Real Salt Lake is on its first bye weekend since mid-June and it comes at a good time for a team that has been riding a roller coaster all season. In the 11 weeks since that weekend off, RSL has gone 4-6-2 in league play and 8-7-2 overall.
Aaron Maund has started in 16 of those 17 matches and on Monday, he joined The Bill & OC Show to talk about RSL’s tough defeat in Dallas, and how the team approaches the crucial stretch of matches upcoming with 10 matches across all competitions and seven vital MLS matches.
He had a sense of relief that the team gets the weekend off after such a whirlwind summer.
“I think this summer’s been pretty hectic with our schedule with the three competitions we were in. Anytime we can take some time to recover and get some good training in and kind of get back to the basics, that’s what we want,” Maund said. “It definitely is going to be a good time to get the legs back under us and prepare for the tough stretch we have coming up.”
Now with a chance to catch its collective breath, the team is turning its focus to the final seven matches of the season. But the approach doesn’t change from how the club has viewed the critical games in recent weeks.
“I don’t think it changes. Before, we were looking at every game as that individual game and how do we get over that challenge that’s right in front of us. I think that’s the same mindset we have to go in with in these last seven games,” Maund said. “Who’s next? You’ve got to get the job done. Results are so crucial now. It’s really time to step up.”
With just seven matches left on the MLS schedule and sitting six points out of the playoffs, RSL can’t afford to miss out on many points if it has hopes of keeping its streak of seven consecutive postseason appearances alive. Maund knows the team needs points, but is focused just on winning games and not how many points the team needs.
“I try not to get caught up in that. The way to get through these kind of challenges is to take them one game at a time. That’s what we try to do,” he said. “We try not to talk numbers, we let everyone else do that. We just try to take care of whoever is in front of us.”
To hear the full interview, click here.
