I bid you the warmest return to Storylines.
This one cuts straight to the heart.
The golden streak is at its end, for the time being at least. RSL’s weekend defeat to Shield leaders Cincinnati, in the narrowest of fashions, closed the lid on an impressive five-match unbeaten and three-game winning run, and in the process, the points dropped at home now set up an impending clash with San Jose and a return reckoning with a former captain in a manner that guarantees its own bespoke blend of opulent plotlines and narratives.
It tickles the imagination: vengeance and a chance at retribution, a battle for a post-season future, and a former hero’s bitter return … the subplots line themselves in mouthwatering nigh-perpetuity, each one even more tantalizing than the last.
Real Salt Lake vs the San Jose Earthquakes: 10th vs 9th, heroes vs antagonists, or, for those with a predilection for the grandiose — much like this author (clearly) — good vs evil. A battle to the bitter end.
War is coming.
Armageddon is here.
In our latest edition of Storylines, our author dives deep into some of the most twisting arcs and subplots on offer in this weekend’s reunion of friends turned foes.
The Elephant in the Room
Less an elephant, more a 10-ton Tyrannosaurus rex, in truth.
RSL vs San Jose brings squarely into focus a myriad of twists and plots, each one for various reasons, all rightly deserving. But it would be impossible, certainly not in best practice, to discuss such a contest whilst simultaneously trying to evade the Cristian Arango-shaped narrative that has now reposed itself at the plot center.
It was the summer of 2023, and RSL had famously completed the signing of a new star striker, for a Club-record fee, to much acclaim and fan excitement. Indeed, this was a one-of-a-kind type of acquisition — the signing who, finally, was supposed to catapult the Utah side to super-stardom and into the ecosystem of MLS elites, on the pitch at least.
An era-defining transfer. And for a while, so it seemed.
For the first full year following his arrival, the Colombian proved just about worth every penny, charming supporters and critics alike with an astonishing 23 goals and six assists in merely 31 appearances during that time. In his first full season, RSL’s former No. 9 set a blistering pace right from the start in the race for the Golden Boot, netting 17 goals alongside a further five assists throughout the opening half of the campaign and matching RSL’s single-season individual scoring record in the process.
But if the 2024 campaign’s first half was Arango’s crowning zenith, the ensuing final portion would be his gutting nadir.
Having matched Alvaro Saborio’s 2012 single-season scoring record in record time, the further possibility of eventually becoming the all-time Claret-and-Cobalt leading goalscorer began to be regarded as a genuine, not-so-distant probability in many quarters. Indeed, such a pacesetting start had even seen the striker placed in All-Star captaincy and MLS Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player debates, amongst illustrious company, and RSL supporters fantasizing about what potential glories may lie in store.
Gone were the days of failing and falling short, of calamity and collapse, of anguish and despair, and flattering only to slump lamentably short. This was a striker, and a team around him, that looked capable of leading the Club to everlasting success … or at least so everyone thought.
By the time the second half of the season rolled around, the signs on the pitch were appearing clear, yet subtle. By its end, the 15-game unbeaten run was a distant, ethereal memory. The stunning successes that preceded it provided little salve for the disappointment, certainly not as far as Arango was concerned, who returned for the final stretch suffering such a shockingly steep, meteoric drop in form that saw him score just once in his 15 final appearances, and the team slip from the West’s top spot to an eventually respectable third-place finish that took until the final day of the regular-season to be confirmed.
It was a shocking anticlimax for a player much-tipped to rewrite both MLS and RSL record books. By the end, Arango was merely consigned to sharing it, and only in parts.
But the collective shock it caused to the RSL system refused to end there. As the 2024 campaign drew to a close and the new season looked primed to begin, the striker ultimately departed the Club, circumstances from the fallout from the reasons above, joining the San Jose Earthquakes in a deal which, at least initially, sparked consternation across certain sections of the fanbase.
As RSL’s former captain prepares to return to America First Field for the first time since his departure, it provides an extra kind of volcanic incandescence to an already super-charged affair.
This is Major League Soccer at perhaps its acrimonious best.
But the inferno only continues to thicken.
