Another match, and another costly mistake that ultimately doomed Real Salt Lake.
In what has become a worrying trend, RSL were again undone by a mental mistake in Vancouver on Saturday, this time by defender Elias Vasquez. His 79th-minute blunder gave the Whitecaps the opening they needed to wrest three points away from the visitors, earning a 2-1 victory.
“I think we did enough to get a result here,” said a clearly exasperated RSL head coach Jeff Cassar in his post-game interview, “and we also did enough to walk out of here with nothing.”
The Whitecaps were dangerous all match long, showcasing speed and creativity in the attack. Their first goal came off a turnover by RSL defender Abdoulie Mansally, as Gershon Koffie collected the ball and blasted a beautiful, swerving goal from distance to put the home side ahead.
RSL battled back to a draw right before the break, when midfielder Javier Morales offered his own submission for AT&T MLS Goal of the Week.
Morales took a big run up to the free kick and blasted a curling, right-footed shot that gave Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted no chance.
RSL came out of the intermission looking bright and threatened on a number of occasions. But just when looked like the visitors would be heading home with a point in their pocket, things went sideways with only 11 minutes left in the match.
Vancouver forward Octavio Rivero tried to play a header into RSL’s box but found only Vasquez. Instead of clearing it out, the RSL center back attempted to chest the ball down for goalkeeper Nick Rimando to collect. But Whitecaps winger Cristian Techera pounced on his laxness, charging in to seize possession and slot home the game-winner.
Despite all of the momentum of the second half, RSL left BC Place empty-handed.
“I think we deserve more than a draw because their goalkeeper made a lot of saves,” said goalscorer Morales, lamenting the late mistake. “Maybe we could have scored one of those goals and we’re talking now that we’re leaving here with three points, but it didn’t happen.”
Cassar was a bit harsher in his criticism when he spoke about the disturbing trend of allowing easy goals. Just three days ago, Jamison Olave was whistled for a handball in the box six minutes into the match, awarding a penalty to the LA Galaxy that would be the only goal in the match. Both Olave and Vasquez have been guilty of “gifting” goals at various times throughout the season and injured starter Chris Schuler isn’t expected back for another few weeks.
“It was negative, negative, negative,” Cassar said. “They invite pressure, we play into the middle and turn the ball over and get scored on. Their second goal is another gifted goal. If you’re gifting goals in this league, it’s not going to be good. If teams are going to earn it, OK, hats off to them. But we can’t gift goals.”
