Thursday, July 7, 2011

Real Salt Lake v New England (3-3) - Entertaining Spectacle Ends in Draw

Real Salt Lake and New England engaged in an absurd match featuring referee howlers, two red cards, two penalties, six goals and ultimately, a draw. Instead of an analysis of the multitude of formations and tactics each coach used due to the circumstances, this breakdown focuses on the trends each manager used.
Early Red Card
    In the third minute, the entire match was altered through a dubious referee decision. Matt Reis played a goal kick long that bounced over the heads of Real's defense. Benny Feilhaber was secretly lurking behind the back four and inexplicably found himself through on goal. However, his touch was not great which allowed Nat Borchers to catch up and challenge him. Borchers cleared the ball off of Feilhaber with the ball going out for a goal kick. But, referee Yader Reyes pointed to the spot and sent off Borchers for the denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity. The call was wrong, but from the rear view the referee had it looked like a blatant foul. Rajko Lekic coolly chipped the penalty past Nick Rimando and New England were in dreamland up a man and a goal so early.
Salt Lake's First Half Strategy
    Jason Kreis was forced into a substitution in the 9th minute. Collen Warner was brought off for Chris Schuler to fill Borcher's left center back slot.
    Real opted for a 4-1-3-1 formation. Saborio played as the lone striker and was active pressuring in defense and holding up the ball on offense. Luis Gil, Will Johnson and Andy Williams played behind Saborio. They seemed to interchange between center, right and left midfield positions. Protecting the back four in the holding midfield role was Ned Grabavoy.
New England's Strategy
    Steve Nicol set his side in a 4-4-1-1 formation. Rajko Lekic operated as the lone striker with Feilhaber playing just behind him. Shalrie Joseph and Pat Phelan played in the center of midfield with Joseph playing higher up the pitch an Phelan playing the holding role. Tierney and Nyassi occupied the flanks.
Real Controlling the Game with 10
    New England expanded their lead in the 16th minute. Tierney took a free kick from a long way out and beat Rimando low and to his left. On first glance it looked as if his wall let him down but replays indicated Lekic pulled a Real defender to the side to open up a shooting area.
    Even before the second goal, New England seemed content being a man up. Salt Lake was playing harder and faster am pressed better, which led to an increase in possession. The crowd was hostile, mostly towards the ref, and this urged their team on. New England sat in a 4-4-2 shell on defense and had no killer instinct to finish off the match.
    Real were given a lifeline through Will Johnson. Saborio won a free kick deep in the Revolution's half. Reis made a save on the free kick but did poorly to give up a rebound which was tapped in by Johnson. To be fair to Reis, his defense was ball watching and failed to help clear the rebound.
Second Half Adjustments
    Down a goal, Kreis brought on Kyle Beckerman for Robbie Russell at halftime to try and control the ball and create play even though they remained a man down. Will Johnson was moved into an attacking right back role to fill in for Russell. Beckerman played in center midfield, mostly left of the center circle and just in front of Grabavoy.
     Eleven minutes into the second half, Salt Lake leveled the score on a Saborio penalty. The spot kick was awarded after a cross deflected off of the left arm of Kevin Alston. It was unclear if the penalty was correctly awarded, since the replays were poor, but the ball definitely hit Alston’s arm which was raised.
     New England seemed to put the match away off of a lovely Shalrie Joseph header off of a Tierney free kick. Joseph was marked by Olave and used the back of his head to flick it off of the right post and in. But, Ryan Cochrane earned himself an early entrance into the dressing room in the 67th minute after pulling the shirt of Andy Williams and picking up a second yellow card.
     Just before, Fabian Espindola had replaced Gil and moved into a left forward role and was vital in creating chances and troubling New England’s back line in the 27 minutes he was on the pitch. His attacking prowess was rewarded in the 83rd minute when he scored the equalizer. Olave played a pass on the ground to Saborio who drew the center back’s attention. Saborio exploited Pat Phelan’s poor positioning (he moved back to cover for Cochrane and was clearly not comfortable in the defensive role) and slipped a pass to Espindola who put a left footed shot by Reis. Jason Kreis celebrated by giving a ‘tear’ gesture to the Revolution bench, which was highly hilarious.
Conclusion
     Too often, MLS clubs rely on scoring from the set piece because of struggling to create chances in open play. However, what this Fourth of July match lacked in attacking play was made up for in crazy occurrences. The atmosphere at the Rio Tinto was hostile and intense and the managers were bickering with each other on the side lines. The match saw referee blunders and a thrilling finish which made the match a fun one to watch.
     Credit Real Salt Lake for dealing with adversity and rallying twice to earn a draw. They held a 61/39% advantage in possession and took 15 shots which is amazing considering they played a man down for 64 minutes.
     As for New England, Steve Nicol will not be pleased with surrendering a two goal lead and then a one goal lead at the end.  New England was unable to create chances because Feilhaber and Lekic were not involved in the match. Feilhaber only made 30 passes in 90 minutes, which is quite low for a player in the playmaker role. Lekic only had 3 shots, one being a penalty kick and two were off target from long range. The Revolution lacked a killer instinct to crush Real’s spirits by putting the game to bed in the first half. Instead, they put on the cruise control and moved over to the right land which allowed Salt Lake a way back into the match.  

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1 comment:

  1. That first red card was a pathetic call. It ticks me off to no end that stuff like that happens. Other than that, this was a pretty fun game to watch.

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