Have You Seen This? RSL coach predicts unlikely comeback during halftime speech

THE LOCKER ROOM — "If you score one, you're gonna score three," Real Salt Lake head coach Pablo Mastroeni told his team as it was down 1-0 at halftime against Charlotte FC on April 8.

And that's exactly what they did.

Mastroeni chalked it up to "irony, coincidence and mysticism," but it doesn't change the fact that the third-year manager boldly and perfectly predicted his team's rapturous turnaround in an explosive six-minute scoring barrage early in the game's second half.

Adding increased incredulity to the prophecy was the fact that RSL had scored three goals its entire season before the Charlotte match.

The halftime speech was captured by the team's videographer and posted to its social channels as part of the "Hablo con Pablo" segment on Tuesday following the match.

"You get one goal, you're bringing 20,000 people behind you," Mastroeni said on the way out of the locker room. "One goal. Good attitude. Good mentality. Let's go boys."

Mastroeni mentioned the prediction during his postgame media availability but spoke in greater detail about what went into it on Tuesday.

"That's going by the energy that we're playing with, the chances that we're creating," Mastroeni said. "And if we can just keep that going, this team (Charlotte) is looking for an excuse to blame altitude, to blame travel, to blame a lot of things. So I was grateful for the mindset that the guys displayed."

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