Scoreless Draw Against Dynamo
Real Salt Lake earned a scoreless draw Saturday against the Houston Dynamo.
It was a wide open match, and both sides had opportunities to score. However, neither was able to put a goal away.
“Obviously, we don’t get three points at home, we don’t feel like we achieved our objective,” coach Jason Kreis said. “We’re going to have to answer questions about who is going to be the integral figure in there to create chances… Some of that is just going to take time.”
Salt Lake now has 16 points in seven matches, which is an impressive total. However, the side’s offense has been lacking for quite awhile. Salt Lake has only scored one goal in its previous four matches.
“In the second half, we just weren’t good enough going forward with the ball,” defender Nat Borchers said. “We just weren’t making good decisions with our entry passes.”
The side had numerous chances, including two goals that were called back on offside calls, but it felt like the final touch just wasn’t there.
“We just have to clean things up,” Borchers said.
Salt Lake will travel to Dallas to play next Sunday.
Game Notes
Kreis used Collen Warner in place of the injured Javier Morales:
- FORWARD: Saborio, Alvarez (74′ Alexandre for Alvarez)
- MIDFIELD: Grabavoy, Beckerman, Warner, Johnson (60′ Williams for Warner) (84′ Gonzalez for Johnson)
- DEFENSE: Russell, Olave, Borchers, Wingert
- KEEPER: Rimando
Paulo Jr. and Fabian Espindola were both unavailable due to injury. As a result, Jean Alexandre came off the bench to play striker.
The Deseret News’ James Edward reported that Morales was hoping to be at the match, but sent a message to the team Saturday that he could not attend.
The Salt Lake attack struggled in the first half under Warner. Kyle Beckerman made a run along the right side at one point to send a message.
Warner got better in the second half. Kreis described his play for the entire match as “Ho, hum” with “some good and some bad.”
Alvarez continues to struggle. He isn’t quite synced up with the rest of the team. His passes tend to be slightly off, and he frequently misreads runs. In fairness, he doesn’t see the pitch much. It’s almost becoming a self-fulfilling problem: he gets benched for not being synced up with his teammates, so he never gets synced up with them.
Grabavoy nearly scored to open the second half when he touched Saborio’s cross just wide of the net.
Wingert had a nice shot from distance a few minutes later. He took a ball above the box, found an opening and drilled it across the net. It broke slightly right and barely missed.
Johnson played much farther forward than usual. It looked like this was a tactical adjustment to compensate for the loss of Morales. It provided a couple great opportunities for Salt Lake.
Saborio scored in the 63rd minute, but he was ruled offside. The call was correct, but the flag didn’t go up until after the ball was in the net.
Alvarez had a similar play in the 67th minute. The official put the flag up on time. You have to think Kreis enjoyed seeing his strikers put the ball in the net, even if the goals didn’t count.
Houston made two offensive substitutions between the 60th and 70th minutes. It was nice to see a team come into Rio Tinto and actually try to attack.
Gonzalez made his first appearance of the 2011 regular season and continued with his typical flashy play. The young Argentine is very good on the ball when he can get into the match.
In the 88th minute, Houston appeared to have numbers on a counter-attack. It looked like a four-on-two, with only Olave and Borchers back. Wingert sprinted back hard, while one Houston attacker couldn’t keep up. As a result, Salt Lake was able to survive the attack.
Williams nearly scored in stoppage time when he took a pass from Grabavoy got behind the defense and barely missed the corner of the net.
Man of the Match
Nat Borchers made numerous plays that won’t make the highlight reel, but they prevented goals from being scored. He is the man of the match.
Category: Game Review
