Safest return to Storylines.
Matchday 23 is the fixture date and, 22 rounds already into a 34-game domestic league campaign, as well as on the back of a confidence-inducing five-game unbeaten streak, the season’s midpoint period surely now has escorted a sense of cautious joy and cheer. And certainly greater and far-removed from the opening few weeks of the campaign, much defined by its little shortage of trials and tribulations.
The slight caveat, naturally, of course, however, exists in the arrival of the customary midseason fixture congestion — now finally upon us, albeit and admittedly for some time now, in all of its toil and rigor, merciless and unrelenting.
RSL next return to familiar surroundings in the home comfort of America First Field for a tantalizing clash against Shield-chasing FC Cincinnati, in what, at least in one way or another, promises to be a captivating affair.
In another quick-turn game week, Storylines runs the rule, as always, on a few intriguing and central narratives to ponder ahead of this weekend’s latest edition of a contest of supreme rarity.
The measure of consistency
When midfielder Diogo Gonçalves netted what proved to be the winning goal for RSL in Wednesday night’s MLS affair away at Portland, in that moment, it evoked jubilant scenes of joy and excitement from the full spectrum of the team’s support. As the cameras inevitably and subsequently panned to the visitors’ bench, it appeared to capture a more reserved yet palpable response, a sigh of relief and a comportment of assurance, from head coach Pablo Mastroeni — and for good reason.
Arriving late in the 83rd minute, Gonçalves’ strike sparked passionate reactions from the remainder of the RSL bench, alongside a more moderate equivalent from the goalscorer himself. But for Gonçalves, it wasn’t just timely (in a collective context), it was crucial.
RSL’s prominent name midfielder has endured prolonged intensive spells under the microscope ever since his arrival at the club last summer. Whilst part of it has been warranted, recent performances — the midfielder also crucially scored a fortnight earlier in a 3-2 home victory over St. Louis SC — will surely help to buy the 28-year-old a bit of reprieve.
It’s an adage as old as the professional game itself: consistency begets success. In this case, individual consistency spread more evenly begets collective triumph. The oldest rule in the book — a kind, in fact, which goes so much without saying, verbalizing it makes it a cliché. And Gonçalves is by no means the sole praxis.
Whilst Diego Luna’s impact continues to also go without question, Wednesday’s pivotal victory (crucial in the context of the playoffs) extended RSL’s run of undefeated games now to five and has been overwhelmingly built on the back of much of the supporting cast members of the squad, with consistency in performances now more squarely distributed across the entire first team personnel. 24-year-old Noel Caliskan has recently represented one of the team’s most reliable contributors, with a series of compelling performances at right back, which culminated in his maiden RSL / MLS goal in the win against St. Louis, and has now established himself as a regular in the first team. Striker William Agada continues to attract certain scrutiny, but a winning goal and serviceable performance in the team’s previous home triumph against the Houston Dynamo will have done him no disservice whatsoever.
18-year-old starlet Zavier Gozo has enjoyed a protracted run in the team of late since first breaking in earlier in the season and continues to offer proof, by virtue of his burgeoning performances, as to why he remains one of the brightest young prospects in the country. And goalkeeper Rafael Cabral also continues to quietly stack his claim to being perhaps the best shot-stopper, and one of the best goalkeepers, in the entire division, all amongst a swathe of other rising performers. It makes for a team potentially silently on the march, looking to dispel the agonies of its early-season struggles now with momentum in its stride.
"I think it's a collective mindset," Mastroeni explained to the assembled media in the aftermath of Wednesday’s result. "I think when you start getting a couple of results, you start believing that you're capable of things greater than what you initially thought."
Mastroeni’s charges have undoubtedly grappled with their own share of struggles this term, but an inspiring run of four wins, within five total unbeaten, means the hosts return at America First Field at the weekend with a little bit of wind in their sails — and they’ll definitely need it.
Against a Cincinnati side who’ve enjoyed five wins in their previous six outings, including a most recent 3-0 drubbing of defending Supporters’ Shield champions Inter Miami, RSL’s head coach and his side will need to reach beyond their very best if they hope to equally best a team being tipped by many as potential Shield successors come the end of the regular season. And 45 points and a second-place current standing add credence to their credentials
Indeed, it is emblematic as well of the juxtaposition at play in the current landscape of both clubs — the playoff chasers versus the title challengers. Saturday will cast both sets of ambitions to an intriguing test.
A rarity of competition
Tennis legend Serena Williams had just played her final US Open match before announcing her retirement. British Politician Liz Truss replaced former minister Boris Johnson as the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister, and current world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz had only just won his first major title in the US Open Men’s Tennis… are just some of the several things that occurred around the world the last time RSL and Cincinnati crossed paths.
It was September of 2022, and the late Queen Elizabeth II had just died, concluding a 70-year reign. The Utah Royals were still more than a year away from making an anticipated inaugural return to the Wasatch Front, and Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain and eighth-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi was still without a world title to his name — to help put things into footballing context perspective.
Real Salt Lake vs Cincinnati is a contest as rare as they come — a matchup of rarefied proportions. The MLS fixture generators certainly don’t churn out these kinds of matches all too often. In fact, since the Eastern Conference side was originally formed in 2015 and only began competing in MLS four years later, the two teams have met in competitive action only twice — the first arriving in 2019, and the most recent three years later. A truly once-in-a-blue-moon-type affair, yet even that likely constitutes an overstatement. Full moons, after all, occur more consistently — every synodic month, 12 times during most years. By contrast, the last time a contest between these two sides occurred, current RSL captain Emeka Eneli had still been plying his honest trade in the USL League Two, having only just completed his final season with Michigan-based outfit Flint City Bucks. It makes for an occasion so scarce it arguably deserves its own bespoke kind of figurative celestial comparison.
When both teams locked horns at America First Field during that fateful evening in September three seasons ago, former RSL midfielder Maikel Chang gave the hosts a first-half lead with an arrowed header into the bottom right corner, before a brace from opposition striker Brenner turned the match on its head and handed Cincinnati all three points.
Rewind another three years, and only then will you discover RSL’s first and last win over Saturday’s Midwesten opponents, in the only other fixture between the pair, in April 2019, when a late first half strike by striker Sam Johnson sandwiched by an Albert Rusnák brace each on either side of halftime led the Claret-and-Cobalt to a resounding 3-0 triumph away at Nippert Stadium in the hosts’ maiden MLS campaign.
Only six members of the current 37-man RSL squad were at the club during the 2022 meeting — Zac MacMath, Justen Glad, Pablo Ruiz, Braian Ojeda, Bode Hidalgo, and Diego Luna all being the rareified sextuple, with all except Hidalgo seeing action on the day, whilst Ruiz and Glad represent the only surviving team members from the 2019 edition in a starting XI which also contained the likes of Kyle Beckerman, Damir Kreilach, Nedum Onuoha, and Joao Plata.
If the irregularity of history is anything to go by, RSL surely will hope the unevenness works in their favor when kickoff arrives on Saturday.
Get your tickets at www.RSL.com/tockets for what is sure to be yet another sellout
