RSL on a losing streak with thumping at New England


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A short-handed Real Salt Lake side dropped its first road match of the season with a 4-0 thumping at New England Saturday night.

The visitors were hardly in it, conceding the first goal to Chris Tierney in the 39th minute, a blistering right-footed shot off the left-footed Revs standout. Juan Agudelo doubled the tally just before halftime to put the hosts up 2-0 at the break.

It didn’t get better from there.

RSL only traveled 16 players against the Revs, who got second-half goals from Charlie Davies and Scott Caldwell. The defense, in particular, was patchwork, with Jeff Attinella starting in goal for mainstay Nick Rimando, and Elias Vasquez and Aaron Maund getting their first starts together behind the midfield.

Saturday saw the return of RSL’s patented 4-4-2 diamond midfield with John Stertzer picking up his first start since a season-ending injury late last season, and Luis Gil filling in for injured maestro Javier Morales at the point of attack.

RSL will look to quickly forget about the loss in preparing for a Friday night match at home against San Jose.

Here are three thoughts on RSL’s current two-match losing streak.

It had to end sometime ----------------------

Real Salt Lake started the season on fire, unbeaten in the first five matches and only conceding five goals, three of them in a wacky home opener to the Philadelphia Union.

The loss was RSL’s first road downer of the season, and Tierney’s goal snapped a 309-minute road shutout streak for RSL to start 2015. RSL lost its first match to the Revs, who won the Eastern Conference last year, since 2009.

It’s been a rough April with only one home match in the month and a 1-2-1 record to show for it, and May can’t get here soon enough for the squad.

RSL needs Javier Morales

With Morales, RSL opened up 2015 on a five-match unbeaten run, despite the vast turnover in the offseason. Morales missed his second consecutive game with a groin injury Saturday, and it contributed to RSL’s lack of options in the midfield. The squad only had one midfielder to come off the bench, defensive specialist Pecka, though left back Abdoulie Mansally replaced Luke Mulholland in the second half to play in front of Demar Phillips.

Against an attack featuring Tierney, Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and Lee Nguyen, the shorthanded RSL team looked ragged.

Quick turnaround

With Varsity Cup rugby Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL’s match against San Jose will be played Friday night in front of a national television audience on UniMas. True, the team will get one less day to prepare, but it also means one fewer day to let the past two games fester and a chance to move quickly to a team that is already 0-1 against RSL in 2015.

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SportsReal Salt Lake
Sean Walker

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