In three road matches in the young 2015 MLS season, Real Salt Lake has yet to allow its first goal. That’s 270 straight shutout minutes in tough environments in Portland, San Jose and Kansas City and five points from those three matches.
“We’ve played at three difficult places and came away with three shutouts,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said after the scoreless draw with Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.
The team has taken a more defensive posture on the road to find that success, but the results speak for themselves and players have responded in kind with often incredible performances from the backline and Nick Rimando, but also others all over the field.
Whether it’s Kyle Beckerman or Luke Mulholland in the midfield or the wide forwards tracking back and taking on their defensive responsibilities full-force, the job has been done each match away from home.
“I thought our backline and Nick were sharp and I thought Luke and Kyle were great in front of them as well picking up balls,” Cassar said. “Sporting KC had so much pressure getting numbers forward, so it’s dealing with that and also connecting your first few passes to alleviate that pressure. That’s an area that could have been better tonight.”
Added Rimando, “The backline was great. I thought everything in front of us, our midfield dealt with and all the long balls from their center backs, everybody covered well.”
What can’t be discounted in that conversation is the play all four along the backline. Tony Beltran has been consistent and Abdoulie Mansally has made it difficult for offseason signing Demar Phillips to work his way back into the lineup after suffering a hamstring strain in preseason.
In addition, Jamison Olave had one of his best games of the early season on Saturday and showed a solid partnership with newcomer Elias Vasquez, who was in for the always reliable Chris Schuler against Sporting Kansas City.
Making his MLS debut, Vasquez was all over the field defensively to limit KC’s scoring opportunities and cut off possession before it got the chance to become dangerous.
“He was great. I thought him and Olave talked well together. He covered our outside backs really well,” Rimando said. “Again, it was organized which made it look simple for the guys.”
In three road matches, RSL has held an average of 48.75-percent of the possession, but has kept much of that possession in the attacking half, with nearly 60-percent of their passes coming in the opponent’s half. While finding that final ball has proven difficult, the ability to keep possession while still staying in position to limit counter-attacking opportunities and shutting down any breakout chances has kept RSL among the four teams in MLS that are unbeaten away from home thus far this season.
“Whenever you go on the road, you are looking for a win but will take a tie. That was the case tonight. We will go home and look at the video and see if we can improve,” Beckerman said. “For all their possession, only one shot on goal is pretty good for us. But of course we will look at what we did bad and what we did good and see if we can work on it this week.”
This week, RSL will host Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium, but a grueling stretch of four out of five matches on the road in May makes for a challenging month ahead.
