Real Salt Lake 1 at LAFC 2
March 23, 2019; Banc of California Stadium
Real Salt Lake (1-2-1, 4 points); LAFC (3-0-1, 10 points)
Man of the Match: Nick Rimando made five saves on the night and it took a hotly-debated first goal and a deflected second goal to keep RSL from getting the result. In his final regular season visit to Banc of California Stadium in his old LA stomping grounds – the Montclair, California, native starred at UCLA before making the move to MLS in 2000 – he certainly put on a show.
Telling Stat: Real Salt Lake had six Academy products starting the match – the most in MLS history – including two making their MLS debuts in Erik Holt and Tate Schmitt. Holt paired well with Nedum Onuoha to anchor the back line and made three tackles while committing no fouls on the night while Schmitt did well in his hold-up play, drawing three fouls himself. With eight of RSL’s top 18 players out of action to international duty, suspension and injury, Petke learned that he can turn to his young core when needed to scrap and fight and nearly get a result – if not for a deflected goal late in the match – against one of the top-spending teams in the league in LAFC. Add in a late substitute appearance by 18-year-old midfielder Luis Arriaga and the MLS debut – though short-lived – of Justin Portillo and there was a lot of excitement around the player development for RSL.
What You Missed: LAFC had no answer for Sebastian Saucedo. The winger was pressed into a starting role while Corey Baird, Sam Johnson and Albert Rusnák were away on international duty, Jefferson Savarino served a red-card suspension and Joao Plata remains out with an injury suffered on a red-card tackle against the Houston Dynamo in the season opener and gave the LA defense fits throughout the night. He drew the early penalty and was aggressive pressing forward at the right times and LA had no choice but to foul him to slow him down. At the end of the night, his five fouls were the most drawn on the night – more than Carlos Vela, Latif Blessing and Diego Rossi, who are three of the 11 most-fouled players in the league through four matches. Somewhat surprising is that none of those five fouls resulted in a yellow card for LA, who committed 18 fouls on the night, but only saw one booked by the referee.
So What: Next week will see the returns of Baird, Savarino, Johnson, Rusnák and Marcelo Silva. It also is possible that Joao Plata and Justen Glad could return from injury. With all of those players added back to the stable, Petke will have some choices to make. The group on the field on Saturday worked and fought and executed the game plan in admirable fashion. But will it be enough to stave off the returning stars. Competition in training has long been touted as an important factor in building success and RSL will have competition in abundance in the coming weeks, starting with a return to Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday against FC Dallas.
