Chris Wondolowski and Joao Plata square off. (Deseret News)
Saturday night Real Salt Lake returned to Rio Tinto Stadium with high hopes of leaving least weekend's loss to Seattle behind them. The Claret and Cobalt were 2-0 against the Quakes so far this year, and since the Quakes had just played a CCL match on Wednesday, so the cards looked set to be laid out for a match that RSL really should win. San Jose, to their credit, had other ideas.
The match started innocently enough, with RSL controlling most of the possession and forcing their way into the San Jose end. There was a nice chance for Kyle Beckerman early on, but the captain slipped his driving shot just over the crossbar. Devon Sandoval also directed a header at goal, but hit it right at Jon Busch, who was barely troubled.
RSL still looked to be in control has San Jose calmly waltzed up RSL's defensive left side in the 18th minute. No RSL players pressured the ball and Cordell Cato was left open to send an easy, textbook cross into the box where Steven Lenhart slipped away from Nat Borchers and put the Quakes in the lead as easy as you like with a training type header to the near post. To me it looked like our defense was banking on a secondary run and got caught flat footed.
The crowd at Rio Tinto was stunned, but they were brought back to life a few moments later when RSL found an equalizer. Kyle Beckerman sent in a corner kick that found an unmarked Javier Morales. Javi slammed it easily past Busch to knot the score at 1-1.
At this point I remember thinking to myself from my seat in section 30, "Ok, we're back on level terms. We need to reassert our offensive gameplan and go from there. Our defense isn't going to screw up that badly twice." I was dead wrong. Moments later RSL gave up a silly free kick just outside the area and Shea Salinas was able to impart another basic cross into the danger zone. Lenhart slipped Borchers yet again and headed past Rimando to make it 1-2 to the visitors.
Watching Lenhart's gyrations and celebrations made me sick to my stomach, but the absolute pedestrian style of RSL's defensive play on the two goals was downright nauseating. I don't know how you let THAT GUY loose twice in four minutes like that. RSL got the torching they deserved. San Jose quite effectively parked the bus in front of their goal for the rest of the half, and RSL wasn't able to muster more than a half chance as they headed toward the break. The crowd came to their feet in stoppage time as RSL earned a corner, but they played an inexplicable short corner where Kyle dropped the ball off to Beltran, who tried to send in an early ball, only to see it blocked by the defender that was camped right in front of him. That colossal waste of a chance ended the first half.
The Quakes came out on fire in the second half as RSL looked a like a deer in the headlights, backed into their own defensive end. The bus that was now parked was Claret and Cobalt in color as RSL seemed just barely able to thwart attack after attack by the Quakes. Finally around the hour mark Jason Kreis had seen enough and sent Olmes Garcia and Luis Gil into the match. They immediately changed things and brought RSL a sharper attacking look, but San Jose drew their defense back in. RSL looked to be at a total loss at how to break the bunker. They sent in cross after cross, 34 on the night, but to no avail. The only height based attacker we had available was Sandoval, who had come off for Garcia.
Late on Kreis went three at the back and subbed out Salcedo for Robbie Findley. Robbie had the best look at an equalizer for RSL, as they played him through on a counter late in the match. Robbie lashed a shot but just missed the upper 90. A good portion of the fans in the north end thought it was in, but it was plainly the wrong side of the net. That was pretty much the last breath for RSL and the match ended in the disappointing 1-2 loss.
So what do we make of this? This was the most unfocused I've seen our team at home this year. For the most part they seemed without a clue offensively or defensively. The official party line afterward attributed the result to San Jose's bunker tactics, and that surely had a part to play, but the worst part of the whole thing was RSL's identity crisis. We don't have a chance at scoring crosses without Saborio in the match, especially against guys like Victor Bernardez. I doubt any of the crosses in the second half seriously troubled the Quakes CBs. Our desperation and lack or creativity played right into San Jose's hands.
Creativity you say? Yes. We've scored so many goals this season off of creative midfield play and late, secondary runs into the box. These seemed to be few and far between. Grabavoy had a couple, but couldn't pull the trigger. Luis Gil also caused a little havoc, but couldn't create much. For me, I thought he and Garcia should have been subbed in at half time. By the time they came in at the hour mark, 15 precious minutes had drained from RSL's search for an equalizer.
Much of the speculation after the match swirled around coach Kreis and his rumored trip to NYC to meet with the NYCFC folks. He gave an interview late in the week saying both he and the team were totally focused on winning. That was obviously not the case Saturday night, as both team and coach appeared to be absolutely befuddled. It was like they had never seen a team park the bus before. Anyone who has been to RSL matches at the Riot the last few years can tell you that we've worked against plenty of bunkers though.
Nat Borchers stood up and took accountability for the goals, and good on him, he was exactly right to do so. However his mates on the back line were nowhere to be found in that stretch, and we continued to give up stupid fouls on rash challenges. Again, I attribute this to total lack of focus. RSL is so much better than that. We'd be remiss not to lay some of the blame at the feet of the MF and forwards though, neither of whom could create or finish to save their lives.
I hope RSL does the right thing and locks up coach Kreis. This distraction has already had negative effects and will continue to do so. The story is not going away, but if it isn't fixed, RSL's trophy and playoff chances just might ride off into the sunset with him.
