Real Salt Lake’s new standard faces immediate test against unbeaten Juarez

SANDY — Real Salt Lake finally got its eruption against Atlante.

Now it just has to prove it wasn’t an outlier.

RSL welcomes unbeaten FC Juarez to America First Field on Tuesday night, facing a Liga MX side that arrives in Utah following road victories over Minnesota and Vancouver.

Four days after creating 18 shots but scoring only once in a penalty-shootout loss to Tigres UANL, RSL turned its chances into goals Saturday night, rolling past Atlante 4-0.

“You’ve just established a standard,” Mastroeni said he told his players. “And the great thing is we can celebrate it. The tough part is we’ve gotta raise the bar.”

That standard was less about four goals and more about the way RSL produced them.

“I just think it’s being on the front foot, especially here at home, and understanding how we continue to improve our game model by working on the little things within it to stay on the front foot, as opposed to changing our mentality to adjust to other teams,” Mastroeni said Monday.

“And I think that starts with being brave with the ball.”

Juarez keeps finding a way

If Saturday represented RSL finally turning chances into goals, Juarez has spent its first two Leagues Cup matches demonstrating just how little margin for error opponents have when they don’t.

Juarez opened the tournament with a 2-1 victory at Minnesota despite holding just 42% possession. The Loons and Bravos each attempted 11 shots, but Juarez created three big chances to Minnesota’s one.

Then came something considerably more extreme in Vancouver.

The Whitecaps controlled 72% possession, outshot Juarez 27-6, put nine attempts on target and registered 76 touches inside the opposition penalty area.

They lost.

Vancouver was credited with four big chances and failed to convert any of them. Juarez was credited with two and converted both en route to a 3-1 victory.

It wasn’t brutal domination.

It was ruthless efficiency.

“I think that’s a great example of football,” Mastroeni said. “You can do all of the little things right, but you get caught on two or three plays and the game is flipped.”

“That’s a lot of shots,” Solans said. “I think with the confidence that we have right now, I think we can do much better than Vancouver, but we also know how dangerous they are in transition.”

Óscar Estupiñán scored against both Minnesota and Vancouver, and Mastroeni identified Juarez’s ability to punish opponents in transition as RSL’s biggest concern Tuesday.

“Our rest defense has to be such that we’re aware of where their attacking players are, but more importantly that we’re really deliberate in breaking plays up or stopping the play altogether so it doesn’t get to that,” Mastroeni said.

“I think that’s one phase of the game that we have to be elite at in order to beat these guys.”

Getting everyone on the same page

Saturday’s four goals from four different players drew most of the attention, but Mastroeni was just as encouraged by how cohesively RSL pressed.

The coaching staff used the club’s recent road trip to simplify how players identify who steps forward when opponents build with four defenders or drop a midfielder into the back line.

Previously, RSL’s press could require several players to make simultaneous reads. Either wingback could be released forward to press, while the attacking midfielder on the opposite side had to recognize the movement and provide covering pressure.

That left both wingbacks and both 10s processing where the pressure needed to come from.

RSL has simplified it.

“We’ve just narrowed it down to one side where we’re gonna release a wingback, and that’s just made it a lot more clear,” Mastroeni said.

Now RSL limits the decision-making to one side of the press, with a wingback and a 10 responsible for recognizing when to step forward while the rest of the structure stays intact.

“Instead of occupying the brains of four players, we’re now occupying the brains of two players in our defensive press, and then everything else stays the same,” Mastroeni said.

“And I thought that’s brought a lot of clarity to the group to be more cohesive.”

Purposeful rotation

Luna was at the center of much of RSL’s attack Saturday. On the opening goal, he drew multiple defenders before creating the passing lane that left Solans alone six yards from goal.

“I think one of my strengths and one of the things that Pablo asked me to do is creating space for the 10,” Solans said. “So then I can create chances for myself too. So I think it’s a win-win.

“I need to run sometimes in behind to create the space, but at the same time, I know that they will pass me the ball. So it’s something that Pablo asked me to do, and I will continue doing.”

That understanding extends beyond one combination.

Mastroeni has spent much of the season encouraging attacking rotations while demanding that the players recognize when and why to make them.

Saturday, more often than not, everyone appeared to be reading from the same hymn sheet.

“As long as we’re all thinking the same, there’s never ‘wrong,’” Mastroeni said. “It’s when two guys are thinking one way and the other four are thinking something different that we have issues.”

‘East to west only to find a way north’

Juarez will arrive in Sandy having already traveled from Mexico to Minnesota, across the continent to Vancouver and now back to Utah for its third road match in eight days.

Mastroeni acknowledged the advantage RSL has in playing all three Phase 1 matches at home.

“I think there’s a huge advantage of playing these games at home for the majority of MLS teams,” he said. “I think if the majority of the games were played in Mexico, I think you’d see the results skewed the other way. There’s no doubt about that.”

But Mastroeni isn’t interested in making Juarez chase the ball just to tire them out. For him, possession without purpose is pointless.

“We wanna go east to west only to find a way north to south. North, really,” he said.

“We talk about rotations all the time, but we don’t do it just to rotate and keep the ball. I don’t want possession. We want to be probing with every pass that goes sideways, every pass that goes back.”

Against a Juarez side willing to defend deep, that balance will matter.

“They’re a good low-block team,” Mastroeni said. “They’re willing to put their bodies in front of the balls.”

But every additional player RSL commits forward also creates exactly the space Juarez has been punishing.

“Trying to push for the first goal also puts you in a position where you could get hit on a counter,” Mastroeni said. “And these guys are really good at it.”

One more must-win night

RSL enters Tuesday in eighth place on the MLS side of the Leagues Cup table with four points.

Only four clubs advance.

A regulation victory over Juarez would give RSL seven points, but even that may not be enough. Six MLS teams enter the final round with six points, while LAFC has five, meaning RSL needs a victory and enough help elsewhere to climb four places.

“Especially, we’ve put ourselves in a position where, if we get a good result, we have the opportunity to continue into the second phase,” Mastroeni said. “That’s important because we also want to play well in this tournament. It’s a great tournament, a great opportunity for the team.”

Solans wants RSL to continue doing what it finally did against Atlante: turn its chances into goals.

“Be brave in the box, be smart, and shoot as many times as we can, but inside the goal.”

How to watch

Who: Real Salt Lake vs. FC Juarez

When: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 7:30 p.m. MT

Where: America First Field, Sandy

TV/Streaming: Apple TV