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SANDY — When Real Salt Lake striker Joao Plata limped off the field with a hamstring injury in the 41st minute of his team’s 0-0 home draw with FC Dallas, head coach Jeff Cassar looked to his bench.
There were only two options for up top, and one of them was recently healed forward Robbie Findley, who made his first appearance on the 18-man roster.
Instead, the first-year head coach turned to experience from this year. Olmes Garcia took a few warm-up strides, took off his practice penny and stepped onto the pitch for what would be his longest first-team outing since April 19 against Portland.
It wasn’t a perfect “welcome back” for Garcia. But the backup forward who started four games during Plata’s first injury timeout added a solid 48 minutes to his resume.
“I thought Olmes did a good job tonight,” Cassar said. “It’s not easy to come on in the 40th minute while the game is going 100 miles per hour. I thought he worked hard on both sides of the ball, and I think he’s getting closer and closer to getting on the score sheet. It seems like he’s doing all the right things.”
Avoiding the like-for-like swap of speed strikers in Plata and Findley, Cassar went with a different look against a Dallas team that often kept at least six field players back on defense. When Findley made his long-awaited season debut in the 65th minute, RSL then found itself with two strikers who could stretch the highly compact Dallas rotation.
Garcia tried to use his athleticism to force the ball into the back of the net, such as with a 55th-minute corner kick by Javier Morales that Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz parried away for another corner kick.
“It was something that we felt needed somebody to get in behind and stretch them, get something from nothing,” Cassar said. “It was hard for us to break them down, so we wanted somebody to break them down on their own. I thought Olmes and Robbie did a great job of that.
“They respected our speed over the top.”
Garcia’s teammates respected his early substitution, especially in attempting to replace a prolific goal scorer like Plata.
“They’re different types of players; you can’t ask Olmes to come on and try to play exactly like Plata,” midfielder Ned Grabavoy said. “(Garcia is) a guy who has to work hard for us, make things happen 1-v-1 and use his athleticism. I thought he did most of those things, and I thought he worked really hard. You can’t ask much more from guys who are going to come on.”
A team spokesman said Plata would receive a scan on the injured hamstring Monday. It appeared to be the same injury the Ecuadorian suffered earlier this season, which kept him out of the starting lineup for four games.
A similar loss would likely thrust Garcia back into the starting lineup again — or RSL could lean on Findley to pair alongside target forward Devon Sandoval. Plata could be out for much of the same time RSL is missing starters Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman and Alvaro Saborio to national team duty.
“When players understand their role and their job, it’s easier,” Grabavoy said. “And I think all players from 1 to 30 all understand their role. It’s easier for guys to slide in.
“Those guys are doing fine for us, without question.”
