The final ball needs to be better at times. Going back to the last three or four games, we’re doing a lot of very good things, and then the final product isn’t quite there. – RSL head coach Jeff Cassar
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Real Salt Lake's rough midseason patch continued Wednesday night with a 2-0 road defeat to the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place, stretching the side’s unbeaten matches to five in all competitions.
Despite the result, RSL maintains its position in third place in the Western Conference with 29 points.
The misery on this night in front of a crowd of 22,120 began in the 34th minute, as Justin Glad was credited with an own goal. The central defender was helpless on the play as right fullback Tony Beltran’s attempted clearance hit him from close range before going into the back of Jeff Attinella’s net.
Three minutes later, the Whitecaps doubled their lead through a long-distance wonder strike from Cristian Techera. The diminutive winger latched onto a pass from Christian Bolanos before firing into the top left corner from outside the area.
“Obviously we’re disappointed. We wanted to get the win and clearly didn’t,” Glad said following the match, before addressing the game’s decisive moment. “Just wrong place, wrong time. Got a little unfortunate with it being cleared off me. It happens. Just have to focus on next game, make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The result didn’t look predetermined. Despite fielding a weakened team without starting goalkeeper Nick Rimando, suspended captain Kyle Beckerman (yellow card accumulation), defender Demar Phillips and forward Joao Plata, Real looked the better side in the early going.
Yura Movsisyan came agonizingly close to opening the scoring in the 15th minute as he got on the end of a ball headed across the goal by Olmes Garcia to fire a header at target from close range. Unfortunately for RSL, his effort was directed right at Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted.
Seven minutes later, it was Omar Holness with a guilt-edged opportunity. Beltran hit a perfectly weighted ball into the area, only for the forward to sky the chance under little pressure.
“The final ball needs to be better at times,” said RSL coach Jeff Cassar about missed opportunities in the match. “Going back to the last three or four games, we’re doing a lot of very good things, and then the final product isn’t quite there. We’re just going to continue to put the guys in those situations, look to improve every time we can, and I have full confidence in our players that the more we get them in those positions, they’ll come through.”
Cassar tried to spark his side in the 65th minute by making a double substitution, bringing on Javier Morales and Juan Manuel Martinez in favor of Jordan Allen and Luke Mulholland.
The move didn’t pay immediate dividends, but RSL did knock on the door in the final 15 minutes of the match.
Movsisyan had a half chance as the ball fell to him at the top of the area in the 74th minute, but despite catching Ousted going in the wrong direction, his effort didn’t have the power to beat the Danish net-minder.
Then in stoppage time, RSL came close twice. First, Garcia forced Ousted into a save by firing a left-footed effort toward goal from the top of the box. Then moments later, perhaps summing up RSL’s fortunes on the night, Movsisyan smashed a close-range effort off the bar before the referee blew the final whistle.
Given the Whitecaps and RSL came into this match as the joint second-lowest scoring teams in the league with 33 goals apiece, this match might have been seen as an opportunity to sneak in a win if only the team could get on the scoresheet. Instead, with this result, Real has scored just three goals in its last five matches, and it was shut out against a Whitecaps side that hadn’t kept a clean sheet in league play in 11 matches.
RSL will try to bump its slump on Saturday as the side returns home to Rio Tinto Stadium, where it remains undefeated, for a match against the New England Revolution.
“We just need to fight,” said Glad of getting the team out of its five-game winless run. “I’m sure we’re going to put together a solid performance next game, stay solid at the back. We’re going to create chances, and we just need to keep believing in what we do and in who we are as a club, as a team, and we’ll get the results.”