The feeling of facing a deficit to start the second half, this time on Wednesday against New York City FC, was unfortunately a familiar one for Real Salt Lake.
Playing on the most unusual field in Major League Soccer — Yankee Stadium — RSL lost 4-0, the second time in six games this season the team has lost by four goals.
“They’ve got a system in place where they’re really playing well right now,” RSL captain Kyle Beckerman said. “I think they have a ton of confidence, and we’re kind of the opposite, and we’ve got to try to find a way out of this.”
NYCFC took the lead in the 12th minute as forward Ismael Tajouri-Shradi opened the floodgates. Right back Anton Tinnerholm began the attack up the right wing and hit a cross into the box, which Beckerman tried to backheel for a clearance. It went only as far as Tajouri-Shradi, who buried a shot into the upper left of the net past RSL goalie Nick Rimando.
The hosts doubled their lead in the 30th minute on a heated penalty call. RSL center back Justen Glad fell to the turf while fighting for a ball inside the penalty area, and as NYCFC midfielder Maxi Moralez gained possession, Glad pushed himself halfway up and into a slide tackle. His left foot made contact with Moralez’s heel, and Moralez went down immediately. The whistle blew and Glad, among others, argued the call.
“I thought I pulled back,” he told reporters after the match.
Moralez took the penalty kick and placed his shot below the crossbar.
“It’s a completely different game when you’re 1-0 down, as opposed to 2-0 down,” Glad said.
NYCFC wasn’t done scoring in the first half, however. In the 41st minute, Ronald Matarrita passed to Jesús Medina. Medina drew Glad to him and then passed to Jo Inge Berget, who got behind Glad and central defender David Horst before taking two touches and placing a shot past Rimando into the far corner of the net.
NYCFC’s Ebenezer Ofori scored in the 70th minute to make the score reflect the lopsided play on the field.
“I thought early chunks in the beginning we did what we said we were going to do,” RSL coach Mike Petke said, “which is get behind the ball, five [players] across the middle to deny any penetrating passes, force them long a bit. We didn’t really deal with the long balls too well, and the clearance was not good enough, and they punished us.”
RSL had three shots on target from close range. NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson made heroic saves on two of them, using his shin to block Luis Silva’s shot in the fourth minute and batting away a Corey Baird header in the 48th minute. NYCFC defender Maxime got between the goal and Sebastian Saucedo’s 88th minute header.
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