Apparently, the remedy for struggling teams is to have Real Salt Lake visit. Like Houston just a few weeks ago, the Columbus Crew were able to get a key home win against RSL and give their fans hope for turning an uneven season around.
For Real, however, Saturday night’s 4-3 loss in Columbus was another missed opportunity against a side that has struggled to earn results this season. The defeat leaves RSL with just one win so far on its five-game road trip.
Defensively, it was as poor a showing for both teams as the scoreline suggests, and it was a big step backward for a Real side that had done so well at shutting down Kansas City last weekend. The improvements in team defense that Jeff Cassar and his staff had worked on prior to that match seemed to have disappeared in the face of a Crew side that came out looking far more prepared both tactically and in terms of intensity from kickoff.
Cassar himself will be the target of questioning from the fans. His decision to rotate the squad and make a number of lineup changes looking ahead to Thursday’s match at NYCFC drew some ire — keeping both Javier Morales and Burrito Martinez on the bench left the team without a real playmaking leader to start the match.
In addition, Cassar was sent off in the final minutes of the match, meaning that he won’t be on the sidelines for that match in New York. Arguing with the referees over the amount of stoppage time, Cassar admitted that he “said something [he]shouldn’t have”.
The bottom line, however, was that many of RSL’s mistakes came from long-standing issues, and Columbus did well to exploit them. They fell into some broad themes that all tie together:
- Numbers and transition play: Columbus overwhelmed Real on the transition, pushing numbers forward quickly and making it difficult for RSL to find its bearings. The Crew were frequently able to cut the Real back four apart with a single pass or run, because the defenders were scrambling and getting pulled out of position.
- Tracking runners: Real has consistently struggled with opponents making runs from deeper positions, and Saturday was no exception. The numbers that Columbus pushed forward were augmented by runs from outside backs and other deep-lying players that RSL had trouble dealing with effectively.
- Pace of play: This was most apparent in the midfield, but was problematic everywhere on the pitch. RSL loves to work itself into a match, taking a lot of touches on the ball and make short passes around the pitch. Columbus didn’t allow Real the time to do that, pressuring and forcing turnovers that in more than one instance led to a Crew goal. Given that RSL’s next match is on the tiny pitch at Yankee Stadium where everything is significantly compacted, Real should be concerned about the number of touches individuals take with the ball and possessing with purpose.
After the Crew’s fourth goal and some key substitutions, Real did show some fight, pulling two goals back. Jordan Allen and Joao Plata added to Luke Mulholland’s first-half strike, and RSL might have found an equalizer had it not been left so late.
And it might have been much worse — Nick Rimando came up with several of his trademark borderline-miraculous saves to keep RSL from annihilation.
It really was a missed opportunity for RSL, though — Joao Plata’s saved penalty in the dying moments of the first half exemplified the night as a whole. Fortunately, Real doesn’t have too much time to dwell on the loss, with a Thursday night match in New York coming up.
Real Salt Lake
