June 2015 in Review
RSL May record: 1-1-2 (2-1-2 overall)
RSL season record: 5-6-7 (6-6-7 overall)
Results: vs. Colorado Rapids, 0-0; Open Cup vs. Sounders 2, 2-1; vs. Sporting Kansas City, 2-1; @ New York Red Bulls, 0-1; vs. Columbus Crew SC, 2-2.
June was a resilient month for Real Salt Lake, as RSL embarked on a trek of six matches in 19 days starting with a fourth-round Open Cup match against Sounders FC 2. From that point forward, RSL went 2-1-1, including a come-from behind win in that Open Cup match and a solid win over Sporting Kansas City in the next match. Head Coach Jeff Cassar used 22 players in the month, including the debuts of Phanuel Kavita and Boyd Okwuonu.
Top Performer: Sebastian Jaime has not only scored goals, but he has done so in different roles for RSL in the month of June. Many had been waiting for Jaime to break out and get in the scoring column since his arrival last August. With two goals in the month of June, he showed just why he was so highly valued by RSL. Long praised for his workrate on the wing, he showed there was more to his game when he scored against Kansas City and Columbus in consecutive weekends.
Unsung Hero: Nobody played more minutes in the field this month than defender Aaron Maund’s 444 minutes across all competitions. He subbed on in the sixth minute of the opening match against the Colorado Rapids and then didn’t miss a minute after that the rest of the way. With Jamison Olave, Chris Schuler and Justen Glad all missing time due to injury and Elias Vasquez departing for national team duty with Guatemala, a lot has fallen on Maund’s shoulders and he has responded in kind. He narrowly beat out Luke Mulholland this month after a workmanlike month from the midfielder.
By The Numbers: Of the 4,277 minutes played by the 10 field players this month, 51.9% of them came from players 24 years old and under. That includes the 444 minutes from Maund, but also hefty totals from Joao Plata, Devon Sandoval, John Stertzer, Luis Gil, Glad and Olmes Garcia.
Up Next: RSL will have another busy month in July and will need to endure the absences of several key players and Kyle Beckerman, Nick Rimando, Alvaro Saborio, Demar Phillips and Vasquez will all be away on national team duty for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Three of the four league matches for the month will be at home and at least one U.S. Open Cup match will be at Rio Tinto Stadium, so travel will be light for the month for the majority of the team who won’t be in the Gold Cup.
