3 Points: RSL steals a win in New England — but should the teams have played?
3 Points: RSL steals a win in New England — but should the teams have played?
Real Salt Lake did all of its scoring after the 75th minute, including Tate Schmitt's stoppage-time wonder to snatch all three points from a CCL-entrenched New England Revolution, 3-2 in Week 3.
There’s something about playing with an orange ball.
In the second-straight game played with snow and poor weather in the forecast — no delay this time, though — Real Salt Lake snuck its second-straight win against one of last year’s top teams in Major League Soccer, scoring all three goals after the 75th minute to snatch a 3-2 win over the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
Tate Schmitt’s goal was the difference in the third minute of stoppage time, and Justen Glad’s equalizer was followed up by some …. ummmm, questionable? … post-goal dance moves. We also got a chance to see Sergio Córdova’s first goal in a Real Salt Lake kit — though his follow-up chance deserves an assist from Bobby Wood after pulling two defenders into the box and leaving the goalkeeper exposed for an easy follow-through from Córdova.
The win keeps RSL unbeaten on the season, a near-perfect 2-0-1 on the season and tied for first place in the Western Conference in the way-too-early look at the league table. But more important, three points are three points — even against a Revs team sandwiched between two CONCACAF Champions League games and playing in what some players thought were unacceptable conditions for a proper football match.
Most importantly, Salt Lake improved to 5-1-0 when the #OrangeBall is in play with the club’s fifth win at Gillette Stadium and 10th under Pablo Mastroeni.
Here are three thoughts on Real Salt Lake’s 3-2 smash-and-grab in New England.
‘If you believe…’
No one would’ve blamed Real Salt Lake for packing it in after going down 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining, looking to save face on the road against the East’s top team from a year ago.
Maybe they could’ve pulled back a goal — best-case scenario, two, and save a point. That would’ve been a victory for the visitors that traveled 2,367 miles to meet up with former teammate Nedum Onuoha and also play a soccer match.
A tie would’ve been a win, under the circumstances … right?
It’s early in the 2022 season, but Real Salt Lake is developing a reputation — as a group of fighters; young, scrappy, hungry and molded in the image of their now-permanent manager Pablo Mastroeni, the former Colorado fire starter who had his own reputation as a player.
Indeed, when Justen Glad’s equalizer with three minutes left in regulation hit the back of the net, the comeback seemed complete. This newsletter was in the process of being written then, at least.
A lot can change in six minutes, though. And when Schmitt’s goal found the back of the net and Salt Lake was diving toward the snow-covered corner flag and celebrating with the coaching staff, bench players and at least one communications staffer in stoppage time, a lot of people were left in disbelief.
Everyone, perhaps, except for RSL’s players.
“I think Pablo has done a great job this whole preseason saying ‘Any little factors that don’t go our way, don’t make excuses but find solutions for them. Always have that belief that we will get something out of every opportunity that we work for,’” Schmitt said. “I think it just rolled into the game. We had those variables, the weather, that we couldn’t control. We had those bounces that didn’t go our way, but we just kept with it, stayed the course, and we found those opportunities at the end that made the difference.”
It’s still too early to tell if RSL has the makings of a “special” season. But “special” is often in the eye of the beholder, Mastroeni said.
“I think ‘special’ is commitment. I think it’s work. I think it's a belief,” he added. “I say this all the time, we can talk about talent, but who are you when the talent isn’t there? Who are you when you aren’t in your best form? Who are you? Are you just going to crumble? Everything that we talk about with the group is about mindset. You can overcome so much with mindset. Especially in particular times where you didn’t have a full preseason, you didn’t have a lot of players available, you still don’t have players available.
“You can make all these excuses, and we like to make excuses as coaches at times when things are going your way. So what we’ve really focused on is that. When you talk about ‘special’, I think it’s about work. I think it’s about belief. I think it’s about understanding that if you stay in there long enough, things are going to go your way. It may not happen now or the next couple of weeks, but if you stay in there, things will turn in your favor.”
Concussion sub done right
Real Salt Lake was forced into an early sub less than 15 minutes into the match when Maikel Chang went down after a challenge. The Cuban winger initially pointed toward his ribs after apparently taking a shot to the midsection, but remained down for a lengthy amount of time that required the medical staff on the snow-covered pitch.
