SANDY — Real Salt Lake’s patchwork front line found a way on Wednesday night.
It wasn’t ideal starting the match without its top four scorers because of international call-ups, but that was the reality RSL faced against San Jose in the massive Western Conference clash with second place up for grabs.
RSL’s front three attackers had a collective three starts in those positions prior to Wednesday night, and it showed as the attack looked disjointed throughout most of the first half. It wasn’t necessarily surprising either, which is why it was so important for the backline to keep a clean sheet until the coaching staff could fortify the attack around the 60th minute.
That’s exactly what the defense did, and then the subs took over from there, changing the entire complexion of the match and paving the way for Real Salt Lake to grind out a 1-0 victory over San Jose on a Damir Kreilach header in the 75th minute.
“We started a bit rough but as the game progressed I thought we got better, the second half we came out and made adjustments that we needed and we’re on the front foot in the second half,” said RSL assistant coach Tyrone Marshall.
The victory vaulted RSL from fifth to second place in the Western Conference standings with five matches remaining in the regular season.
Doing so without its top four goal scorers in the starting lineup says a lot about the mentality of the squad, but defender Nedum Onuoha said he wasn’t surprised.
“You will always miss those players cause people like Albert (Rusnak) are the main players on this team, but the fact is we’ve had a week to get ready for this fixture so the people that were going to be playing knew they were going to be playing from the start of the week,” said Onuoha.
Kreilach’s lone goal in the 75th minute was doubly satisfying after some misses earlier in the match, including his wide-open, point-blank header straight at the keeper on a first-half cross from Brooks Lennon.
Later in the match when Lennon clipped a cross back into the box after the initial corner kick was cleared, Kreilach buried his header into the upper corner for the winner.
“It was a great cross from Brooks and I just attacked the ball and luckily the ball was in. It was frustrating because I missed a couple of chances before those chances,” said Kreilach.
With the lead, Real Salt Lake patiently absorbed San Jose’s pressure to see the win out for its fifth shutout in the past 10 matches.
Early on it looked like pressure from visitors, which sat 1 point ahead of RSL in the standings heading into the match, might eventually wear down RSL. San Jose finished the game with a 56-44 percent edge in possession.
Realistically though, the players simply needed time figuring out the unique way San Jose played — especially the unfamiliar faces up top.
“They brought a system which is hard to play against because they were going man for man all around the field, so you kind of have to do things different to find space,” said Onuoha.
That meant a lot of passes back to keeper Nick Rimando, but Onuoha said those weren’t necessarily negative balls as it helped change the point of attack.
It was a unique scenario for Douglas Martinez to start at striker and make his MLS debut after being promoted from the RSL Monarchs last week. On the wings, Joao Plata made just his second start of the season while Brooks Lennon made just his third start on the wings.
The collective inexperience led to a punch less attack in the opening 45 minutes which produced just three shots and 45% of the possession.
“I thought we started the game a little on the back foot, San Jose came out a little bit more on the front than we did,” said Marshall.
The insertion of Jefferson Savarino and Sebastian Saucedo in the 64th minute changed all of that. Savarino showed a ton of commitment even stepping on the field. He was in Tampa on Tuesday night playing for the Venezuela National Team, but he only saw limited minutes in the match and told the coaching staff he wanted to play.
Real Salt Lake has a quick turnaround this Sunday when it travels to fourth-place Minnesota, which missed out on a chance to vault into second place on Wednesday when it lost at Houston.