SANDY, Utah—It took a blanket of snowflakes and an orange ball to get Real Salt Lake its first win of the season, but the Claret and Cobalt thrived in the elements and grabbed a 3-0 victory in head coach Mike Petke’s debut.
The RSL attack matched its output from the first five games with their three goals on Saturday; all coming in the second half. Petke won his first game at the helm of Real Salt Lake and halted the team’s 12-game regular season MLS winless streak.
New RSL Designated PlayerAlbert Rusnak scored the first goal and assisted on the other two.
“These conditions are definitely the craziest I have ever played in,” Rusnak said. “We scored three goals in the second half with those hard conditions and overall it was a great team performance.”
Rusnak’s goal came off a nice through ball from Joao Plata, but without the snow to hold it up it could have been even nicer.
“It was a great pass. It probably would have worked even better if there wasn’t snow on the ground,” Rusnak said.
RSL was able to take advantage of the snow to score two more goals and keep a clean sheet at home.
“In every game the first goal is very crucial, especially in those conditions in the second half,” Rusnak said. “There isn’t a lot you can play in the snow, sometimes the right pass is actually the wrong choice.”
“It has a huge effect on (the game),” Petke said. “Soccer kind of goes out the window. At a certain point every pass is slowed up. It looks like you’re making a snowman with the snow building up on the ball. Guys are slipping all over the place. You can’t really see through it.”
On the second goal, Rusnak pinged a ball from just past midfield to the opposite corner of the box for Yura Movsisyan. Movsisyan got around his defender and snuck ball just past the hand of Vancouver keep David Ousted, where it clanged off the post and in.
Rusnak’s second assist was a corner kick that pulled out Ousted and fell to Luke Mulholland who put it away for the 3-0 advantage.
Salt Lake navigated the harsh conditions and found three points in Petke’s debut which will give him something to remember the game by.
“My toes are frostbitten and I had to have my pants tumble dried at halftime," Petke said. "And the 3-0 win I’ll remember that too”.
