Road over home: Rubin's brace helps RSL to first-ever win at Austin FC
Rubio Rubin scored his first goal of the season, then added the match-winner, in RSL's 2-1 win over Austin FC at Q2 Stadium for the club's third road win of 2023.
When it rains it pours, or at least it did for sometimes-downtrodden RSL striker Rubio Rubin in a 2-1 win Saturday night over Austin FC at Q2 Stadium.
Rubin scored twice as many goals as all of last season for RSL, scoring in either half and on either side of a nearly two-hour delay for lightning to give Real Salt Lake its first-ever win in Austin and 3-point boost to a tie for eighth in the Western Conference (ninth on tiebreakers) with a 5-7-4 record.
The Salt Lake side is just 2-4-2 at home after Wednesday’s stunning 3-2 loss to the LA Galaxy, but improved to 3-3-2 on the road with Saturday’s result.
The club’s 1.17 points per game during that span are the most since the 2014 season, when RSL totaled 1.22 points per game for 62 points on the road during a two-year span, as noted by RSL walking encyclopedia (and communications director) Trey “Wiki” Fitz-Gerald.
Approaching the midway mark of the 2023 season, RSL’s three road wins are at least as many in four of the past six seasons. In 14 matches across all competitions since April 8, Salt Lake has seven wins, three losses and four draws — with arguably the most disappointing setbacks coming at America First Field.
The club wants to unlock that home fortress magic it once possessed. But for now, they’re finding a knack for making up points on the road, too.
“It’s been really interesting, because I feel like at home, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “We want to play well for our fans, score goals for our fans, and win for our fans. I think when you go on the road, the onus is on the home team to do that a bit more.
“We play almost a little bit more free … It think that’s been the difference.”
After that shock loss to the Galaxy, who rank last in the Western Conference at 3-9-3 and had the weekend off before traveling to Utah (again) for the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup, the visitors knew they had to make up points somewhere.
No time like the present, right?
“We wanted to get three points out here tonight and show what we could do,” Beavers said. “Coming out here and getting three points was massive.”
Added Mastroeni: “It’s about getting points where ever you can. The mindset for this trip wasn’t to come here and get a draw. It was to get three points. Credit to the guys, during the delay and everything, for managing the game the right way and ultimately get the result.”
It took 830 minutes into the 2023 season, but Rubin finally found his first goal since Oct. 9, 2022, putting his head into the area on the end of Jasper Löffelsend’s cross into the box to give RSL the lead in the 15th minute.
“It felt great,” Rubin said. “Obviously, it’s been some 15 games and it just feels great. But to do it against Austin after last year, getting the red card and losing in the playoffs, it’s special. But most important, we’re getting three points and heading back home riding that momentum.
“It’s huge for confidence.”
The visitors matched Austin’s five shots through the first 40 minutes, and Gavin Beavers made two key saves to take the 1-0 advantage into a lengthy delay due to lightning around Q2 Stadium.
RSL put just three more shots on target until the 81st minute, when Rubin notched his first brace since Sept. 15, 2021 with his second goal of the extended evening.
That he did it with Damir Kreilach standing next to the fourth official — about to sub into the match and presumably replace him (which he did) seconds later — was not lost on the Guatemalan international.
“I could see that subs were coming in, and it was Damir, so I knew I could be coming out,” Rubin said. “But it didn’t really have any effect on me; I just tried to play to the last minute.”
Julio Cascante pulled one back deep in stoppage time for Austin FC to prevent the shutout, but Beavers made his fourth save of the match in the final seconds to hold on for the win.
But Saturday night was as much about Rubin as anybody, and even Beavers admitted it. The oft-arraigned former U.S. international who filed a one-time FIFA change to represent his mother’s native country of Guatemala scored for the first time since last fall, in his highest-scoring match since his breakout first season with RSL of 2021, when Rubin tallied eight goals with five assists.
Plenty of fans gave up on Rubin. But RSL and Mastroeni never lost faith.
On Saturday night, he rewarded them.
“Rubio has been scoring goals in training, and I think that’s the reason why we’ve decided to give him more run up top,” Mastroeni said. “He’s a good striker; all the little things he does are top level. All that he was lacking was hitting the back of the net.
“There’s a confidence component to strikers … it is streaky. Sometimes they can’t find the back of the net from three yards out, and then you have a night like tonight with two quality finishes.”