RSL’s young players answer the call, but opponents’ DPs provide the difference

SANDY — Real Salt Lake head coach Pablo Mastroeni could find plenty to like about the players he called upon Wednesday night.

Nineteen-year-old Colin Guske went 90 minutes in midfield. Aiden Hezarkhani, also 19, created problems in the attack. Jason Shokalook made his first start for RSL. Lineker Rodrigues came off the bench and created the tying goal, and 19-year-old Owen Anderson became the 13th player to make his RSL first-team debut this season.

“I look at these performances and I go, ‘Man, when you have that many really good performances, it usually translates into better results,’” Mastroeni said.

This time, it didn’t.

For all the encouraging performances RSL got from its young players in Wednesday’s 2-1 loss at Houston, the difference ultimately came from two of the Dynamo’s most expensive players.

Designated players Guilherme and Mateusz Bogusz scored Houston’s two goals, each curling a left-footed shot into the far corner from the right side of the penalty area.

“We get beat by two world-class players that made two world-class plays,” Mastroeni said.

Houston paid accordingly to get them.

The Dynamo reportedly paid $6 million, with another $4 million possible in incentives, to acquire Bogusz from Cruz Azul during the offseason. Guilherme arrived from Brazilian club Santos for a reported $2.1 million.

Bogusz is earning $2.52 million in guaranteed compensation this season, according to the MLS Players Association, while Guilherme is earning $1.93 million.

“They were killers tonight,” Mastroeni said. “Could we get a little bit tighter? I think so. At the end of the day, there’s certain goals you tip your hat off to, and I think both of those are worthy of that.”

A familiar difference

If it felt like deja vu all over again, RSL only needed to look back four days.

LAFC’s Designated Players scored both goals in Saturday night’s 2-2 draw at America First Field.

Denis Bouanga, acquired from Saint-Etienne for a reported $5 million and now earning $4.94 million in guaranteed compensation, put LAFC ahead in the first half.

After Saba Lobjanidze equalized, Son Heung-min restored the lead. LAFC paid a reported MLS-record transfer fee of more than $26 million to acquire Son from Tottenham last year. He is earning $11.15 million in guaranteed compensation this season.

RSL fought its way back again, with Noel Caliskan scoring the second equalizer to earn a point.

Four days later, the pattern repeated itself.

Over 180 minutes against LAFC and Houston, RSL conceded four goals. All four were scored by opposing designated players: Bouanga and Son for LAFC, Guilherme and Bogusz for Houston.

RSL played all 180 minutes without either of its own designated players available.

A different kind of DP situation

Morgan Guilavogui was RSL’s major offseason DP acquisition, arriving from French club Lens. He missed Saturday’s draw against LAFC due to yellow-card accumulation before an injury kept him out against Houston.

RSL’s other DP is longtime Homegrown defender Justen Glad.

Unlike the other DPs who have decided RSL’s last two matches, Glad did not arrive as a high-priced outside acquisition. The Homegrown academy product’s designation allows compensation above the league’s maximum salary-budget charge to be carried outside the salary budget.

Glad hasn’t played in an MLS match since May while dealing with an adductor injury, though the club hopes to have him back before the end of the season.

The contrast comes at the end of a summer in which RSL generated the largest outgoing transfer fee in club history.

RSL sold 19-year-old Homegrown Zavier Gozo to Crystal Palace in August for a reported $15 million. Gozo had scored six MLS goals before his departure, second-most on the team at the time.

RSL remained active after the sale, but did not make a comparable high-priced acquisition before the window closed.

Lobjanidze cost $625,000 in GAM. Guske arrived on loan for $50,000 in GAM, and Shokalook was acquired for up to $200,000 in GAM. Taylor Booth and Luc de Fougerolles arrived on loans with future options, while RSL paid an undisclosed transfer fee for 19-year-old U22 winger Dusan Zagar.

Chief soccer officer Kurt Schmid acknowledged after the window closed that RSL considered more expensive options.

“We looked at a few guys that probably would’ve been a little bit more expensive,” Schmid said. “And ultimately, we just didn’t find, or we didn’t assess, that those options were the right guys to bring in right now.”

Young players answer the call

The players RSL did have available nearly got the job done in Houston.

Hezarkhani nearly tied the match in the 67th minute when Juan Manuel Sanabria found him in front of goal, only for a recovering Houston defender to clear his attempt.

Lineker Rodrigues, a rookie who signed his first-team contract last month after spending most of the season with Real Monarchs, came on in the 70th minute. Six minutes later, he collected the ball in RSL’s half and sent Lobjanidze behind the Houston defense for the tying goal.

“On the goal it was Linny and Saba,” Mastroeni said. “The guys that are coming into games are injecting some real energy and some real quality.”

The young players weren’t the reason RSL left Houston empty-handed.

RSL had 21 touches in the Houston penalty area to the Dynamo’s eight, and the teams finished nearly even in expected goals.

But games can turn on the kind of individual moments RSL has seen twice in four days.

On Saturday, Bouanga and Son produced them.

On Wednesday, it was Guilherme and Bogusz.

“You just can’t even give them an inch,” Mastroeni said. “These guys are great players for a reason. They don’t need a lot of space to pull their leg back. They know what they’re doing.”

Against LAFC, RSL’s collective effort was enough to earn a point.

Against Houston, two expensive players needed only two small openings to make sure it wasn’t.

“There’s a lot of good,” Mastroeni said. “Obviously the situation we’re currently in is tough, but like I say to the guys all the time, what we can control is the process.

“We can control our performances, and the results we leave to the gods, and unfortunately tonight we’re on the wrong side of it.”