CARSON, Calif. – It was a rough night at the office Jeff Cassar’s Real Salt Lake squad on Saturday night.
The Claret-and-Cobalt ran into the buzzsaw that is LA Galaxy, and fell by a 5-2 scoreline at StubHub Center. Burrito Martinez scored early on for RSL, but the Galaxy cruised along from there, and Javier Morales’ penalty goal late wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.
“I thought our back line was a little bit stretched,” Cassar told reporters. “They could play through us, they could play over us, they could play around us, and we didn’t solve it.”
RSL started out very well, interrupting the Galaxy’s attack by cutting off crosses and stifling runs. Burrito Martinez’s goal to start made it look like their three-game winning streak would continue.
But then, goals from LA's Gyasi Zardes, Mike Magee, Emmanuel Boateng, and Giovani Dos Santos really exposed the defense, and the result was essentially wrapped up by halftime. Not for lack of effort on RSL’s part, as they pressed hard in the second half hoping that they could close the gap.
“We’re going to look at this game, and it starts with me,” Cassar continued. “But it doesn’t fall on one person.”
Midfielder Kyle Beckerman knows that they’ll have to regroup, as they host the Houston Dynamo at Rio Tinto Stadium next Saturday (9:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“They beat us tonight,” Beckerman said. “So we have to learn from it, get back to work this week, and see if we can do better next week.”
Beckerman praised his teammates for a valiant second-half effort, despite coming up short.
“Our biggest thing was that we wanted to show some character,” said Beckerman. “I thought the response was really good. Everybody showed a lot of heart, and nobody quit.”
Cassar echoed his captain’s positive thoughts, while also crediting the home team.
“LA was good tonight, they were firing on all cylinders,” Cassar said. “Our shape wasn’t great, but we did have a very good second half and had a good response.”
