This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sandy
Everybody involved with the last remaining unbeaten team in Major League Soccer wants to make April last as long as possible.
With a dominant second-half performance that featured Burrito Martinez's winning goal Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL added to a month that's shaping up as highly productive and way too short.
The 1-0 victory over Vancouver lifted Real (4-0-2) into a first-place tie in the Western Conference, with the team having played one fewer game than co-leader FC Dallas. "I still think we can get even better," said RSL coach Jeff Cassar. "That's what's exciting."
RSL's players are dealing well with the pressure of needing to rack up points in the standings in March and April, knowing they will spend all of May on road.
"We're just trying to see this month out strong," RSL's Luke Mulholland said after Friday's practice. "If we can win every home game before we hit the road, then we'll be in good position once we come back."
RSL went only 7-4-6 in MLS home games last season, so opening the home schedule with wins over West rivals Seattle, Colorado and Vancouver is encouraging — and necessary, considering what's ahead. Real will play next week at Los Angeles, then host Houston on April 30 and and not appear again in Sandy until June 18, after having played five road games in a row. That's due to the installation of another grass field after the original surface absorbed more than 150 games of pounding since the stadium's opening in October 2008.
Amid RSL's promising start, Mulholland had said, "One bad or piece of bad luck can really upset the team's momentum."
A poor first half didn't hurt, as it turned out. And if some good fortune kept Vancouver off the scoreboard, that's only fair after the Whitecaps swept three games vs. RSL last season. "It comes back to bite you in the bum when you miss chance after chance after chance," said Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson.
Cassar recently spoke of wanting to make the RioT "the fortress that it once was."
Fortress? Not exactly. A genuine fortress would keep the wind out of the venue, wouldn't it? The crowd of 19,720 was subjected to a chilly night, with the north wind blowing throughout the first half. But the sign that things were swinging in RSL's favor came when the wind died down in the second half, when the home team was heading north.
So continued RSL's turnaround in 2016, after missing the MLS playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
Cassar went into the game hoping his team would do a better job of possessing the ball and play more efficiently than in last weekend's 1-0 win over Colorado. And then RSL proceeded to play sloppy soccer at the start, making all kinds of mistakes that gave Vancouver scoring chances.
Real survived a scoreless first half, thanks to some combination of Nick Rimando's goalkeeping, some nice recovery in front him and a few favorable bounces that kept the ball out of the net.
RSL needed more good work from Rimando early in the second half, and then the offense responded. Martinez took a pass from Joao Plata and booted the ball into the far corner of the net in the 55th minute.
One of Vancouver's three 2015 wins over RSL came almost exactly a year ago in Sandy. Real was unbeaten then, too. That streak didn't last, but this one did.
Twitter: @tribkurt