Real Salt Lake is in a scoring slump. There are no two ways about it. It is a club that has the firepower in Yura Movsisyan, Joao Plata and Juan Manuel Martinez – the only trio in the West with at least seven goals each this season – and yet Real Salt Lake has just one goal in the last five matches, including three consecutive scoreless matches at home.
Now the season is on the line on Sunday at CenturyLink Field as RSL takes on a resurgent Sounders FC side that was once among the worst teams in MLS this season, but has gone 7-2-4 since Brian Schmetzer took over as interim coach in July. RSL won’t need to score to assure a playoff berth – a draw could even secure the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference if neither Sporting Kansas City nor the Portland Timbers earns a victory in their matches on Decision Day.
However, Movsisyan knows the importance of breaking out of the scoring slide to close out the season, but it isn’t always as simple as effort or execution.
“I think it all comes down to a bit of luck and confidence. When you go a game or two without scoring it can get tough. If you go four or five games, it gets even tougher,” Movsisyan said on ESPN 700’s O’Connell and Swinney Show on Wednesday. “I think it’s more of a mental issue than physical. When you’re scoring a lot of goals, that gives you a lot of confidence and there comes a point where you think that’s how it is always. It’s supposed to be that way, but in soccer, it’s never that way. It’s kind of a tricky mental battle.”
Along with the mental battle, Movsisyan is also dealing with a bone bruise in his heel that has hampered him in recent weeks, limiting the forward to just 71 minutes in the last three matches. However, he was back in training on Thursday and gave no indication that he could be limited on Sunday.
“I’m ok. It was a tough game for me,” Movsisyan said of being subbed out after 54 minutes against Kansas City on Sunday. “That’s a spot on the heel that there is no way to get around it. It’s a tough situation but I’ve had a lot of conversations with our head coach and we have to think what’s best for the team and go from there on Sunday.”
As the playoffs draw nearer, teams round into playoff form and that often means a deeper focus on defending, as allowing a goal can be crippling to hopes of advancing. As teams get into that approach, goals become harder and harder to come by. That, Movsisyan said, is one of the reasons Sunday’s scoreless draw is good preparation for what’s to come.
“The game against Sporting was a perfect pre-playoff game. These are tight games. These are tough games. We just have to believe in ourselves … and keep doing the simple things, the basic things, to get the results,” he said. “It’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be a really interesting game.”
Sunday’s match kicks off at 2 p.m. MT on ESPN. To hear Movsisyan’s full interview, click here.
