Juan Manuel Martinez made his debut with Real Salt Lake on Saturday and while it came in a 2-0 defeat to FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium, early returns on his performance are extremely positive.
“I thought he did well. He brought a spark for us which was good and what we needed,” RSL captain Kyle Beckerman said. “We’ll keep working hard and see if we can integrate him into the team as quick as possible.”
Martinez played 25 minutes, entering the match with RSL trailing 1-0, and made a quick impact when he drew the would-be equalizing penalty. Although the penalty wasn’t converted, it was encouraging not only that Martinez drew the penalty but how he got in position to draw it.
“You can see he likes to look to combine with people. He shows up in different spots,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said. “He went in on the right side and winds up drawing a PK on the left side. So that’s what I want from our forwards – movement, being dynamic. He was that tonight.”
One key to his quick transition has been his relationship with Javier Morales. Though they had never met before Martinez arrived in Utah on August 21, Morales has been a conduit toward helping integrate Martinez into the locker room and make him feel comfortable in Utah. That translated into a fast connection between the two on the field too, even after just one week of practice together.
“They’re going to have a nice relationship that’s going to continue to build. As he gets more comfortable with all of our players the relationships will grow and become stronger become automatic with their movements and passing,” Cassar said. “The more that you have soccer players that want to play out there, you get good movement. You get confident movement because you know that you’re going to get it back. I liked what I saw when he was in.”
Martinez will have two more weeks of training before his next on-field test against the Houston Dynamo on September 12.
