On Saturday, Jeff Attinella came up with an astounding nine saves in Real Salt Lake’s 4-0 loss to the New England Revolution. One of them, a diving swipe at a putback attempt by Juan Agudelo, is up for MLSsoccer.com’s Save of the Week for Week 8.
“He really was outstanding tonight – for me, the man of the match on both teams; just multiple big saves and what I can’t get over is that we didn’t have people in positions to help him after he made big saves,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said after the match.
On Monday, Attinella appeared on the Bill & OC Show on ESPN 700 and talked about how RSL bounces back from a difficult defeat like that.
“I think the focus shifts immediately to San Jose. We’ll see where we can improve and try and get the bad taste out of our mouths as soon as possible,” he said. “I don’t think that we should make excuses for what happened. They outplayed us. I think for 37 or 38 minutes, we were still pretty comfortable. To be honest I was thinking we could get to halftime 0-0 and in the second half we could make some subs and anything could happen. Unfortunately they scored and they kind of kept on coming. We have to do a better job of responding, especially in the game.”
Attinella is in a unique situation among MLS goalkeepers. Because Nick Rimando is a regular with the U.S. National Team, he has missed several matches over the last two years and has created opportunities for playing time that aren’t there with every MLS club. Last season, he started 10 matches, most of which came while Rimando was on international duty. Already this year he has made two starts – one while Rimando was with the national team and then this weekend while he was recovering from a knee injury.
“I’m one of the lucky backups in the league. I think I have more games in the last two seasons than maybe any backup in the league. So obviously it’s huge for experience,” Attinella said. “With every game and every moment you get to play, it makes you feel more comfortable. Now I’m at a point where when my number is called upon I’m comfortable to step in and get the best results possible.”
To vote for Attinella for Save of the Week, click here.
