Kragthorpe: RSL’s miserable home opener makes coach Mike Petke apologize to the team’s owner and fans

Sandy

Real Salt Lake forward Joao Plata’s penalty kick went right into the hands of Tyler Miller, hitting the Los Angeles FC goalkeeper so directly that the ball rebounded to Plata.

Plata crushed his next shot into the back of the net. So there it was: the symbol of RSL’s highly anticipated bounce-back season.

And there it went: Los Angeles’ relentless attack gave the visitors a 5-1 victory Saturday in Real’s home opener at Rio Tinto Stadium, leaving RSL coach Mike Petke fully accountable and completely lacking explanations for what happened.

“I apologize to my owner,” Petke said. “A lot places in the world, I’d either be fired right now or I would resign. It’s embarrassing, and it starts at the top. I apologize to the fans who came out here.”

Having signed a three-year contract extension in October, Petke will remain on the job — facing the New York Red Bulls, the team that once fired him, next Saturday in Sandy. The real issue is how many of the 20,706 fans will return after enduring this disaster.

About half of them left early on a beautiful afternoon. That move hardly seemed unreasonable after what RSL’s Albert Rusnak wonderfully summarized as “a perfect example of a bad performance.”

Plata’s second-effort score suggested a nice script was developing for RSL, but the whole production crumbled soon afterward. The final score is misleading. As Rusnak said, “It could have been worse.”

LAFC might have scored seven or more goals, if not for some scrambling recoveries by RSL defenders who were exploited all day.

No opponent ever had scored more than three goals at Rio Tinto. LAFC’s barrage topped a four-goal effort by Kansas City at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Real’s inaugural 2005 season.

“I can’t process it at the moment. … It’s that much of a shock to all of us,” Petke said, deflecting any theories or suggestions during the postgame news conference.

Really, who could have seen this coming? All of the preseason discussion about RSL suggested Petke’s influence would take hold this year with an upgraded roster. After owner Dell Loy Hansen fired Jeff Cassar early in the 2017 season, Petke took over and eventually delivered a strong finish. RSL then played well in a 1-1 tie in last weekend’s opener at FC Dallas.

RSL’s first appearance of 2018 in Sandy hardly resembled the closing effort of last season, a 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City that left the team’s fans eager for more. Due to other results in Major League Soccer that day, the victory was insufficient for a playoff berth, with Petke resignedly saying his team “earned the right to be in the playoffs — and we’re not.”

When the home team left the field to cheers that day, the scoreboard said, “See you in 2018.”

Less than five months later, the team’s reappearance was framed by a rare sight at the RioT: half of the fans exiting early.

The anticipation of a big season for RSL had brought a sellout crowd into a nice setting that produced a miserable outcome. Same stage, different scene than October, that’s for sure.

Nobody wanted these guys to stop playing when last season ended, but this showing is not what fans were expecting. Real’s defense in front of goalkeeper Nick Rimando was shredded Saturday.

So a team that went 8-3-4 to finish the 2017 schedule and viewed itself as a playoff-worthy club hardly looked that way in its 14^th home opener. RSL will have nearly eight months to make a better impression, starting against Petke’s former employer. The good news? After this performance, almost anything would be an improvement.