3 Points: Things are falling into place at Real Salt Lake after 3rd-straight win
3 Points: Things are falling into place at Real Salt Lake after 3rd-straight win
Goals from Bobby Wood, Sergio Cordova and Justen Glad — as well as the re-introduction of a certain Maracucho — boosted RSL to its third-straight win.
Real Salt Lake is on a roll.
Bobby Wood, Sergio Cordova and Justen Glad all scored a goal to tie for the team-lead, and Real Salt Lake won its third-straight match with a 3-0 bushwhacking of Houston Dynamo FC on Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Wood scored the first goal of the match, finishing off a cross from Maikel Chang in the 29th minute. The strike snapped an eight-match goal-less skid for the forward, going back to a 2-1 win over Nashville on March 19.
What a time to snap the skid.
The hosts didn’t stop there, though.
Real Salt Lake out-shot the Dynamo 8-5 in the first half, which is fair enough. But the really impressive number was putting four of those shots on target, including four of their first of the match, and limiting Houston to just one attempt on frame in 43% of possession.
In other words, RSL was doing exactly what a home team should do with a team playing its third match in six days: score early, then score again.
The “score again” part came moments into the second half, when Cordova knotted his second goal of the season from close range in the 57th minute. The goal follows his first for RSL a week ago in a 2-1 win CF Montreal, and gave Salt Lake its first 2-0 lead of the 2022 campaign.
Glad finished the scoring deep in stoppage time, finishing off a cross from Justin Meram for the final margin for the club’s fourth win in five matches to tie for second place in the Western Conference with a 7-3-4 overall record (25 points) and matching a club record with 10-straight unbeaten against a single opponent.
“I think we’re in a great spot,” Glad said. “The team’s in a groove right now, players are happy; we just got Savarino back, and we’re in a good spot. We’ve just got to keep it moving.”
‘More than a Game’
Saturday’s match between RSL and the Houston Dynamo was the first at Rio Tinto Stadium since the horrific tragedy and murder of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas — about four hours away from Houston, a bit west of San Antonio.
Playing a game can feel inappropriate in the face of senseless violence and tragedy, but it can also help heal. But the two sides used the moment to come together and ask for unity in addressing the concerning trend of gun violence.
The organization made the following statement prior to the match, shortly before both sides came together — coaching staff, benches, referees and all:
The Real Salt Lake organization is in favor of reasonable gun safety laws. We encourage every person in attendance to reach out to local representatives to make the changes needed in order to never have another mass shooting in our country.
This newsletter endorses RSL’s statement. While certain elements of gun control can be polarizing in America and, indeed, prove complicated — especially when political parties are involved — the desire to keep our children safe should be held by all.
Viva La Vintotinto
On the night when Venezuelan winger Jefferson Savarino made his first appearance in Sandy in three years, his country mate from Calabozo, Guárico, stole the spotlight, too.
Cordova’s goal from close range in the 57th minute that tipped the goalkeeper gave Real Salt Lake a 2-0 lead, the club’s first such advantage since the FC Augsburg loanee joined the club in the beginning of the year.
Cordova is starting to open up, both in production and in addressing the local media for the first time together after Saturday’s match — and he’s finding the right connection with strike partner Wood.
“I thought they were both really bright,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “Their movement was very good, opposite movements that we kill during the week, with one coming and one going. And I thought Bobby’s holdup play was really good tonight; it was probably the best performance in that regard.
“That’s a goal that Sergio scores quite a bit in training, deking people inside the area in good position to receive it, good finish. They’re forming a really good partnership — all of this takes time, but the amount of work they’re doing on both sides of the ball is spectacular. It’s given us confidence from a defending standpoint. But also when we win balls, their availability in transition was really special tonight.”
Of course, you can’t talk about Saturday’s match without talking about the other Venezuelan: the Maracucho himself, Jefferson Savarino. Just four days after landing at Salt Lake International Airport, the 25-year-old Designated Player re-introduced himself to a fanbase starving for attacking talent, hungry for a winner, and excited enough to give him a standing ovation simply for substituting into the match.
After three years of winning seemingly every trophy and treble imaginable in Brazil, Savarino is excited to be back at Real Salt Lake — and happy playing footie.
“I’m happy where ever I’m playing; I’m just happy playing soccer,” Savarino said in Spanish. “That’s the most important thing for me. Right now, it’s Real Salt Lake, before it was Atletico; it’ll be somewhere else one day. But thanks be to God for giving me another day to play, where ever I go.”
Added Mastroeni: “I think he always wanted to come back here. I think he’s so happy to be back with this group; a lot of players on the group were his teammates in previous years. Coming into a group that is so really tight, playing well, full of confidence, and with players that he knows, makes it a special moment for him.
“We talked quite a bit about how long he thought he could go, and 20 was probably the highest he thought, and felt like the game needed a boost of energy. The fans really welcomed him in a very good way. He had some very exciting moments out there, and as he continues to get his fitness, I’m anticipating some more of those moments.”
'Always sunny at the RioT’
Something special is happening at Rio Tinto Stadium, and that’s not just a commentary on Real Salt Lake’s current form.
The club hosted their sixth-straight sellout of the 2022 campaign, a crowd of 20,849 that was active, engaged, chanting for players from Savarino to Cordova to Wood and even Andrew Brody at different moments.
Sure, the team is playing well at the moment. But the energy in the building isn’t a small reason why.
RSL can tie a franchise record June 18 when it hosts the San Jose Earthquakes with a seventh consecutive sellout, a mark that has stood since 2015 when the club sold out 11 of 17 home matches that year (including seven in a row at one point, obviously).
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MT, and will be broadcast in one of the most expansive broadcast packages in Major League Soccer. But you don’t want to watch this team on television or listen over the radio (as great as those options may be).
This team deserves to be celebrated in person.
“The atmosphere has been unreal,” Glad said of the crowd. “The fans have brought the energy, which gives us energy. It’s been unreal.”