#Snowmez: Andrés Gómez breaks out in Real Salt Lake's 3-0 win over LAFC
#Snowmez: Andrés Gómez breaks out in Real Salt Lake's 3-0 win over LAFC
The Colombian winger scored two first-half goals and added an assist as Real Salt Lake cruised to a 3-0 win over Los Angeles FC in Saturday's home opener.
If you weren’t sure if Andrés Gómez would like playing in the snow before Saturday afternoon, it’s safe to assume he loves it now.
Gómez scored two first-half goals and assisted on another as Real Salt Lake took its delayed home opener 3-0 from Los Angeles FC in front of a dwindling crowd of excited, hardy supporters at America First Field in Sandy (with over 19,000 tickets distributed prior to the match).
After an initial two-hour weather delay and another 40 minutes for lightning and thundersnow, Gómez gave the hosts a 1-0 lead 20 minutes into game play. The Colombian winger took a pass from Chicho Arango, dribbled through a pair of LAFC defenders (leaving one prone in his wake) and finished inside the far post past LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for the early goal.
Gómez nearly doubled the advantage a minute later, but he was caught offside. Instead, Gómez notched his brace 24 minutes later, finishing a close-range shot from the penalty area off a one-touch setup from Diego Luna.
Gómez assisted on Arango’s goal in first-half stoppage time to go up 3-0, as well, taking a pass from Luna to the right wing before whipping a ball into the box that glanced off a sliding Arango for the 3-0 advantage.
“I think there’s a moment in a player’s career that changes the way you think about yourself, and how others think about you,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “I think he accomplished that today.
“Andres last year was a player who would score 4-5 goals in training, and it wouldn’t translate to a game. Doing what he did tonight can give him that belief that he can do what he does in training.”
Real Salt Lake finished the match a man down, after Braian Ojeda received a second yellow card in the 85th minute for a hard tackle against Timothy Tillman.
LAFC finished with 16 shots to Salt Lake’s 10, with six shots on target apiece. But the hosts survived the late spell of opposition possession to take all three points for the first time in 2024.
Worth the wait
Real Salt Lake was the only team to play two games on the road before opening up at home Saturday afternoon, and the 2024 campaign icebreaker was interrupted by storms moving through the Salt Lake Valley that eventually brought a squall — and several inches of snow — to the field.
But for the few hundred fans that stuck around America First Field through a two-hour initial delay and another 45-minute standoff just four minutes into the match, Gómez and Arango made them worth it.
The hosts took the City of Angels to task early, maintaining 59% of possession and out-shooting the Angelenos 7-4 (while allowing just two shots on goal).
Zac MacMath stood on his head to keep the first-half shutout, then got some help from the post on a slippery breakaway attempt that looked destined to pull one back for LAFC in the opening moments of the match.
But mostly, it was about Gómez, who had a 0.61 expected-goals mark before the match but finished with two goals and an assist on three shots, including two on target.
At 21 years and 172 days, Gómez became the youngest player in club history to record three goal contributions in a single RSL match.
City of Snow Angels
With the win, Real Salt Lake improved to 6-1 in modern history in games played with an orange ball (under weather/visibility advisory, aka for snow).
Altitude is often cited as a significant advantage for MLS clubs in Denver and Salt Lake City. But could weather concerns, like Saturday’s snowstorm as the league kicked off its season earlier than any other time in its history, give RSL an advantage as well?
More importantly, do the players enjoy playing in “orange-ball weather”?
“You don’t prepare for this type of game by training in it. I think the team that quickly adapts to the circumstances around them will have a better chance,” Mastroeni said. “It wasn’t easy for either team … but obviously at halftime, I was thinking this game has got to end. It’s a real credit to the players, and the mindset to not allow circumstances beyond their control affect them. Even among that, I thought the guys stuck to the game plan.”
Not everyone felt that way.
“It was an absolute joke we had to play today,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said, adding: “I don't understand why on earth we'd count a game like that."
Moments for Chicho
Before the match — with wind gusts as high as 50 mph in parts of the Salt Lake Valley — RSL took a moment to honor the striker simply called “Chicho” (given name: Cristian Daniel Arango).
The Designated Player scored his 100th professional goal in the club’s 1-1 draw at St. Louis City SC, and Real Salt Lake took the moment to bring out Arango, his wife Tatiana and the couple’s children to present a memorial jersey on symbolizing his achievement.
The 28-year-old native of Medellín, Colombia scored 30 goals with seven assists during (most of) two seasons with LAFC, and had six goals and two assists in MLS play last year in his return to the league with Salt Lake.
He’s already scored twice in three matches for RSL. What’s your over/under on goals for Arango during the 2024 season? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.