Real Salt Lake 1 at Toronto FC 3
March 30, 2018; Toronto, Canada; BMO Field
Real Salt Lake (1-2-1, 4 points); Toronto FC (1-2-0, 3 points)
Man of the Match: Nick Rimando continued to show his remarkable talents even in his 19th MLS season. The RSL goalkeeper made five saves, including one stellar stop on a Sebastian Giovinco penalty in 15th minute. It was the second consecutive season that Rimando, who is the all-time MLS leader with 31 penalty saves, stopped a Giovinco penalty after he did the same in a scoreless draw at Rio Tinto Stadium last year. Giovinco is now 1-for-4 on penalties in the last two seasons after making seven out of eight in his first two MLS seasons.
Telling Stat: There wasn’t any great discrepancy in possession, passing accuracy and many other of the secondary stats that can tell the story of a match. The ones that did stand out, though, were shots and shots on goal. While RSL was able to string passes together, they weren’t with as much danger as Toronto, who outshot the visitors 19-8 and put eight shots on goal to just four for RSL. The defending MLS Cup champions showed the commitment on the defensive side and capitalized on the counter attack with the precision that has led them to two consecutive MLS Cup finals.
What You Missed: Corey Baird continues to impress early in his rookie campaign. The RSL Homegrown product scored his first MLS goal on Friday night after recording his first professional goal last week while on loan with the USL’s Real Monarchs. The Stanford product has played 44 minutes off the bench in his two appearances and breathed life into RSL’s comeback hopes with his 82nd minute goal, but that’s where the comeback would stop as minutes later Toronto extended the lead.
So What: The loss halts some momentum that could have been gained from the 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls two weeks earlier, but Head Coach Mike Petke was succinct in his approach to getting things back on track. “I know what the problem is, that’s all you’re going to get. I know what the problem is and it’s going to be fixed one way or another,” he told David James and Brian Dunseth on the postgame show. How it will be fixed will likely be evident in the week leading up to RSL’s meeting with Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday.