A playoff pursuit and the season’s final mission
Whilst Saturday’s contest will mark Arango’s first return to the Wasatch Front since his fractious departure, it will represent both sides’ second meeting this season.
When the two teams crossed paths earlier in the campaign, RSL travelled to PayPal Park for its season-opening game, which resulted in an embarrassing 4-0 defeat for the visitors, conceding three goals in a chastening 15-minute second-half spell, that served as a premonition to the difficult start to the year the Claret-and-Cobalt would endure — the repercussions of which are still being grappled with.
Thus, as Saturday presents itself to RSL as an opportunity to try and appease its supporters and atone for the calamity of that earlier loss, it also presents itself as crucial to the club’s ongoing pursuit of an MLS Cup Playoff berth come the end of the regular season.
Last season, the Vancouver Whitecaps managed to advance all the way to the Western Conference quarterfinals of the Audi MLS Cup playoffs, following an eighth-place league table finish, via a victory over 9th-placed Portland Timbers in the customary “play-in” precursor to determine which of the two positions gets the reward of post-season contention.
This season, RSL currently occupy the 10th spot, on 28 points from 23 games, only a single point behind San Jose, who’ve only managed one point more from a further match played (29 points from 24 games).
With 11 and 10 remaining games left for both teams, respectively, the fight to finish in a playoff position could still be set for twists and turns as both sides wind down towards the end of their regular campaigns. But being situated this close near the end, Saturday’s clash has the potential to still reverberate major repercussions in the chase, and determine which, if only one, of the two teams ends up with the prize.
RSL have unceremoniously gone from the euphoria of last season’s general successes and performance, and a highly impressive third-place finish, to the earth-setting realities of the current year. Salvation, however, or at least slight vestiges of it, yet remain in the form of retaining a playoff berth for another year. Mastroeni’s teams have always successfully qualified for the playoffs in his five total years at the helm, but this year’s mission will surely face an uphill battle if RSL fail to capture maximum points at home, while rescuing improbable results away, especially after last week’s Cincinnati heartbreak.
The power of contemporary forms
Recent form, however, does place the RSL manager’s team in the more favorable position. RSL’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Cincinnati surely might have been an unwanted pill to swallow, but it arrived at the end of a sequence of matches that have seen the Claret-and-Cobalt secure four victories and a draw, taking 13 points out of the previously possible 15.
By contrast, Saturday’s visitors have only managed one win in their last six outings, suffering three draws and two losses in that time, including a heavy 4-1 mauling at the hands of title-chasing Minnesota United, which have seen Bruce Arena’s men tumble down the table to their current position.
Arango has proven one of the Earthquakes’ most reliable performers in front of goal this season, with 11 strikes and one assist in 20 appearances thus far.
For the hosts’ part, star player Diego Luna will be hoping to get back into goalscoring gear, having gone the last two games without a goal contribution following his return from a personally successful Gold Cup run with the USMNT.
Mastroeni will also be hoping midfielder Diogo Gonçalves can continue his recent positive form in front of goal, with a recent spate of two goals in three games prior to the Cincinnati shutout. RSL’s head coach will also be boosted by the return of captain Emeka Eneli from injury, and will be aiming to continue to coax out superlative performances from the likes of Noel Caliskan, William Agada, Zavier Gozo, Rafael Cabral, and the remainder of the supporting cast around 2024/25 MLS All-Star Luna, if he is to prolong the team’s recent positive run of form.
Questions abound already this season resulting from RSL’s poor start to the year. A contemporary streak of encouraging results means such mighty scrutiny has been significantly salved for the time, but further questions will continue to be asked if the team proves unable to wrestle all three points at home at the weekend.
RSL have already suffered the ignominy this season of conceding to a former player, succumbing to an impressive Anderso Julio strike in a 1-1 draw at FC Dallas in May. As far as embarrassments go, an Arango goal against his former employers during the Pioneer Day Weekend festivities might just about break the barometer.
The lights will glimmer, and they will shine bright. They will pit brother against brother, and friend against foe: once family, now turned enemies.
The ultimate test of will and mettle. ’Tis the ultimate reckoning.
For both teams, there will be no hiding place.
