SANDY — Clad in street clothes and sitting next to teammate Javier Morales in the Rio Tinto Stadium press box, Alvaro Saborio watched in delight three weeks ago as his Real Salt Lake teammates took down league-leading Seattle with a 2-1 victory.
The aerial magician no doubt watched in awe as Joao Plata — always the littlest player on the field — shocked the Sounders by scoring with his head.
Crammed into a television camera location in the press box, Saborio wasn’t just watching as a casual observer. He knew his broken foot was healing way ahead of schedule and it wouldn’t be long until he was wowing Rio Tinto Stadium patrons once again.
Incredibly, in RSL’s next home game three weeks later, that’s exactly what Saborio did.
After being sidelined the previous three months, Saborio made his much-awaited return against FC Dallas as a second-half substitute last Saturday and scored the game-winning goal within seconds of coming onto the field.
“It’s crazy to think he had just jogged on the field,” said RSL midfielder Ned Grabavoy, reflecting on the goal.
The strike was Saborio’s seventh of the season in 11 matches, and there’s no doubt the Costa Rican’s return to the field is a game-changer for Real Salt Lake.
RSL scored 21 goals in the first 10 games this season before Saborio departed for the World Cup — and then subsequently got hurt. In the 16 games he missed the club scored 19 goals. That’s a significant difference of 2.1 to 1.2 goals per game with and without Saborio.
His presence changes the way teams can defend Real Salt Lake.
“It’s respect. They have to respect him, they have to respect his aerial game, they have to respect him in the box, they have to respect his post-up play,” said RSL coach Jeff Cassar. “There’s a lot of areas they have to concentrate on, which frees up other players to do their thing.”
RSL immediately becomes dangerous again on set pieces.
“He’s obviously our best finisher off wide services, so it gives us a guy in there … that we feel pretty comfortable whipping a ball into him and knowing he can put it away,” said Grabavoy.
Heading into this Friday’s critical Western Conference clash at Seattle, Cassar said he won’t hesitate playing Saborio on the hard turf surface at CenturyLink Field despite his recent foot surgery.
“Doctor said there’s nothing that’s going to affect him on turf, and that’s mainly because he hasn’t been playing all year. If he’d been playing and getting wear and tear and kind of beaten up a little bit, it might be a different issue,” said Cassar.
Saborio missed both earlier meetings against Seattle this year, with the home team winning each match. He’s scored twice in six career matches against the Sounders.
Assuming Saborio does play against Seattle — most likely as a substitute — he’ll certainly be the focal point of the defense.
With his goal against Dallas last Saturday, he improved his career average to 0.62 goals every 90 minutes. That’s the best average in MLS history for strikers who’ve played at least 75 career games. Taylor Twellman has the second-best average with 0.60 goals every 90 minutes. He scored 101 career goals in 175 career games.
Saborio has now scored 59 goals in 108 career appearances with Real Salt Lake.