Real Salt Lake Wasteful In Front Of Goal, Suffers Agonizing Defeat To Quakes

SALT LAKE CITY – Real Salt Lake suffered an agonizing defeat to San Jose despite having the majority of the chances in front of the goal.

Interim manager Pablo Mastroeni started Justin Meram following his incredible 15-minute performance against FC Dallas last weekend. Rubio Rubin also slotted back into the starting XI up top alongside Damir Kreilach and most surprisingly, Nick Besler started over Everton Luiz in the center of the park.

😠😠😠🙂😠😠
🥷😠😠😠😠 pic.twitter.com/ycXkiOlTB8

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 30, 2021

Major League Soccer all-time leading goalscorer Chris Wondolowski started up top for San Jose. Much to the scare of the Real Salt Lake faithful in attendance. Wondolowski has been the thorn in RSL’s side over the years, most notably when Real Salt Lake last hosted San Jose at Rio Tinto Stadium on May 7 when Wondolowski came off the bench and netted a brace in the final 10 minutes to secure a 2-1 away win.

Wondo Is Back

The first half was arguably the strangest 45 minutes of soccer for Real Salt Lake this season. On multiple occasions, Real Salt Lake glided through the man-to-man San Jose defensive structure and found themselves in on goal. However, Real Salt Lake could not make the most of their opportunities despite landing the game’s first blow.

In the 10th minute, Real Salt Lake captain Albert Rusnák made the simplest of one-twos with Kreilach inside the penalty area and Rusnák was able to finish by nutmegging JT Marcinkowski for the games opening goal.

GET IN CAP! pic.twitter.com/d0z8oN78xy

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 30, 2021

But Wondolowski was unfazed by conceding the opening goal of the fixture. In fact, the concession of the game’s opening goal only seemed to spark Wondolowski into action.

Carlos Fierro was credited with the equalizer in the 37th minute, but Wondolowski was right there to tap it in as well. The goal came when winger Cade Cowell, who started the game on the left wing before moving to the right, whipped in a low cross across the face of the goal that Fierro got on the end of.

Remarkably, with the final play of the first half, Wondolowski at 38-years-old rose higher than Erik Holt at the back post and headered the go-ahead goal from a corner kick.

The final whistle blew shortly thereafter much to the displeasure of the RSL fans in attendance who issued an orchestrated array of boo’s as the two teams entered the halftime tunnel.

170 @MLS goals for the King. 👑 pic.twitter.com/NjBt6hhe58

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) October 30, 2021

“It is the toughest to concede before half because you have 15 minutes to prepare for how you are going to respond which can often be difficult,” Mastroeni said on the late Wonodlowski first-half goal.

Misery At The RioT

The late goal from Wondolowski completely took the wind out of the RSL sails, it seemed. When a team concedes late in a half teams will often respond with a sense of vigour or no energy whatsoever. Sadly, for Real Salt Lake against San Jose, the response was lacklustre at best.

Mastroeni opted to make no halftime changes and gave his starting XI the courtesy of playing out the start of the second half, but nothing changed, the scoreline remained the same and if anything the style of play worsened from what was seen in the first half.

By the 62nd minute, Mastroeni had seen enough. He opted to bring on Jonathan Menéndez, Everton Luiz, and Maikel Chang.

But the move made no difference to the game, 10 minutes later Cade Cowell found acres of space down the right flank and when he received the ball from a quick goalkeeper throw he danced his way around Besler and Glad to effectively slam the door shut on Real Salt Lake’s playoff-clinching ambitions.

The afternoon went from bad to worse in the 79th minute when David Ochoa played a pass to Besler who was unaware of the dangers that surrounded him and were pick pocketed by Jackson Yueill who walked into goal for San Jose’s fourth of the afternoon.

A consolation goal was scored by Maikel Chang in the 85th minute giving Rio Tinto Stadium a glimmer of energy but nothing that the Claret & Cobalt men could do about it. It was all over and had been for some time.

cha-chang pic.twitter.com/Z7Sc4V0sLv

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 30, 2021

Rusnák found Real’s third goal in the 92nd minute but given that only four minutes of added time were added time rang out on any form of comeback.

Closing the gap! pic.twitter.com/2z64FZ4Hzu

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 30, 2021

Must-Win Home Fixture Upcoming

The loss makes Real Salt Lake’s playoff ambitions harder. The next home game against Portland becomes essentially a must-win and un-needed pressure will now likely be placed on the final regular-season game of the season when they make a trip to Sporting Kansas City.

Real Salt Lake will host Portland on Wednesday, November 3rd at Rio Tinto Stadium with kickoff slated for 8 p.m.

The match will be available to stream via the KSL Sports & KSL 5 TV apps.