SANDY, Utah – From where, oh where, were the goals going to come?
Real Salt Lake, a team desperate to erase the memory of back-to-back road losses and in need of a win to secure a postseason berth, didn’t appear to have many scoring options entering Saturday’s match against visiting San Jose.
The Claret-and-Cobalt fielded a roster that had accounted for 14 of the team’s 50 goals entering Saturday’s play – 70 percent of their scoring gone.
Top scorers Jaoa Plata, Javier Morales and Alvaro Saborio? Unavailable because of injury or international duty.
Never fear, Ned is here, along with his sidekick Sebastian, the one with the calling-card haircut.
Ned Grabavoy scored from 28 yards out through a Kyle Beckerman screen in the 24th minute and Sebastian Velasquez knocked in a Luke Mulholland corner kick five minutes later to thrill a sellout Rio Tinto crowd and secure the team’s seventh consecutive playoff appearance with a 2-0 victory.
“My eyes lit up a little bit. It was a little bit of traffic in there,” Grabavoy said. “I think it kind of got us going a little bit.”
Indeed it did. The goal, Grabavoy’s second of the season, was all the offense Real Salt Lake would need against a team that hasn’t won since Aug. 2 and has scored just three goals in the past seven games.
It also released the pressure early in the game and vanquished the ghosts of last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at lowly Chivas USA.
With the seal broken on the goalmouth, it was Velasquez’s turn to tally. He made the most of his first start of the season, in place of Morales, and scored his first career goal in 39 MLS games spanning three seasons.
“[I’m] super proud of him,” RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. “It’s not easy to step into Javier Morales’ shoes, but I thought Sebastian did an excellent job of that tonight.”
Now the hope is the victory helps right the ship as the regular season nears completion. Once in the running for the Supporters’ Shield, RSL won for just the third time in eight matches dating back to Aug. 22.
“Every game’s extremely important in this league. No game is easy,” Cassar said. “Obviously last week was a tough week for us. It just shows you have to bring your ‘A’ game every week. I thought our intensity and focus and pressure today was off the charts.”
