Entering the 2017 season, one of the big questions surrounding Real Salt Lake was how the club would deal with the loss of longtime playmaker Javier Morales in the midfield. In 10 seasons with the club, he racked up 81 assists and created chances seemingly at will.
In his first game playing in Morales’ former role as a No. 10, Albert Rusnák showed fans two things – first that he plays the position differently than his predecessor and second that the chances didn’t leave with him.
With all 22 teams taking the field over the weekend, Rusnák tied for the most chances created in the league, his total of five matched only by New York City FC’s David Villa. As debuts go, Rusnák did well to make a good first impression with his new club.
“I think he did great,” exclaimed RSL defender Tony Beltran, himself in his tenth season with the club. “I think Albert put himself in the right spots particularly I mean him and Joao (Plata) are combining very well and he is looking for Jordan (Allen) and looking for Yura (Movsisyan) and he is always a threat and I think he is going to do very well for his first year and I'm happy for him to make his debut.”
Rusnák came to RSL after spending the last few seasons in Holland playing with FC Groningen. The Manchester City academy product and recent call-up for the Slovakian National Team wasn’t able to get RSL on the scoresheet in his first match in MLS, but he did show a quick aptitude to adjusting to the new league and his new teammates.
While setting up goals in a victory would have made for a better ending to the tale of his first match at Rio Tinto Stadium, helping fight to a draw with the defending Eastern Conference champions and early favorites to contend for MLS Cup in 2017 in Toronto FC was not a bad way to start.
“It was a tough game I think, but we stuck there as a team and it’s not ideal because of course we wanted to win at first, but when we look overall at the game it was a good result,” he said. “I think we as a team showed a lot of potential maybe and we did exactly what we planned to do to stop them playing in the middle which worked really well and I just think we need to be a little better in the final. Of course we would like to get more, but I think we got some pretty good chances today, but maybe not the final chances but we got there to have a really good chance.”
At just 22 years old, Rusnák showed great promise in the new-look RSL attack. Next up, he will look to continue on that path when RSL meets the Chicago Fire on Saturday at Toyota Park in the club’s first road match of the season.
