Real Salt Lake Stumbles In Loss To Montreal Impact
May 29, 2019, 7:57 PM | Updated: 9:11 pm
Courtesy of RSL
MONTREAL – There’s something about playing the Montreal Impact on the road that doesn’t mesh well with Real Salt Lake.
With a 2-1 loss against the Impact on Wednesday night, RSL remains winless or even tieless at Montreal for whole club’s history.
Right from the get-go, it was clear that Montreal was the aggressor, even though RSL entered the match rolling on a three game winning streak.
The focus shifts to New York pic.twitter.com/82EtX5hSKf
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) May 30, 2019
Within the first five minutes, Montreal had already had several incredibly close looks at the opening goal of the game. Rudy Camacho had two tries, nearly back-to-back that were inches away from paydirt, but his first attempt, a header, went off the crossbar and the second was saved by Nick Rimando.
For a while, it looked like RSL would escape out of the first half and take a scoreless tie into the locker room. Unfortunately, the back four had a lapse and allowed a goal that shouldn’t have happened by Omar Browne at the very end of the half.
It’s unclear what head coach Mike Petke said to his team at halftime, but the RSL players came out fired up in the second half.
Playing with renewed energy, the team nearly tied the game up on an incredible header by Sam Johnson. The goal was not allowed, however, as he was ruled offsides on the play.
Que c'est bien tiré ce péno, Saphir!
That's a well-taken penalty if we've seen one.#IMFC #MTLvRSL #AllezMTL pic.twitter.com/DpxO3Rh4az— Impact de Montréal (@impactmontreal) May 30, 2019
About midway through the second half, Montreal struck again on a penalty kick goal by Saphir Taider to take a 2-0 lead. The play was largely due to a seemingly lack of effort on a loose ball by RSL’s Joao Plata, forcing Donny Toia to scramble and trip up Montreal’s Bacary Sagna.
Plata was placed in the starting lineup ahead of Bofo Saucedo, who had been playing especially well for RSL as of late. It has been speculated that Plata could be involved in a transfer to Mexico, but he still traveled and played with RSL on Wednesday, perhaps for the final time in his career. The Ecuadorian forward has been a member of RSL since 2013.
Late in the match, Johnson found the back of the net and this time it wasn’t disallowed. His goal in the 84th minute cut the lead in half and gave Johnson a total of five goals on the season.
Sam finds it in the back of the net! pic.twitter.com/HeDygzPgQB
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) May 30, 2019
Johnson had another shot late in the game as did Jefferson Savarino, but RSL couldn’t find another goal and saw its three game winning streak come to an end.
RSL will have little time to regroup as the team will head to face the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The club will be without attacking midfielder Damir Kreilach, who obtained a yellow card in the second half of the loss to Montreal. Due to yellow-card acccumulation he will serve a one-game suspension on Saturday.
Although the club will be without Kreilach, veteran midfielder Kyle Beckerman is expected to be available after missing considerable time due to a hamstring injury.
The match between RSL and the New York Red Bulls can be streamed live on sports.ksl.com or on the KSL TV app.
