(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Real Salt Lake vs. Los Angeles Football Club, MLS soccer at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Saturday March 10, 2018. Real Salt Lake forward Joao Plata (10) scores in the first half.
Sandy • Sprinting back, Demar Phillips made a desperate effort to block LAFC defender Steven Beitashour’s cross, but he missed. Center back Justen Glad lunged after it next, but it got past him, too, and landed right at Benny Feilhaber’s feet.
Feilhaber, who became a natural enemy for RSL fans during his time at Sporting Kansas City, placed a first-touch shot between RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando’s legs and into the back of the net.
At that point, after LAFC’s third goal of the night, a chance at a comeback for Real Salt Lake looked bleak. Sure enough, LAFC went on to win 5-1 in RSL’s home opener Saturday.
“There were a lot of mistakes today, and they punished us for almost every single one.” RSL midfielder Albert Rusnák said. “They were dynamic, they were fast up top, their movement was very good and caused us all sorts of trouble.”
It wasn’t just that Feilhaber’s 47th-minute goal put LAFC up 3-1. It was that RSL still hadn’t found an answer to the expansion side’s attack.
“We watched their tapes,” Rusnák said. “We watched how they played in preseason, how they played against Seattle, and we knew their movement up top. Their three guys, they make their runs behind our back line, and the first three or four goals, they’re exactly the same.
“So we watched the tapes all week. We worked on it all week, and then it’s a shame that we couldn’t figure it out and we couldn’t stop them from doing these things that we knew they were going to do. It’s nothing new to us, it’s not like they came out with something new. They came out with what we expected.”
The first goal was set up by Diego Rossi’s run from wide, inside and behind the back line. The second, Beitashour and Latif Blessing got behind the back line. That one was more controversial, with the question of whether there should have been an offside call. But the goal stood, and in the end, it didn’t matter.
“I think our reaction was pretty poor today,” said Phillips. “Overall we weren’t good enough, you know?”
RSL also has dealt with a series of muscular injuries to its back line coming out of preseason. Center back Marcelo Silva (hamstring) and right backs Adam Henley (hamstring) and Aaron Herrera (groin) were left out of the 18 due to injury.
David Horst replaced Silva at center back, and Shawn Barry started at right back. When Barry had to come off in the 57th minute, he was replaced by winger Brooks Lennon.