Real Salt Lake: More growing pains for RSL in 1-0 loss to the Sounders

Real Salt Lake walked away from their quick trip to Seattle empty-handed. Once again, it was a tale of two halves as RSL continues to move forward.

Coming off their midweek victory over NYCFC, Real Salt Lake fell victim on the road to the Sounders, 1-0. The team looked like two different sides over the two halves. Real stayed true to form in many ways, struggling to string together an attack while making errors defensively, then quickly turned everything around and looked like the stronger side. Here are some things that stood out.

The Back-Line

Chris Schuler and Aaron Maund got their second straight start together, along with Justin Schmidt getting his second consecutive start at left back. Reagan Dunk filled out the starting lineup with his second start of the season. The defense weathered the Sounders attack in the first half, where Seattle had 80% of possession and out-shot RSL 14-1. Dunk struggled in his second outing, and Seattle seemed to key in on him in the second half. The back-line was able to keep the Sounders at bay for the most part.

They received a significant hand from Nick Rimando. The Wall of the Wasatch finished with five saves, including a Clint Dempsey penalty kick, and was only beaten on a deflection for the only goal of the match. Rimando has now stopped an astonishing 30 of the 80 penalty kicks taken against him in his MLS career. Without Rimando cleaning things up, this one could have gotten out of hand quickly.

The Attack

RSL deployed a flat 4-4-2 in this matchup, with Albert Rusnák on the left instead of playing in the middle. Omar Holness started opposite on the right, with Kyle Beckerman and Sunny paired together in front of the defense. The midfield struggled to get anything going forward. Joao Plata and Luis Silva were starved for service and found themselves tracking back to RSL’s side of the field often. Sunny covered a lot of ground and disrupted the Sounders’ play, but struggled to add much in terms of offense.

For the third straight match, the tone and feel of the game changed immediately once Jefferson Savarino took the field. RSL was able to fight back in the second half behind Rusnák and Savarino, out-shooting Seattle 10-3, but were unable to find a goal.

Locker Room Drama?

Following the match, designated player Yura Movsisyan voiced his displeasure in his role to RSL beat writer Chris Kamrani. Yura was pulled at halftime against NYCFC on Wednesday, and came off the bench for Luis Silva in this one. When asked about his displeasure, the striker called it, “a joke.”

Shortly after the article was released, veteran and Man of the Match, Rimando sounded off on Twitter with two tweets detailing his thoughts.

The #nojoke tag at the end was curious, and could be a veiled shot at Yura’s comments. This isn’t the first time that Rimando has cryptically took to Twitter following something Movsisyan said about the team. Once Jeff Cassar was relieved, Yura talked about the need for everyone to step up following the road loss to Minnesota, stating

"“Going back to zero. Going back to Step 1, and taking baby steps because obviously [it’s a new coach, new beginning for the players. So everybody’s got to prove that they’re worthy of playing, being in the starting XI. It doesn’t matter whose name it is, whose got a name, whose got how many caps. I do not care about that. Everybody’s got to start from zero and show up.”"

He reiterated his thoughts on the matter on #OnFrame a few days later, and immediately after he appeared on the show, Rimando sent out a quick tweet.

Next: 10 lesser known players who would tear up MLS

It definitely feels like there is something going on. Both players are competitors who have had plenty of success over their careers. Rimando is arguably the best goalie in MLS history, while Yura is a proven goalscorer. The dynamic will be something to watch going forward, especially with Craig Waibel’s comments last week that the team was planning on making some major moves next summer.