Heading into the home stretch of MLS play, Real Salt Lake notched a critical win at Vancouver to stop the points bleeding away from the last two losses. In so doing, they keep alive the chance of first place in the Western Conference and a possible Supporters’ Shield. But all of that will have to wait – RSL now will shift complete focus to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final match.
The matchup against the Vancouver Whitecaps saw Coach Jason Kreis dig deep into his bench. RSL has arguably the deepest bench in MLS play and Coach Kreis used that to his advantage to rest the legs of his normal starters in preparation of the Open Cup final match just three days away. Kreis fielded 10 new players into the starting lineup from the previous week. Only FW Devon Sandoval remained on the sheet. Even the list of 18 available players only saw a handful of familiar names. No Morales, no Beckerman, no Rimando, no Borchers, no Beltran, no Saborio, no Findley.
You could fairly call this team the “B” squad, as many of the players regularly play with the reserve team, but Coach Kreis has repeatedly played different lineups all season. Asked about the system used to train the team Kreis commented, “Us being able to put anyone on the pitch and still win games is one of the large benefits of having a philosophy of playing in a system that we stick to 90% of the time. We train all of our guys in that same system.” This clearly was not a “throw-away” game where you let the second string get some game time, rather this was a critical game in the points race. This approach however, highlights the desire for RSL to win the U.S. Open Cup final and win the berth back into the CONCACAF Champions League that comes with it.
The strategy definitely had some risks, but with 3 matches in 8 days, something had to give. The players on the pitch for Real did not wait long to let everyone know they wanted to win. DF Lovel Palmer gathered the ball in the ninth minute and made a touch into space on the right side. He then made a beautiful outswinging cross pass that FW Devon Sandoval was able to get his head to the ball and snap it down and away from GK David Ousted. Vancouver would have a few chances to equalize in the first half but RSL GK Jeff Attinella handled those challenges skillfully. Vancouver would only notch one “shot on target” on the stat sheet and most of the credit for that would go to the back line for RSL. The return of DF Chris Schuler was a welcome sight for the fans. Schuler and mid-season acquisition, DF Brandon McDonald, played excellent defense that was critical to RSL claiming the team’s first ever win in Vancouver.
So the strategy paid off and RSL finds themselves at the top of the Western Conference again with 3 regular season matches left, still a shot at reaching 60 points in a season and securing home field advantage for the play-offs. RSL fans should be watching the Sunday night matchup of the Seattle Sounders and the New York Red Bulls. The best result for RSL would be if the teams split the points in a draw. That would give New York a one point lead in the Supporters’ Shield but would also leave RSL atop the Western Conference tied with the Sounders but holding the tie-breaker.
The 100th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final is Tuesday October 1st at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah. Real Salt Lake hopes to hoist some hardware in front of the home crowd. DC United will come to Utah with a lousy MLS record of 3-21-6; scoring a league bottom 15 points. They have only scored 20 goals in MLS play, compared to RSL’s 54. They have won this tournament before (1996/2008) and it would be a little bit of salvation to a wreck of a season for DC United. Real Salt Lake has never won this tournament and the team has placed a high value on winning it this year.
Winning the Open Cup, and hopefully the Western Conference, would likely also start some serious buzzing about Coach Kreis winning Coach of the Year honors as well as stir the pot regarding his future as head coach of RSL. Rumors abound of interest from the future New York City FC team. Rumors that were fueled when Kreis made a trip to England recently to meet with Manchester City officials who are the major owners of the future NYCFC. Some believe Coach Kreis could even make the jump to Europe with the bigger exposure a NYCFC job would bring. Coach Kreis’ contract with RSL is up at the end of the season. RSL’s home office says the negotiations to keep Coach Kreis with the team are ongoing.
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