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SANDY — There was a lot of good to be found Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Real Salt Lake scored a schoolyard-style goal that included glancing touches from four players before Olmes Garcia scored in the 36th minute. The local side also got another goal from designated player Sebastian Jaime with a pure-hustle play just 91 seconds into the second half, his second goal in three matches after being held scoreless for nearly 800 minutes of his career in MLS.
But the mood was overall disappointment when the players thought back on the 2-2 final with Columbus Crew SC, another home draw for RSL, which tied its seventh game of the season after drawing 11 in all of 2014. Five of the 2015 draws have come at Rio Tinto Stadium, where the club is currently 3-1-4 in MLS regular season play.
RSL (5-6-7) only possessed 45 percent of the match at home, and couldn’t even put away the Crew (5-6-6) on a hot night when temperatures soared above 90 degrees for most of the match that kicked off after 8 p.m.
“It’s just annoying that we’ve taken the lead twice in a game, and we only came out with a point,” midfielder Luke Mulholland said after the match. “It just shows how hard it is in this league to pick up three points. You need to work your *** off for 90-plus minutes to grind out results.
“You can’t take one play off, otherwise you get punished. We’ve got to recognize that, build and learn from our mistakes.”
RSL boasts only one win in its last six matches, a 2-1 home victory over Sporting Kansas City last week.
Saturday’s result wasn’t a loss, but it may as well have felt like one for RSL’s players, who each shouldered a share of the blame for not grabbing three points. Columbus scored its first goal against the run of play, with Tony Tchani finishing Ethan Finlay’s cross just three minutes before halftime to tie the game.
After Jaime gave the home side its second go-ahead goal of the match, Finlay added one of his own just after the hour-mark, and the Crew took a point away from the Wasatch Front.
It could be argued that both goals came against the run of play, defender Aaron Maund said.
“They picked their times to strike pretty well,” Maund said. “They killed the game when they wanted to kill the game, and they spit it out when they felt like they could score.”
Continuing a trend where so much has gone wrong, RSL earned its sixth red card of the season. Jordan Allen was sent off for a serious foul in the 77th minute, barely 10 minutes after he had made his left back debut for RSL in relief of Abdoulie Mansally, and RSL found itself unable to climb up again with only 10 men.
“I think it’s us paying for our mistakes,” RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. “We aren’t punishing teams when we can, and our record reflects exactly where we are at.”
RSL was already missing Javier Morales and Demar Phillips, who were both serving red card-related suspensions carried over from a 1-0 road loss to the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday. That match, in which the visiting side finished with nine men, also saw the absence of RSL captain Kyle Beckerman, who served a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.
“We’re definitely not doing ourselves any favors,” Mulholland said. “The red cards are a big concern.”
Already shorthanded from injuries to center backs Chris Schuler and Jamison Olave, RSL was forced into playing two of its final two defenders in Maund and rookie Phanuel Kavita. The Highland High alum became the second local to start a match in RSL history, and his start also came on the same night as right back Boyd Okwuonu’s first-team debut.
The converted center back from the University of North Carolina was expected to start Saturday night’s USL match with Real Monarchs, but he flew home Saturday morning after RSL found out Morales’ red card would not be rescinded — and then played the final 10 minutes in relief of Joao Plata following Allen’s red card.
“I thought they did a great job,” Cassar said of Kavita and Okwuonu. “Credit to (Okwuonu) for dealing with that, and I thought he and Phanuel had very strong games. Again, it’s not an easy team to defend. They spread you out. I was really proud of our players tonight.”
Cassar remained optimistic that his team can turn things around in the second half of the season with regular starters Beckerman and Nick Rimando (United States), Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica), Elias Vasquez (Guatemala) and Phillips (Jamaica)
“I’m really excited for the second half of the season, especially when we get everyone back from the Gold Cup,” Cassar said. “We’re going to get better. I firmly believe that, and I firmly believe in the players in the locker room. I’m really excited. I’m a little frustrated, and I’m sure the players are. But the spirit of the team is good right now, and that’s the most important thing.”
