by: @harrison_crow

2019 REVIEW

When the assignments came out for playoff previews I begged, pleaded, and asked Ian nicely for the opportunity to write about RSL (editors note: there was literally no other person interested). I feel like I somehow owe this fanbase a little something because of the harshness with my pre-season picks. Let me start off with this: I was wrong. Very wrong.

But. Let’s talk about why I was wrong.

No, I’m not trying to justify my pick of Real Salt Lake being dead last with barely 30 points to their name. Again, I totally own that I was wrong about this team. But what I got wrong was a cause of a focus on the things they did less good rather than the potential for what they could well. The sometimes rickety offense versus the ardent and staunch defense that it would be.

On the face of it, Sam Johnson and Everton Luiz were both unknowns, the pressing system which looked promising in parts of the 2017 season had faded in 2018 and the once exciting group of young players (Justen Glad, Corey Baird, Sebastian Saucedo, Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera) all seemed to stagnate in growth.

Then somewhere in the first half of the season they, someone--Petke or other---altered a bit of the tactics and retailored their classic 4-2-3-1 to become a more compact. less aggressive, and an altogether different defensive look. It allowed fewer shots of low leverage xG through a structured back six which focused more on primarily being difficult to break down, preventing quick transitions into the attack, and limiting looks at the goal. This specifically had a great effect and lead them over their last 18 games to grabbing 33 points (1.83 ppg) with a +11 goal differential.

I’m still not convinced that this is a team that’s going to be able to throw up another 50 points next year without a change or an upgrade in their attacking front. I get tired of preaching Joao Plata but there is an absolute need for someone, anyone, in the front of that attack to take regular chances at goal. This leads to some attack sustainability issues. But we’ll get to that later.

The thing I find stunning about this run in the second half is that it has happened in the midst of some serious off the field turmoil. Their head coach being put on unpaid leave, then fired and followed up by him then suing the organization for wrongful termination. An ordeal that then leaked conversations with, then GM, which lead to the dismissal of the team’s GM.

All of this happened and yet the team remained focused and executed a very precise game plan over the second half driving them up to an unbelievable third place finish.

TEAM STATISTICS

Possession: 50.1% (10th in MLS)

Passes Per Game: 440.2 (15th in MLS)

xGoals For in open play: 25.2 (21st in MLS)

xGoals Against in open play:27.1 (3rd in MLS)

It’s probably no surprise that Kyle Beckerman is still performing, what is surprising is how well he’s doing it despite being kind of an afterthought--or perhaps, maybe even just being taken for granted after all these years. This is his ninth straight season with over 2,000 minutes at the heart of the RSL midfield and he’s still the guy with the ball at his feet the most.

Beckerman lead the team (min. 1,000 minutes) in touch% (11.8%) once more this year. Hardly a surprise as Beckerman has posted double digit touch percentage and has been one of the central figures for the transition of the RSL attack as long as we’ve kept records. Beckerman’s numbers are a bit down but his passing score remains north of positive and has been an effective distributor for RSL this season.

The real stand out for RSL shot creation came through Albert Rusnak who's xPassing score in the final third ranks 10th in MLS (+21.7) and his xBuildup leads the team with 16.00. While Beckerman consistently helped drive possession when needed it was Rusnak who became the true architect of chance creation within the final third.

FORMATION