t see it for large chunks … Times I thought we could have really exploited, we didn’t.”
As Petke put it to Salt Lake City TV: “We talked all week and worked all week on explosive transition, and I just don’t think we had it tonight, to be honest with you, the way we had it all week in practice. And it leaves me scratching my head.”
There isn’t much time for RSL to ponder what went wrong at Avaya Stadium, not with a home match on Friday against Orlando City SC (9:30 pm ET | ESPN, ESPN Deportes; MLS LIVE in Canada) and a July 4 trip to face the LA Galaxy (10:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE) looming on the schedule. It’s the kind of docket that cries out for young, fresh legs.
“Our goal right now is to win games,” said veteran defender Chris Wingert. “It’s not about getting guys experience, but we have a lot of really bright young talent, and it shows. Those guys have been earning their playing time and they’ve been doing a great job with it.”
