Real Salt Lake determined to pile up points at home entering Rio Tinto opener vs. LAFC

Sandy • Preparing for an expansion team in its second-ever regular-season match requires a little extra digging.

That was the challenge set before Real Salt Lake this week, with LAFC slated to be its opponent in Saturday’s home opener.

“We only really have one game to go off of, which is their first game [at Seattle last week],” RSL coach Mike Petke said. “You can look at preseason games, but they don’t tell the whole picture. But you can pick up style of play, how they want to play and where they want to exploit you and key areas that you want to exploit them.”

The process of digging into video from LAFC’s 1-0 win at Seattle and its preseason matches was nothing new — the coaching staff watched all of FC Dallas’ preseason scrimmages before traveling there last weekend, Petke said — but when it came to LAFC, Real Salt Lake didn’t have past experience with the expansion side to build off of.

LAFC’s attack is centered around its two designated players who made their league debuts last week. Mexican international Carlos Vela was “no mystery,” as Petke put it, to the club, and when it came to 20-year-old Diego Rossi, RSL got what it needed scouting-wise from his past two months with LAFC.

“You could tell out of six, seven games what type of player he is, a lot of quality, areas of movement that he likes to go to, places they target him in,” Petke said.

Rossi scored his first MLS goal last week on a run from the left wing to the inside, finishing an assist by Vela.

“Dynamic players,” RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said about Vela and Rossi, “interact with each other, take each others’ spaces, they do well moving off the ball. … We’ve got to circle those players because they make that team tick offensively.”

LAFC rounded out its attacking four with former Sporting Kansas City winger Latif Blessing and former San Jose forward Marco Ureña. Both are in their second MLS season and were selected by LAFC in the expansion draft.

While LAFC has brought some exciting attacking players into the league, the squad was built around a core of players with MLS experience. It is pieced together in a new system, but RSL still can draw from its familiarity with individuals’ tendencies.

“For me,” center back Justen Glad said, “I know some of the forwards they have. If it’s a one-on-one battle, I’ll know what they’re going to think what to do, I’ll know what they want to do. If it’s Joao, maybe he knows the defender — he’s going to take him outside instead of inside or something like that.”

Depth is often an issue for expansion teams, and LAFC currently only carries 22 players on its roster. However, it weathered injuries to its back line last week to put out a strong defensive performance.

That effort was lead by Laurent Ciman, who started after being questionable entering the match with a knee issue.

“Ciman is probably one of the best center backs in the whole league,” RSL attacking midfielder Albert Rusnák said. “… So they’re very strong in the middle, whether it’s defense, whether it’s midfield or whether it’s through the top.”

Real Salt Lake enters Saturday’s match coming off a 1-1 draw at FC Dallas. RSL is undefeated in nine regular-season home openers at Rio Tinto Stadium.

“If you don’t win your home games, you don’t make playoffs,” Rusnák said. “... From Game 1 at home, you have to be grabbing points, and ideally three every week.”