Real Salt Lake’s starting back line keeps getting younger and younger

Mike Petke pulled away his starting back line, one of the youngest in MLS history, from the rest of the team to talk to just those players.

Their average age was just older than 21 years old, and two of them had transitioned to fullback this season. Yet the Real Salt Lake coach told them and the media that he was confident in the group heading into Saturday’s match against Colorado.

“Our defenders kept them to zero shots on goal,” Petke said after Monday’s training session, “so I think that my prediction came true.”

RSL’s back line in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over 10-man Colorado came just short of the youngest in MLS history. The Philadelphia Union set that record on March 31 (20.75 average age). RSL’s back four Saturday consisted of three RSL Academy products — Brooks Lennon, 20, Justen Glad, 21, and Danilo Acosta, 20 — and a player who RSL had developed with its USL league affiliate (Nick Besler, 24).

Acosta and Besler became the eighth and ninth players to start on the injury-plagued back line that keeps getting younger as more players fall. Acosta, who won a starting spot down the stretch last season, earned his first start of the season. Besler made his MLS debut.

“It felt great just to be back with the team, get involved,” Acosta said. “... Then adding Bees, I mean, he’s a great center back. He has a lot of experience for his age, and he’s really smart with the ball. He’s a very talented player.”

Petke saw promise in each young player. Lennon has shown consistency at right back, even though he only made four starts in the position. Glad made several uncharacteristic mistakes in the beginning of the season, but he traditionally was dependable. Besler, who Petke named the captain when he coached the Monarchs, brought good positioning and a sense of calm to this play despite his inexperience at the MLS level. Acosta impressed Monarchs coach Mark Briggs with his professionalism and work ethic after losing the starting spot on the first team in preseason.

Injuries to seven full backs also narrowed Petke’s options. Those injuries — or in Besler’s case the anticipation of possible injuries — prompted RSL to move Lennon from winger to right back and Besler from holding midfielder to center back.

“To look at it positive, it’s still early in the season,” RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said last week about injuries to the back line. “Guys our getting minutes. Maybe the back line you’ll see on Saturday isn’t the back line you thought was going to start at the beginning of the season or even mid-season, but for me, it’s experience. These guys are getting some valuable minutes and some lessons out there.”

It took 15 or 20 minutes for the back four, who never had played a competitive match all together, to settle in Saturday. Then the Rapids gave them a gift. Goalkeeper Tim Howard saw a red card in the 20^th minute of the match, and RSL played up a man for the rest of the game .

RSL controlled the majority of the possession even before Howard’s handball outside the penalty box. Then RSL only really had to worry about Colorado’s counter attack with Colorado sitting back even more while down a man.

“It made us settle down a little bit,” Besler said about the red card. “I thought we still had to be tuned in mentally because that’s a game where they had athletic forwards, and even with a man down they could still catch us on a break if we’re not sharp mentally, so I thought we did a good job in that aspect.”

The 19-year-old Pablo Ruiz replaced Acosta at halftime to add an extra attack-minded player into a scoreless match (the majority of Ruiz’s experience is at center mid). His addition colored RSL’s back line even younger.

Besler could earn another start this coming weekend, with center backs Marcelo Silva (groin) and David Horst (knee) still working back from injury. The starting spot at left back, however, has yet to be locked down.

Increasing ambition

RSL jumped up to No. 7 in Sports Illustrated’s MLS ambition rankings, which were posted Monday. SI cited Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen’s investment in the Zions Bank Real Academy and other regional training centers as a major reason for RSL’s improvement from last year’s No. 12 ranking. The addition of the Utah Royals to the RSL umbrella also gave it a push up.