3 Points: Did Real Salt Lake's Cup-clinching draw with Colorado feel like a loss?
3 Points: Did Real Salt Lake's Cup-clinching draw with Colorado feel like a loss?
Jefferson Savarino and Justin Meram gave RSL a 2-0 lead before the Rapids came back to level the match, 2-2 Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with 3 Points, the official popst-match newsletter of Real Salt Lake and the RSL organization. Your support means a lot to us, a fledgling newsletter dedicated to soccer in Utah, growing the beautiful game on the Wasatch Front.
Today’s newsletter, though, is a little tough; yes, it’s about a Rocky Mountain Cup that has scarcely left the state’s boundaries over the past 17 years. But it’s also about a disappointing home draw, the second-straight at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Here are three thoughts on RSL 2-2 Colorado.
Jefferson Savarino and Justin Meram scored a goal on either side of halftime, but the Rapids battled back to force a 2-2 tie with the hosts Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.
It’s the second-straight home draw for Salt Lake, and the third consecutive match without a win after last week’s 3-2 loss to Minnesota United and a scoreless home bout with Columbus.
“It feels like a defeat,” Meram quipped after the match, which set the aggregate score to 3-3 in the season series and kept the Cup in Salt Lake City on retention.
Savarino opened the scoring in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead at the break for the early advantage.
Meram doubled the lead just after halftime, following up on Pablo Ruiz’s free kick that caromed off the crossbar and heading home the free ball inside the box to give RSL a 2-0 lead in the 51st minute.
“Pablo shouted at me to crash the box on the set piece, and what the coach asks, you’d better do,” Meram said. “Pablo (Ruiz) hit an unbelievable shot, and it just fell to me.
“That’s the one you put a head on. I don’t score many headers, but I’ll take that one.”
Diego Rubio pulled one back for Colorado, slotting home a contentious penalty kick midway through the second half that cut the Rapids’ deficit to a single goal and ending a run of nine consecutive unanswered goals scored by the home side at Rio Tinto Stadium, a 403-minute streak that dates back to May 14 against Austin, per club officials.
Translation: Zac MacMath has been very good at home. But was it a penalty?
“No,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “Just … nope.”
But wait, the match wasn’t over.
Gyasi Zardes found Lalas Abubakar with the equalizer in the 89th minute, a moment of weakness that drew the ire of the standing room-only crowd of 20,242 in RSL’s ninth-straight sellout.
And they would all go home unhappy, or at least wanting more, with the club’s second consecutive home draw.
Right side of the Rockies
Despite the draw that felt like a loss, RSL retained the Rocky Mountain Cup from the 2021 season in the regular-season finale between the two longtime rivals.
Real Salt Lake has lost just once in the last 21 home editions of the Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry, a run that dates back to September 2007. The club has also won or retained the Cup 14 times in the last 18 years (not counting the truncated, COVID-19-impacted season of 2020).
With all that being said, it begs the question: is the Rocky Mountain Cup a rivalry anymore? Is the fan-made silverware important to these two clubs?
If you watch the players battle Saturday night in a match where the Rapids out-shot RSL 15-14 and held the hosts to just one shot — a Scott Caldwell take in stoppage time — in the final 30 minutes, yeah, it was.
“You heard the fans, when the refs were making their exit; it’s all of it. It’s frustration,” Mastroeni said. “We gave up some tough goals, and against your biggest rivals, you want to get a result when you’re up 2-0.
“There’s no reason why you don’t come away with three points after the performance we put forth. But the game doesn’t owe you anything; you’ve got to go out and get everything.”
Injury bug strikes again
With several key RSL starters already riding the injured reserve (see: Damir Kreilach, back; Bobby Wood, abductor; et al.), Anderson Julio received his first start since returning to the club on a full-time transfer from Liga MX side Atletico San Luis.
And it lasted about 13 minutes.
The speedy Ecuadorian winger was forced from the field nursing an apparent hip flexor or quad injury after barely 10 minutes of playing time Saturday night, and spent the rest of the match on the bench while Meram saddled up to replace him.
After taking a few touches and claiming a few passes, the veteran winger settled into the game well, passing at 90% with a team-high four shots and winning nine duels in the midfield.
“It’s tough. You can’t warm up; it’s hot, it’s altitude,” Meram said. “I just wanted to get in and complete a few passes and grow into the game — get a feel for the way the ball was moving.”
Injury are never a good thing. But Meram is playing out of his mind at 33 years old, and needs to be appreciated — even if Saturday’s chance came with a drawback.
Frustration, or lack of chances
Still, it’s not like RSL didn’t have its chances to seal the game. When asked on the post-match broadcast what Real Salt Lake needed to do to finish off with all three points, Meram was blunt: score a third goal.
The club had 14 shots, but only two on goal (three more shots were blocked, in full fairness).
Sergio Cordova had a crack that fell short. Ruiz set up both goals, but probably could’ve had at least one.
There were players in position to finish off the game.
“Sergio was a bit unlucky. Scott (Caldwell) had a chance, right there at the end,” Meram said. “But the game was over. We just needed to be better, and finish it off.
“I think we just got a little lax, and wanting to run up the scoreboard instead of managing it.”
Despite the run, RSL still sits in third place in the Western Conference with 30 points, three points clear of the line to guarantee a home playoff game. More importantly, the club is averaging 1.58 points per game — which sits right in third place, though just ahead of fifth-place LA GAlaxy’s 1.5 points per game.
At 8-5-6, this isn’t a team that is going anywhere. The doldrums of the MLS summer are here — and RSL has a quick turnaround to fix its woes before heading to an injury-depleted Atlanta United on Wednesday before returning home Sunday to host its other rival, Sporting Kansas City.
“I don’t think our form is in a tough spot; I think the results have just been tough,” Mastroeni said. “There are times where you don’t play well and get results, and times you play well and don’t.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, and just being able to manage games a little better. This game we didn’t manage very well … There are things as a collective that we’ve got to do better.”
Extra points
We’ll be quick with this one, but just in case you needed a cleanse from Saturday night: Real Salt Lake’s Unified team scored three unanswered goals to take down Colorado, 3-1 in a match played following RSL’s draw with the Rapids and saw several players, including Meram and the injured Bobby Wood, showing up after a tough draw to support their jersey counterparts.
So if you need a pick-me-up … here you go:
