Real Salt Lake adds 'exciting' finish in home draw, but is that good for right now?
Real Salt Lake adds 'exciting' finish in home draw, but is that good for right now?
After rallying for a 2-2 draw with Minnesota United on Justen Glad's last-gasp equalizer, the club that rates as the best in Major League Soccer on the road continues to tread water at home.
Eventually, Real Salt Lake will have to take advantage of an inconsistent home form.
But after rallying for a 2-2 draw with Minnesota United on Saturday night at America First Field on a last-gasp equalizer by Justen Glad, the club that rates as the best in Major League Soccer on the road managed to tread water for another week.
For now, that’s good enough. While RSL (7-7-6, 27 points) is taking MLS by Benjamin Button-style storm, demolishing teams on the road while simply doing just enough on the Wasatch Front, that is currently good enough to keep the club in sixth place in the Western Conference — and five points above the playoff line more than halfway through the 2023 regular season.
RSL is the Reverse Flash, the Eobard Thawne to MLS’s Barry Allen as it races through the season backwards from the majority of most conventional plays (guess who just saw DC’s latest blockbuster “success”). But then again, very little about this RSL team is conventional.
Glad’s third goal of the season puts the 26-year-old center back just one goal behind Jefferson Savarino, Pablo Ruiz, Danny Musovski and Damir Kreilach for the team lead. RSL’s first-ever Homegrown to amass 200 appearances in MLS play has quietly become a top-flight goal scorer on a team that doesn’t feature a traditional goal-scoring No. 9 — or, at least, won’t until post-July 5 arrival of former LAFC striker Chicho Arango.
So Pablo Mastroeni’s side has had to make-do with what it has, and that includes getting a bevy of goals from untraditional spots — like Glad, who was honored for his 200th cap before the match with a plague presented by family members, including a grandmother and grandfather who he did not expect to make the trip to Sandy for Saturday night’s match.
“That was an awesome moment for me,” Glad said. “To score in front of my family was fun.”
RSL’s home record of 2-4-4 rates among the worst in the league among teams currently above the playoff line (Orlando’s 3-3-4 and D.C. United’s 4-3-3 home record keep Salt Lake from being a total outlier). But with a league-best 5-3-2 record on the road, the Reverse Flash can be given a couple of miscues.
Again, it’s not conventional. Players and coaches don’t like it. But they also can’t explain it, especially when individual games include a goal called back for offside, a rescinded penalty kick, and halting Minnesota’s run of 26-straight road matches without a draw just one result shy of what would’ve been a league record in the post-shootout era (since 2000).
On the micro-level, earning a point at home was a necessary step toward treading water where form hasn’t been at its peak.
Emmanuel Reynoso’s first goal of the season gave Minnesota a 2-0 halftime and sent an aura of disappointment into the home locker room.
But that’s not anywhere RSL hasn’t been before. Nor was Musovski’s 79th-minute strike assisted by Ruiz that kept the #Believe #mentality alive for home fans. So when Diego Luna set up Glad’s final touch in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time, the #Believe mantra was rewarded — if only for a point.
“For tonight, I think it was just massive that we got the result,” Glad said. “I think we haven’t been getting results at home, which is disappointing for us and our fans; it’s nice to win on the road, but it’s a special feeling to win in front of your home fans.
“I was happy to get the point, happy for the exciting game. But at this point, it’s still just about keeping the groove going, keep climbing the table, making a run and hopefully winning some trophies.”