SANDY, Utah - It’s been a rough few weeks for Real Salt Lake.
The latest blow came Saturday night as RSL dropped a late result to the visiting Portland Timbers and former teammate Nat Borchers. The Utah club came out of the gates strong, but was unable to put one into the back of the net, losing the game 1-0, thanks to Borchers’ 95th-minute header.
“It stings a lot,” RSL midfielder Luke Mulholland said after the game. “It’s been a long two weeks, on the road the whole time. We were looking forward to finally getting home and playing in front of the home crowd. It felt like we started off brightly. We felt in control of the game the whole time. It’s just sickening to concede at the end like that, also with Borchers scoring against us, it adds insult to injury.”
Saturday night's game against Portland marks the end of a brutal five-game road swing in which RSL traveled over 11,000 miles in just 15 days. RSL lost four out of the five games, the only positive result being a gritty 1-0 win in CONCACAF Champions league play over CSD Municipal. RSL allowed 14 goals over the five-game stretch, also crashing out of the US Open Cup in a semifinal matchup against Sporting Kansas City.
Despite the grueling travel and the undeniable physical strain, RSL seized control of the match early. The home side enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession and boasted a passing accuracy of 89 percent. They had their fair share of shots as well, but Portland ended up equaling RSL’s shots on target with five fewer shots overall.
RSL head coach, Jeff Cassar, was relegated to the role of spectator during tonight’s match after he was sent off in RSL’s last league match against the Vancouver Whitecaps. In his post game comments he stated the obvious.
“There was some beautiful soccer out there,” Cassar, said. “I was really proud of watching our team play with that attacking style, that relentless style, and you could see Portland just dropping, dropping, dropping. But you have to put away those opportunities, you really do, because it doesn’t take much on the other end to get something.”
Portland did in fact get something, at almost the last possible second.
After 95 minutes of soccer was played, Borchers lost his mark, made his run to the penalty spot, rose up and headed home Diego Valeri’s corner kick, simultaneously breaking the hearts of the 20,333 in attendance.
Borchers’ goal was the worst possible ending to a disastrous slate of games.
“We’ve had some tough results,” Cassar said. “Everybody’s confidence is just a hair off. As a staff, we’re going to try to build their confidence and continue to keep working. It will be nice to have a week of training so we can actually work on some things, rather than a game every three days, which has been extremely hard.”
Tyler Gray covers Real Salt Lake for MLSsoccer.com.