What they found didn’t line up, and the physio staff pulled Chang with a suspected head injury. Córdova replaced the winger, marking his early appearance for RSL this season, and the match resumed.
But because of new guidelines designed to help teams manager concussions and head injuries, the substitute did not count against RSL’s overall allotment. They were still given their normal amount of subs, up to five substitutions made across three opportunities in the match — with halftime not counting toward those maximum allotment of opportunities.
Under MLS’s new protocols, teams are allowed to make up to two “concussion substitutes” during the following:
immediately after a concussion occurs or is suspected;
after an on-field assessment, and/or after an off-field assessment; or
at any other time when a concussion occurs or is suspected (including when a player has previously been assessed and has returned to the field of play).
It didn’t appear that the medical staff immediately suspected a head injury on Chang. But if they did at any time during the evaluation — which they clearly did — they are allowed to make the call to pull the player, without it counting towards the team’s substitution camp.
That left open the door for Mastroeni’s substitution pattern, which breathed new life into a team that out-shot New England 19-13 with six shots on goal.
Should Saturday’s game have been played?
It didn’t take long for player safety to become a topic of conversation following RSL’s loss, especially after Revs coach Bruce Arena made huge changes with his substitution pattern around the hour mark.
Of course, part of those subs included bringing on former U.S. international Jozy Altidore, who scored a goal just two minutes later. So the final product for New England was hardly a B team — even if the club was clearly saving legs for Wednesday night’s CCL match against Mexico’s Pumas UNAM.
Still, player safety was at top of mind after RSL’s second-straight week playing amid a snowstorm. Perhaps that gave Salt Lake, which was clad in snow-looking all-white kits that may or may not have been a coincidence with the weather, an advantage. More likely, not.
But some Revs players obviously didn’t like the decision to force the game in, especially amid a packed New England schedule at also includes CONCACAF Champions League play.
“It's impossible to play football today,” the reigning league MVP told the team’s local broadcast crew. “I cannot talk with my teammates, I cannot run, I cannot do anything. It's impossible, this is not futbol. Stop the f---ing game. We play tomorrow or any other day, I don't care. This is not futbol, it's impossible.
“Try to make long balls, the wind, it's impossible. I don't understand nothing.”
Arena understands the reasoning for playing the game. In a league currently approaching 30 teams — and still growing — the start of the MLS calendar is creeping earlier and earlier while the MLS Cup final remains in early December. There are simply too many teams to play a schedule conducive to all markets, namely in the Rocky Mountain states, Pacific Northwest and upper Northeast where snow is often in the forecast until April and by parts of October.
This isn’t England, where the 20-team Premier League can pick its fixtures around a compact calendar of Champions League and non-league fixtures. In MLS, the reality of a league season that initially started closer to April and ended before Thanksgiving weekend is that $350+ million expansion fees has pushed the season’s start earlier and the season’s end later.
Yes, there’s an issue of player safety. But both teams have to play in it, too. There’s danger in playing in snow and on a water-logged pitch, where ankle, knee and other leg injuries become more common for a variety of reasons. But is it any less safe than playing in warm, humid climes where dehydration and heat stroke run rampant? If MLS opts to cancel or postpone matches for inclement weather, what’s to stop them from not letting Houston, Dallas, Austin, Orlando and Miami play outdoor games when temperatures swell above 85 degrees with humidity in the upper 90’s?
“It’s the same conditions for both teams,” Arena conceded, before adding, “The whole game was a poor exhibition of soccer, and we were extremely poor in the last 15 minutes.”
So maybe the game shouldn’t have been played. In an ideal world, the match would’ve been re-scheduled or delayed — or at least played in a controlled environment, perhaps indoors or under a dome. But is playing under a dome really “pure football,” as well? That’s another 2,000 words’ worth of debate — and, well, we don’t have time for that.
Major League Soccer isn’t set in a perfect world, because soccer in America is hardly ideal. The sport needs the February through November calendar, because trying to go up against the NFL and college football would destroy fan interest and eliminate the casual interest in a sport currently only competing with baseball and parts of the NBA season. Then there’s the weather issue, where over half the league has climate concerns of their own.
RSL returns home next Saturday, March 19 to host Nashville SC. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MT on KMYU — and we’ll see if another storm forecasts itself over the RioT.