It’s huge, it’s huge. There was no other option at this point in the season. Very proud of the boys commitment, both offensively and defensively tonight cause we all knew how big of a game it was. – RSL defender Tony Beltran
SANDY — Don’t write Real Salt Lake off just yet.
On a day when San Jose tightened the race for the West’s last playoff spot by handing D.C. United its first home loss of the season, RSL did its best to keep pace with arguably its most important win of the season.
Buoyed by a couple of early goals, Real Salt Lake kept itself very much in the thick of the MLS playoff race with a 2-0 victory statement over the Seattle Sounders in front of a sell-out crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium of 20,559.
“It’s huge, it’s huge. There was no other option at this point in the season. Very proud of the boys' commitment, both offensively and defensively tonight cause we all knew how big of a game it was,” said defender Tony Beltran.
Real Salt Lake is still on the outside looking in from eighth place, but now it only trails sixth-place Seattle for the last playoff spot by three points — when a loss would’ve widened that gap to nine points and likely eliminated the club from realistic playoff contention.
With two upcoming road games in Texas, RSL still has a massive mountain to climb, but there’s confidence and life after Saturday’s performance.
Javier Morales said the performance was the best of the season in terms of possession, connecting passes all over the field and realistically playing RSL’s old brand of soccer.
In many ways, Morales believes that’s how the team played in last weekend’s loss to Portland. It just couldn’t hit the target in front of goal.
Early goals made all the difference against Seattle.
Just 12 minutes into the match, Seattle defender Roman Torres was whistled for a hand ball just inside the penalty area, and Morales calmly stepped up and buried his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
Less than a minute earlier, Sebastian Jaime had a point-blank shot turned away by Seattle keeper Stefan Frei, and those types of missed opportunities really hurt RSL in last week’s home loss to Portland.
Fortunately for Real Salt Lake, the frustration didn’t linger long as it continued to attack, and that pressure put Seattle in the awkward position to commit the hand ball.
In the 19th minute, Real Salt Lake doubled its advantage on a great reactionary play from Jaime. After Luke Mulholland uncorked a 25-yard cannon off the crossbar, Jaime reacted to the rebound a split second faster than Seattle defender Chad Marshall, enabling him to get to the ball first and head it into the empty net for the 2-0 lead.
“I really liked that he was tuned in. As the shot’s happening, as it’s coming off he’s not relaxing. But I thought he was really good all night long,” said RSL head coach Jeff Cassar.
Seattle nearly whittled the lead in half in the 35th minute when Seattle leading scorer Obafemi Martins banged a shot off the crossbar.
In the second half, Real Salt Lake continued to dominate the midfield, knocking it around with surprising ease against Seattle’s midfield.
“Here at Rio Tinto when we get off to that start and we put one, we put two away early it can be really tough on an opponent going into the second half, and the altitude comes into play and they start to die and we possess the ball well,” said Beltran.
Even though a dagger third goal never came, it didn’t matter as the defense stayed strong all 90 minutes to record its seventh shutout of the season, and first in league play since a 2-0 win over Houston on July 18.
“I thought our back four, and Kyle (Beckerman) and Luke did a great job ’cause you can see Obefemi tucks into the midfield and I thought the communication all night was very good,” said Cassar. “I thought they covered for each other extremely well, and that’s something that we stressed all week long. It look like a unit out there, and that’s what I was really pleased about.”
Real Salt Lake new designated player Juan Manuel Martinez arrived in Utah from Argentina on Friday afternoon, and was on the bench as an available sub for Cassar. He played it safe and didn’t insert him into the game.
RSL returns to action next Saturday at FD Dallas, a team that lost its third straight game on Saturday and whose playoff position is far from secure.
Deseret News prep editor and Real Salt Lake beat writer.