RSL still disappointed about ‘unacceptable’ loss to Colorado, but looking to move on quickly

Nearly 40 seconds passed before Real Salt Lake defender Justen Glad provided an answer when asked what the team learned from watching the film of last weekend’s embarrassing home loss to the Colorado Rapids.

“I don’t know,” Glad said. “I’m going to skip that question, if that’s alright.”

Five days after RSL suffered its worst home loss in franchise history, it’s clear the disappointment still lingers. Fellow defender Donny Toia said players were still feeling the frustration from the loss when they came back to training after two consecutive days off.

“It was a very poor game that we played and we all knew it,” Toia said. “So we just knew that we had to come out in training and work harder and complete or passes and just make everything a lot sharper than it was in the game.”

Glad said the training sessions since losing to Colorado have felt different due to the nature of how the game played out.

“I think that there definitely has been more fight, more push after that loss because those are tough to swallow,” Glad said. “You just have to take it on the chin and improve.”

When asked if the loss was his most difficult as a professional, Glad replied, “for sure.” Midfielder Albert Rusnák also suggested it may have been the worst loss he’s been part of in his career.

But the team is collectively trying to move on from the loss and focus on Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Whitecaps at Rio Tinto Stadium. It’s the third of a four-game home stand that, so far, RSL has split.

“We went over the things that were not good and it ended right there,” Rusnák said of how much the team reviewed game film of the Rapids loss. “Right now we’re not even spending one minute thinking about what happened last Saturday.”

Coach Freddy Juarez said when addressing the team Tuesday about the loss to Colorado, he simultaneously didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but didn’t want to “brush it under the rug” either. He said the team spent five minutes on that game in a film session before moving on.

“I wanted to get over it was quick as possible,” Juarez said.

At the same time though, Juarez definitely felt the brunt of the loss, especially because the Rapids are longtime Rivals and they took the Rocky Mountain Cup home for the first time in several years. He said for him, the loss “lingers a little bit more,” and he’s the first to analyze himself.

“I’m not on suicide watch or any of that,” Juarez said with a laugh. “But I’m competitive. You get so many critiques from people and so you’re the one who that takes the brunt of all that stuff and you want to better the team [so as] not to put them into those positions often.”

But it seems like the team has collectively made an effort taken responsibility for the Colorado performance. Rusnák said there was no finger pointing among the players about the loss.

“We’re all aware the Colorado game was unacceptable,” Rusnák said. “Everybody held their hands up and said, ‘None of us was good enough on that day,’ and that’s where it ends.”