SANDY — A month later, Los Angeles FC returned the favor on mistake-prone Real Salt Lake.
RSL beat LAFC at Rio Tinto Stadium by three goals last month, but in the rematch Sunday night it was LAFC that delivered a resounding 3-1 win in a lethargic performance from the shorthanded home side.
“I think we lacked a little bite winning second balls. I think the first half we got in their half a fair amount in behind, but when we turned it over I don’t think we had that bite necessarily to get it back or commit the foul.” — RSL keeper Andrew Putna.
Already without Albert Rusnak who is away in Europe on national team duty, RSL had to play without its top two center backs with Justen Glad suspended because of yellow card accumulation and Nedum Onuoha not healthy enough to play.
Without the two, the awareness and sharpness at the back wasn’t good enough in key moments as Real Salt Lake has now lost three of its past four home games.
RSL coach Freddy Juarez wanted his team to play very direct early on to try and pounce on LAFC’s jumbled backline, but it often led to his own team scrambling defensively.
“I think we lacked a little bite winning second balls. I think the first half we got in their half a fair amount in behind, but when we turned it over I don’t think we had that bite necessarily to get it back or commit the foul,” said RSL keeper Andrew Putna.
The teams were level on points heading into the match, and with LAFC winning it jumped to fifth in the Western Conference standings while RSL now sits alone in eighth.
LAFC showed off why it’s perhaps the best attacking team in MLS during a five-minute stretch midway through the first half scoring a pair of goals to seize the 2-0 lead.
The first goal was an exercise in patience. The LAFC backline patiently swung the ball from side to side for nearly a minute looking for a hole to play a penetrating ball, and in the 22nd minute Latif Blessing found it.
He played a simple ball into Eduard Atuesta, who flicked it in behind into the path of a streaking Jose Cifuentes as three players closed in on Atuesta.
Cifuentes’ shot ended up bouncing off the post, but it redirected straight into the path of Bradley Wright-Phillips who easily banged in the opening goal.
“When you get scored on at home, it takes a mental strength as individuals and a team as a collective to rise back up. And once we got scored on you started to see some of those miscues,” said Juarez.
Five minutes later, the build-up started at the other end of the field after a heavy touch just barely got away from Justin Meram in the box spoiling a scoring chance. Blessing took one touch out of the box and played it slightly forward to Cifuentes, who saw Diego Rossi racing up the sideline and played a curling ball into a cavern of space in front of Rossi.
Rossi chased the ball down setting up a 1v1 chance between against RSL center back Erik Holt — a mismatch for any defender.
Rossi dribbled into the box, made a simple move to create some space from Holt and then slipped a close-range shot past Andrew Putna. The start was just the sixth for Holt in the past two years, and RSL’s record in those games now stands at 0-5-1.
“If you have a soft turnover against a team like LAFC they’re going to be going straight back down your throats the other way,” said defender Aaron Herrera, who was very high upfield supporting the attack when Meram lost the ball.
“Rossi’s a great player, so if he gets isolated with a player, he’s likely going to punish you, it doesn’t matter who you are,” added Herrera.
With his team trailing by two goals at the break, Juarez inserted Sam Johnson into the match for Meram to inject a bit more life into the attack.
He had a glorious opportunity to cut the lead in half with a free header at the six-yard box, but he misjudged the ball as it ended up hitting his shoulder instead and went wide.
A minute later, LAFC stretched the lead to 3-0 capitalizing on a failed clearance from RSL. That allowed Brian Rodriguez to dribble past Damir Kreilach and chip a close-range shot past Putna, a finish that was somewhat similar to Rossi’s close-range goal.
“Once it’s within five or six yards of the goal, you just try and spread yourself and make yourself as big as possible,” said Putna. “I think a lot of times when it’s point blank you expect guys to slot it but both finishes were quality at the end of the day.”
RSL pulled a goal back in the 64th minute on what turned out to be an own goal. LAFC keeper Pablo Sisniega made the initial save on Marcelo Silva’s header attempt, but the rebound redirected off his own teammate’s knee who was less than a foot away and into the back of the net.
Real Salt Lake didn’t have many chances the rest of the game though, and will now try and regroup for a game at West-leading Seattle on Wednesday.