There’s no single-pill remedy for what ailed Real Salt Lake in its 3-1 loss at Toronto over the weekend, but RSL coach Mike Petke has an idea of where to begin treatment: mental adjustments.
“You can teach players to pass the ball from A to B,” Petke said after Monday’s training session. “You can teach a player to move three yards to the left to receive the ball. I’m not a psychiatrist. It’s going to be interesting to talk to individuals and collectively about our mentality. But again it’s early in the season, but that’s clear. When I say mentality, it covers a lot of things.”
RSL’s match at Toronto was RSL’s moment to redirect the trajectory of the beginning of the season. Real Salt Lake had scrapped out a 1-0 victory against the Red Bulls two weeks before to halt a winless slide, so a game with the defending champions who entered the match winless in league play was a chance to make the win against New York more than a one-off performance.
Petke saw multiple issues in a match in which RSL allowed 19 shots, eight on target, when he looked at this weekend’s loss. For him, however, many of them — not all he was careful to clarify — could be righted with a change in mentality. At least by some players.
“I don’t think it’s intentional from some people,” he said. “... When I look back at the run we had toward the end of the year, maybe some guys think that we’re that good; we’re just going to show up to every game and we’re going to do the things we did over the last six months. The last six months are put out of our head and out of the equation. Teams know what we’re capable of now, and they’re going to do things to not let us do those things [that made us successful].”
It’s been three years since RSL won two of its first four matches of the season. Real Salt Lake’s 2018 season at least has gotten off to a better start than last year, when RSL went winless in five straight matches. Some of the team’s struggles so far this season, however, have been awfully familiar.
“I think it’s working out some stuff positionally, some stuff mentally,” defender Justen Glad said, “and just coming together as a group and just realizing that we’re here for each other and everyone’s committed to each other. And with that type of mentality, we’re going to win games.”
Ibrahimovic’s impact felt in Utah
The L.A. Galaxy were trailing LAFC 3-0 when Real Salt Lake players boarded the plane in Toronto on Saturday. The Galaxy had won 4-3 by the time they landed in Salt Lake City.
RSL equipment manager Alex Caparelli pulled up the footage of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first MLS goal on his phone as the team waited for takeoff, and several RSL players gathered around to watch the Swedish phenom score a 38-yard volley.
“It was incredible,” said RSL captain Kyle Beckerman, who didn’t see the goal until after the match. “He’s been doing it his whole career, so it doesn’t surprise me at all. And it just shows that he’s here to play. He’s not here for vacation, he’s here to play, and win, and score goals like he does everywhere.”
RSL was in the air by the time Ibrahimovic scored his game-winner.
“The more that I hear him talk and watch him play and do the things he’s done,” Petke said, “perhaps he is a lion as he claims to be.”