Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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SALT LAKE CITY — Real Salt Lake's struggles to find wins on the road continued on Saturday night in San Jose as RSL played Major League Soccer's worst team to a scoreless draw.
RSL lost its playmaker and offensive conduit, Albert Rusnak, in the first 6 minutes of the match to a non-contact neck injury. This led to an uneven night offensively for the Claret and Cobalt.
The stars of the night were the goalkeepers, RSL's Nick Rimando and San Jose's Andrew Tarbell — both coming up with big second-half saves to keep the match scoreless.
Here are my hat trick of thoughts on Saturday night's match.
The road remains unkind
Real Salt Lake has now played 11 matches away from Rio Tinto Stadium this year and managed a grand total of five points in those matches — one win, two draws and eight losses. No team in Major League Soccer has a greater disparity between home and road than Real Salt Lake does. Despite its road woes, RSL remains in the final playoff spot in the West with 31 points.
The GOAT in the goal
Nick Rimando is 39 years old and in his 19th season in Major League Soccer. Athletes in any sport at his advance age are supposed to be on the decline; Rimando shows no signs of this.
Saturday night, Rimando did what he's done so often in his storied and record-setting career. He come up with "world class" saves that allowed Real Salt Lake to remain in a match.
The box score from the match will tell you that he made three saves, but that won't tell you the whole story. Rimando's save on Quincy Amarikwa's shot in the 65th minute was as good as anything you'll see from a keeper this season. The shutout was his sixth on the year.
Roster additions or subtractions
The transfer window in Major League Soccer is open, but will RSL make any moves? The rumors circulated this week that RSL forward Joao Plata was on the trade/transfer block. Coach Mike Petke threw some cold water on those rumors on Thursday, but the fact remains that RSL is taking and making calls about their roster and rosters around the league right now.
Real Salt Lake has made moves at the transfer window deadline — some have worked and some have not. What can be difficult this time of year is finding impact players from outside the League. Players that tend to have the most or quickest impact this late in the season are generally domestic or MLS talent.
RSL likes its core of young talent and especially young attacking talent; however, parting with the team's leading scorer right now could be a very risky move. Stay tuned.
You can catch my next broadcast Saturday night from Rio Tinto Stadium as RSL welcomes the Chicago Fire to town. First kick is at 8 p.m. on ESPN 700.
