RSL snaps 4-game losing skid with emphatic 3-1 win over Charlotte FC
RSL snaps 4-game losing skid with emphatic 3-1 win over Charlotte FC
Goals from Pablo Ruiz, Anderson Julio and Jefferson Savarino, and two assists from Andrés Gómez, helped RSL avoid its longest losing skid since the 2005 expansion season Saturday night in Sandy.
SANDY, Utah — Oh, so that’s what winning feels like.
Pablo Ruiz, Anderson Julio and Jefferson Savarino each scored a goal in all of six minutes as Real Salt Lake snapped a four-match losing skid with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Charlotte FC at American First Field in Sandy.
Andrés Gómez had two assists for RSL (2-4-0, 6 points), which doubled its season-long goal tally in one match with a trio of laser beams.
The three-goals-in-six-minutes is the second-fastest run of three goals in club history, trailing only the three goals in five minutes scored Sept. 19, 2014 against Colorado, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Karol Swiderski gave the visitors the early advantage, turning very little into a lot of something with a deft touch in the 27th minute. Charlotte FC took a 1-0 halftime lead into the break in its first-ever trip to the Wasatch Front, despite being out-shot 6-4.
Things might have been different were it not for Julio’s first-half goal being called offside. But that’s not how the game works.
“We played really well in the first half, but at the end of the day, there was no goal,” Ruiz said in Spanish after the match. “We knew it was coming … We just had to keep pushing.”
Knocking on the door?
Yeah, you could say that.
Ruiz opened the second half with a goal in the 56th minute, snapping a 304-minute goal-less drought. And then the dam broke.
Julio scored less than three minutes later, stumbling into the side netting for the first goal scored by an RSL player with “forward” before his name this season. Savarino made it 3-1 with a stunning shot, taking a bow after Gómez set up his right-footed blast from the center of the box in the 62nd minute.
In less than 10 minutes, RSL had doubled its season goal-scoring tally, adding goals from attacking players to the two scored by center back Justen Glad and the game-winner in Vancouver by Damir Kreilach.
‘Goals change games’
During RSL’s 304-minute goal-less drought — the ninth-longest in club history, per the club’s living wikipedia Trey Fitz-Gerald — head coach Pablo Mastroeni has repeatedly stressed the obvious: goals change games.
Yes, RSL has been unlucky. The club has also lacked finishing in front of goal, lacked cohesive service from the midfield, and been less resolute in defense when being scored on first.
All that changed Saturday night against the 2022 expansion side from North Carolina, arguably the worst team in the Eastern Conference (more on that in a minute).
“I think goals not only change the scoreboard, but they change momentum,” Mastroeni said. “It changes the belief system. It brings belief into what you are doing, what your teammate is doing, and that it’s working.
“In the previous games, it hasn’t been from a lack of creating opportunities but a lack of finishing them. It was really nice to see Anderson and Sava break the can open here at home.”
Yes, but was it good?
First, the obvious answer: winning is better than not winning. It doesn’t matter who the opponent happens to be.
But RSL should have won against Charlotte, which fell to 1-4-2 with the defeat and tied with D.C. United for the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. So what was RSL doing trailing 1-0 at halftime in the first place?
Saturday was a necessary result. But was it a good one? Only if it can springboard more from the season — and for an RSL club that travels to FC Dallas next Saturday.
And for that, Mastroeni remains the eternal optimist.
“I think you always need a platform to leap from, and today’s performance was a solid platform,” he said. “You can tell the guys that they are great players, you can set up a scheme, but it’s really about — and I say it all the time — that the guys believe that they can win.
“(Tonight’s result was) a fork in the road, where we can really round off this performance.”
And while all eyes will dart to the three goals — and understandably so — Mastroeni added it was also the best defensive game his team has played, limiting Charlotte to six shots on target and a shutout were it not for a wonder goal from a Polish international designated player.
“We controlled the ball, and we created so many chances from the first minute until the 90th,” Mastroeni said. “We got three (goals), and we nearly had a fourth.”
Silva starts, but so does Vera
For those who worried how Marcelo Silva would integrate back into the starting lineup with the addition of Brayan Vera, consider it no more.
Silva made his first start in since Vera joined the club, with the versatile Colombian moving to left back alongside Justen Glad and Andrew Brody in a back-four.
The 24-year-old left-sided player from America de Cali who joined RSL on a three-year deal using targeted allocation money has been quick to work his way into the group, specifically at center back while Silva returned from a minor setback through two games.
With the Uruguayan donning the captain’s armband once again in Damir Kreilach’s absence (groin), the duo finally got the chance to work together. And credit for the early chemistry goes to Vera himself, Silva said.
“He deserves a lot of credit because since his arrival, he's put in a lot of effort in trying to blend and adapt well and that's something specially in the beginning that can be complicated,” Silva said before Saturday’s match. “He also doesn't speak the language, so trying to adapt as soon as possible is hard. But I think he has put a lot of effort and energy with all of our teammates and we've all tried to help, which in turn helps him adapt quicker. He's done a great job for the little time he has been here.”
Vera departed the match in the 74th minute, replaced by Maikel Chang. That moved Brody to left back, with Bode Hidalgo — the second-half sub who replaced Gómez in the 68th minute — playing right back.