Casa Grande, Arizona (Saturday, January 28, 2017) – Real Salt Lake finished the first leg of preseason camp on Saturday in Casa Grande, Arizona with a scrimmage against NK Istra – a Croatian club training in Arizona during its winter break in the middle of its current season. After a week focused on the defensive side of the ball without any work on the attacking third, Head Coach Jeff Cassar was pleased to see the match end 0-0.
“I thought it was mission accomplished for what we’ve been working on so far in the first five days,” Cassar said. “What we quickly learned is that if we defend properly, we’re going to create better chances going forward. There are still areas to work on, but definitely something to build on.”
The game featured three 30-minute periods, with RSL putting out three different lineups, one for each period.
In the first period, RSL had a good bit of offensive possession in the middle 10 minutes, but couldn’t generate a shot on goal. Meanwhile, Connor Sparrow made a nice save in the 30th minute to keep Istra off the board and the match went into the first break at 0-0.
In the second period, RSL had a few more opportunities to get on the board, but shots from Sunny and Luis Silva both missed wide of the net and the match remained scoreless. Defensively, RSL executed the game plan that had been emphasized throughout the week and limited the passing lanes while applying pressure in opportune spots to start counter attacks.
The third period saw Brooks Lennon don RSL’s kit after the Liverpool attacker and Real Salt Lake Academy product was cleared by Liverpool to train with the Claret-and-Cobalt. While RSL was able to get into the attack again, the final ball wasn’t there and the match finished in a scoreless draw.
“The intensity of each training session has been outstanding and that transferred into the game. It got physical out there and our boys handled it well and also gave it back and continued to play,” Cassar said. “It was a great exercise for us and their team and now we move on to Tucson.”
RSL will travel to Tucson on Saturday and take the day off on Sunday before returning to the practice field on Monday. In Tucson, Salt Lake will meet the New York Red Bulls on Tuesday and the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday, with both matches streamed live on RSL.com.
RSL lineup
First Period: Connor Sparrow; Chris Wingert, Aaron Maund, Chris Schuler, Demar Phillips; Jesus Leal, Omar Holness; Ricardo Velazco, Jose Hernandez, Joao Plata; Yura Movsisyan.
Second Period: Lalo Fernandez; Tony Beltran, Justen Glad, David Horst, Danilo Acosta; Sunny, Luke Mulholland; Jordan Allen, Luis Silva, Sebastian Saucedo; Chad Barrett.
Third Period: Andrew Putna, Reagan Dunk, Emilio Orozco, Justin Schmidt, Max Lachowecki; Nick Besler, Andrew Brody; Daniel Haber, Brooks Lennon, Amet Ramirez; Chandler Hoffman.
