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SANDY — Not only did the snow not bother Real Salt Lake in last week's home opener win, but it might've also helped the team in retrospect as the Claret and Cobalt returned to last season's home woes in a 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at America First Field.
"One of the things that's becoming really clear is we're getting into real dangerous areas where we don't have enough runners across the face of goal and everyone wants to cut back," RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni said of the loss. "Those are things that we'll look at, but really the story of the game was we just kind of got caught up in the emotion and lost our structure in the second half."
Things started well enough after the home team picked up where it left off after last week's 3-0 thrashing of LAFC with a goal in the 22nd minute by Emeka Eneli, the first in MLS for the young MVP of the season so far for RSL.
"(It was) a little bit of luck," Eneli said of his first pro goal. "I'm not sure if Andres (Gomez) was crossing or shooting, just making sure to get myself in the box when I can, and then kind of got an outstretched leg to it."
that first pro goal hits different 🔥 pic.twitter.com/C3hQRrD1h9
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 10, 2024
However, the winds shifted just before halftime when Colorado was awarded a penalty on an Eneli handball in the box to tie the match at 1-1 heading into the break. Cole Bassett gave the Rapids the lead in the 70th minute, and the turn of the tide was too much for RSL to fight back against.
"All of a sudden momentum flipped," Mastroeni said. "We haven't played from behind but once this year and you really start to see how the emotional part takes over. And you know, when you play with so much emotion, reason seems to leave. The learning piece of this is, 'How do we temper our emotions and stay in control of a very emotional game?'"
The loss marks the second of the young season for RSL and is also the first win of 2024 for the Rapids after opening the season with a 4-1 loss to Portland. The result gives Colorado the early advantage in this year's Rocky Mountain Cup, which RSL has won 13 times to Colorado's five.
RSL has a bye week before heading to Vancouver on March 23 and could use the rest after playing without starting center-back Justen Glad against Colorado.
