Portland Timbers Issue Statement As Real Salt Lake Suffers Worst Loss Of Season

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake suffered their worst loss of the season on the road to the Portland Timbers, with the loss they fall two spots in the Western Conference and now sit on the playoff line in seventh.

“You saw some tired legs out there for sure,” Interim manager Pablo Mastroeni said following the conclusion of the game. “A lot of time it looks like poor effort and tiredness but I think that we didn’t do a good job of winning first balls that were crossed in, we did a very poor job of winning second balls, and we did very poor in transition defend.”

Mastroeni remained confident in the same lineup that took the field against Seattle a week ago when Real Salt Lake secured a well-earned 1-0 win at Rio Tinto Stadium.

😄😠😠🙂😠😠
😠😠😠😠🙂 pic.twitter.com/dq7rVUjkbo

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 26, 2021

Defensive Woes Return

Sadly, despite a positive start from Real Salt Lake throughout the first quarter of an hour, a disappointing lapse in concentration led to Felipe Mora tapping in the opening goal of the game in the 27th minute. The goal came on a counter-attacking opportunity in which Diego Chará picked the pocket of Pablo Ruiz before feeding Sebastián Blanco down the left flank who put in a simple ball onto the foot of Mora who tapped home the opener.

The goal was a result of poor defensive shape by Real Salt Lake who found themselves chasing. Toni Daktovic was too high up the field and subsequently could not catch Mora on the counterattack.

The second lapse in concentration came in the 36th minute when a long ball was played into the box, catching David Ochoa in no man’s land, and finding the head of Dairon Asprilla who lept higher than Datkovic to win the ball and find the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

Despite any productive play by Real Salt Lake, it was all undone by the ability of the Timbers to capitalize on their chances.

Furthermore, Real Salt Lake was being exposed in the transition, having no answers for the speed, efficiency, and skill of the Timbers attacking players.

However, as has been the case on so many occasions, when Real Salt Lake needs a goal they look to one player, and one player only. Damir Kreilach pounced on a loose ball inside the six-yard box and narrowed the margin in the 41st minute to give Real Salt Lake life right before the main interval.

BOW DOWN TO THE KING 👑 pic.twitter.com/CMeciBIrd6

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 26, 2021

“We need to minimize the mistakes and continue to put pressure on Portland,” Kreilach told Samantha Yarrock at halftime.

It was only the fourth time this season that they entered halftime losing.

From Bad To Worse

Mastroeni opted to make a halftime adjustment by bringing on Noah Powder for Datkovic.

However, Portland added to their lead minutes into the second half when Yimmi Chará played a simple one-two around Everton Luiz before finding the top right-hand corner of the net. There was nothing Ochoa could do about that shot, the defending by Luiz was suspect, to say the least.

Real Salt lake really struggled to generate anything in the attacking third. Conversely, they looked lost defending the dynamic attack of Portland.

The night worsened when Diego Chará scored the fourth goal for the Timbers in the 68th minute. Then, another dagger came from the Polish substitute Jarosław Niezgoda who beat Ochoa in the 85th.

Remarkably, the night worsened in the 88th when Portland scored their sixth and final goal of the evening.

And here is Paredes scoring our 6th! #RCTID pic.twitter.com/SIU7cLYPjM

— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) September 26, 2021

Real Salt Lake lost 6-1. With the loss, they dropped from fifth in the Western Conference to seventh. They sit three points clear of LAFC and one point shy of Minnesota.

Real Salt Lake’s goal difference is now down to +1, prior to the fixture it was +7.

Next Match

Real Salt Lake will host the LA Galaxy on Wednesday, September 29th, with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m.

The fixture will be available to stream via the KSL Sports & KSL 5 TV app or on KSL Sports dot com.

The Galaxy sits in the fifth position, two points clear of Real Salt Lake. The midweek fixture could have a massive impact as the race for playoff spots narrows.