Real Salt Lake has officially met the halfway point in the 2018 season, playing the 17th of 34 regular season matches on Saturday against Columbus Crew SC.
Since Mike Petke was elevated to Head Coach after five matches and the team took time to adjust to its new man in charge, I thought it would be a fun exercise to look back over the last 34 matches RSL has played under Petke. So taking into account the final 17 matches from the 2017 season and the first 17 matches from the 2018 season, we learned quite a bit about just how successful Petke and Real Salt Lake have been.
After a stellar end to the 2017 season that saw RSL climb within a point of reaching the MLS Cup Playoffs and a six-game home winning streak this season, Real Salt Lake ranks fourth in the Western Conference over the last 34 matches. More glaringly, though, RSL has the most wins in the Western Conference in that time, along with the Portland Timbers.
Below are the tables for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference over each club’s last 34 matches,
Club – 2018, 2017 – total, points
Western Conference
Portland Timbers – 7-3-5, 8-6-5 – 15-9-10, 55
Sporting Kansas City – 9-3-5, 5-5-7 – 14-8-12, 54
FC Dallas – 9-2-5, 5-7-6 – 14-9-11, 53
Real Salt Lake – 7-8-2, 8-5-4 – 15-13-6, 51
Vancouver Whitecaps FC – 6-7-5, 7-5-4 – 13-12-9, 48
Houston Dynamo – 6-6-3, 6-4-9 – 12-10-12, 48
Seattle Sounders FC – 3-9-3, 9-3-7 – 12-12-10, 46
Minnesota United FC – 5-10-1, 5-9-4 – 10-19-5, 35
San Jose Earthquakes – 2-9-6, 7-8-2 – 9-17-8, 35
Colorado Rapids – 4-9-3, 4-9-5 – 8-18-8, 32
LA Galaxy – 6-7-3, 2-12-4 – 8-19-7, 30
Eastern Conference
Atlanta United – 11-3-4, 7-2-6 – 18-6-10, 64
New York Red Bulls – 10-4-2, 7-5-6 – 17-9-8, 59
Columbus Crew SC – 8-5-6, 8-2-5 – 16-7-11, 59
New York City FC – 9-3-4, 7-4-6 – 16-7-10, 58
Toronto FC – 4-9-3, 11-3-4 – 15-12-7, 52
New England Revolution – 7-4-6, 8-8-1 – 15-12-7, 52
Philadelphia Union – 6-8-3, 5-7-5 – 11-15-8, 41
Chicago Fire – 6-7-5, 5-8-3 – 11-15-8, 41
Montreal Impact – 7-11-0, 5-11-0 – 12-22-0, 36
Orlando City SC – 6-10-1, 3-10-4 – 9-20-5, 32
D.C. United – 2-7-4, 5-14-2 – 7-21-6, 27
Here are some of RSL’s top statistical performers in that time:
Luis Silva 10 G, 2 A, 28 GP, 21 GS
Albert Rusnak 8 G, 13 A, 31 GP, 30 GS
Joao Plata 8 G, 5 A, 27 GP, 24 GS
Jefferson Savarino 8 G, 5 A, 33 GP, 32 GS
Corey Baird 4 G, 2 A, 15 GP, 10 GS
Kyle Beckerman 4 G, 0 A, 30 GP, 29 GS
Damir Kreilach 3 G, 4 A, 17 GP, 16 GS
Brooks Lennon 2 G, 7 A, 32 GP, 21 GS
Sebastian Saucedo 1 G, 5 A, 24 GP 6 GS
Nick Rimando 15-13-6, 8 ShO, 1.47 GAA
