Around the Real Salt Lake locker room, Sebastian Jaime has been a positive influence since his arrival from Chile last August. However, the 28-year-old Argentine has taken on a whole new air about his presence in the last two weeks.
That’s what happens when a forward starts scoring some long-awaited goals. With four goals in the last five matches across all competitions, Jaime is delivering on some of the glimmers of potential that he had shown in his limited time with the team in 2014 and in the start to the 2015 season.
“I think right now he’s on fire and it’s good for us,” fellow Argentine Javier Morales smiled after a recent match. “Now everyone is assisting, everyone is scoring goals – it’s good.”
Jaime had a strong start to the season, but then was derailed by a fractured tibia after just three matches. Any progress he made in building chemistry with his teammates and learning the league would have to go on the backburner while his focus shifted strictly to recovery. After missing 10 matches, he quickly reintegrated himself, though and in a two-week stretch nabbed four goals across all competitions. On Saturday, he scored his third MLS goal in the last four matches, quickly slingshotting himself to the top of RSL’s scoring charts along with Morales and Alvaro Saborio.
It has been his uncanny combination of skill, ingenuity and effort that has been the difference-maker on the field for him.
His first tally came on a tremendous header of a Morales free kick, nodding it off the bottom of the crossbar and in for an early goal against Sporting Kansas City. He followed that up with a hustle-play against Columbus Crew SC, chasing down a lazy ball bouncing back to the Columbus goalkeeper, working his way between the keeper and a defender and flicking it over his head and into the net. Finally on Saturday, another header from a Tony Beltran assist gave him his third goal.
“I just think you can see the engine that he has. It’s getting to full strength,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said. “He’s feeling it right now. He’s confident, he’s making good runs when the guys are delivering the ball.”
As the goals keep coming, the smile is getting wider on his face and RSL has another busy stretch forthcoming with three matches in a week starting Saturday against the Colorado Rapids in the first road match of the Rocky Mountain Cup this year for RSL. That is followed by a home match in the quarterfinal of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on July 14 against the LA Galaxy and the first league match against the Houston Dynamo since Houston returned to the Western Conference on July 18.
