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Here are three things we learned from Real Salt Lake’s 5-1 home loss to Los Angeles FC.
1. RSL has some shaping up to do
Scoring five goals on the road seems unfathomable, but it’s exactly what LAFC accomplished. The altitude was supposed to help Real Salt Lake in its home opener at Rio Tinto Stadium and give the home team a leg up, but it did little to stop a dynamic LAFC from winning its second straight game — its second straight on the road for that matter.
Albert Rusnák was most disappointed in the fact that he thought the team had been playing well. A tie on the road against FC Dallas was seemingly a sign of good things to come, and Rusnák even mentioned the team’s preseason had helped RSL shaped its style of play, but the 5-1 loss makes it clear that Real has some ways to go before the team is in peak condition.
“We have to watch the tape all together and go through the mistakes, because there was a lot of mistakes that were made today and they punished us for almost every single one,” Rusnák said.
2. One game won’t deter the whole season, or at least it shouldn’t
Any time a team lets an opponent score five goals is rather embarrassing as Real Salt Lake coach Mike Petke put it. And any time a team gives up five goals at home adds more insult to injury. So while RSL was disappointed in how it played at home in Rio Tinto Stadium, the team understands it needs to brush off this loss.
Demar Phillips said after the game the performance was uncharacteristic for RSL, but that it stemmed from a poor reaction to LAFC’s first goal of the game. Overall, he thought Real’s ball movement was solid, so he hopes that by the time the New York Red Bulls come to town, the team will have figured out a way to mend a lot of what seems broken.
3. LAFC isn’t messing around
While most people think expansion teams will struggle at the start of the season, LAFC looks like a top contender after coming away with two roads wins in the first two weeks of the season. The win in Seattle was already impressive enough as the majority of visiting teams in CenturyLink Field have a hard time walking out with a win, but LAFC made the most of what few opportunities it had to escape with a 1-0 win.
After posting five goals against Real Salt Lake, the expansion team look like the squad to beat, and with Diego Rossi leading the way, he scored two goals in Saturday’s game and now has three goals in first Major League Soccer season, LAFC looks anything but new, and instead looks to be in midseason form.