Real Salt Lake Eager To Implement Lessons Learned Against LAFC To Generate Future Success

Jul 20, 2021, 2:49 PM

Photo courtesy: Real Salt Lake

KSL Sports

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake is still reeling from the dismantling they suffered against LAFC over the weekend. The lessons learned will help their efforts in moving forward as a club.

It was a constant bombardment of attacks from LAFC that ended the evening with 29 shots to RSL’s 3. The constant pressure in which RSL faced was constant, it never ended, and if it weren’t for multiple David Ochoa saves the scoreline would have been much, much worse.

But as the great basketball player Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed,” RSL hopes to use the recent loss to make them better.

LAFC was full of energy, they pressured the RSL ball carrier tirelessly which forced RSL to feel rushed on the ball and consequently sloppy with distribution. LAFC was clinical on the ball, flicking the ball all around the pitch through pin-point passing and controlled touches. LAFC also made a number of key runs off the ball, causing havoc for an RSL defense that could not keep up with the constant movement of LAFC.

Putting up numbers. #LAFCvRSL | @EnglandLogistic pic.twitter.com/6ssDMXQm5o

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) July 20, 2021

“Credit to LAFC, it is a very good team,” Manager Freddy Juarez said at the conclusion of the LAFC game. “They force you to play at a pace that you do not get a whole lot of in the league. They are coming at you with numbers that force you to make quick decisions.”

It was the first match this season that RSL looked outmatched. In the previous 11 games, RSL controlled large portions of the game, but against LAFC there was not a minute that went by in the second half that RSL looked comfortable on the ball.

Nonetheless, RSL will look ahead and focus on a big home encounter against the LA Galaxy this upcoming Wednesday evening at Rio Tinto Stadium. The team will hope to use the LAFC experience as a benchmark for future games this season, and it starts with the home fixture against the Galaxy.

“That game wasn’t only physically draining it was emotionally draining as well,” Juarez said looking back on the LAFC loss. “Tactically it really challenged you and they had to deal with a lot of stress so I take the positives from it. We can take some things that they do very well and adapt it to us and the other part of it is that the speed of play was at another level that we have to try and replicate.”

"The spirit was very good with the guys, the fighting spirit."#LAFCvRSL | @AFCU pic.twitter.com/mrTOjNlgv2

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) July 19, 2021

This Wednesday looms as a key game for RSL who hope to pick up three points at home following the disappointment in Los Angeles. This season, RSL has dropped multiple points at home in games that they were deserving of more.

Through 12 games thus far this season, 8 of those have come at home, and of those 8 games at Rio Tinto RSL has accumulated 12 points from a possible 24.

The schedule for RSL only gets harder as the season progresses, home games from this point onwards will have more meaning to them considering the challenges MLS teams face on the road, RSL included.