Real Salt Lake look to keep momentum
Claret-and-Cobalt must flex defensive muscle against Toronto FC
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Real Salt Lake stayed on track in their playoff quest by claiming the first of what the team hopes will be three consecutive victories to close out the regular season with a 2-0 triumph against New York on Wednesday evening at Rio Tinto Stadium.
As good as the result feels, the Claret-and-Cobalt know it won't mean a whole lot if they cannot keep the momentum going when they take on Toronto FC on Saturday.
"In this whole three-game stretch, the first one is the most important," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "Now we got to take this buzz into Toronto and see if we can keep ourselves alive."
Getting three points against the Reds on their home field will present quite a challenge for many reasons. Toronto enjoys one of the more passionate and vocal home crowds among MLS teams. And the Reds are also working to clinch a postseason for themselves, just like RSL.
If Salt Lake is going to come out with the result it needs, success will start with flexing the sort of defensive muscle against Toronto that it showed against the Red Bulls.
While, admittedly, New York preferred to sit back and try to force a draw in order to steal two points, RSL did not give the Red Bulls many options for attacking. New York managed a single shot on goal -- delivered by forward Macoumba Kandji -- through 90 minutes of action and could never use any of their speed up top to seriously threaten Real during the match.
"We knew they were going to be dangerous -- especially on a big field," defender Tony Beltran said. "I was pleased with the way the defense played obviously. Whenever you get a shutout, that's a huge plus and an added bonus. It makes it easy for the rest of the team because they have confidence in us back there."
Another key for RSL will be to take control quickly and not let the foot off the gas.
As pleased as he was with a volley from Andy Williams that gave Real their first goal against the Red Bulls, RSL coach Jason Kreis was equally enthusiastic with Fabian Espindola's insurance goal that cemented the victory 10 minutes later.
Too many times, Kreis has seen his team surrender leads in similar situations and he took some satisfaction from watching them hold strong to the very end of the match this time around.
"I felt like that -- in our past matches -- when we've gotten a lead, we've had a tendency to drop back and allow service into our box," Kreis said. "I feel like that's not the way that we need to play. We need to continue the ball in their half, keep numbers in their half and make it difficult for the other team to get in our half."
RSL has given Toronto something extra to think about going into Saturday's match after making a switch from its usual 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2 alignment on Wednesday.
Kreis made the switch to try to get the forwards into the area more frequently and improve possession and passing by getting more midfielders involved in the action. Those efforts bred desired results. Real struggled to finish shots until late. But they clearly dominated through 90 minutes when it came to creating shots and putting those chances on frame.
"I thought, over the past several weeks, in our 4-3-3 we had become a little bit stagnant," Kreis said. "I don't think we were playing as dynamically as I like. I felt like our wide forwards were hanging onto the touch line and really kind of becoming ineffective players."
For Salt Lake, possessing the ability to change from one formation to another simply offers another weapon it can pull from its arsenal.
"It's good if you can have a team that's capable of playing different formations," Beckerman said.
John Coon is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
