Previewing Houston Dynamo at Real Salt Lake with Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

(image via Real Salt Lake)

The Houston Dynamo will look to stay hot as they head to Utah for a midweek match up. We talked to our friend Matt Montgomery from Wasatch Soccer Sentinel to get some insight on Real Salt Lake ahead of tonight’s match.

Bayou City Soccer (BCS): RSL came out of the gates fast this season but have lost three of their last four. What has changed recently that has seen results go poorly?

Wasatch Soccer Sentinel (WSS): There are a few factors. First, I think RSL had a really strong start, and that's something Pablo Mastroeni — I think — prioritizes, for better or worse. He loves to have his team raring to go when the season kicks off, and that often pays dividends. However, when the time between matches gets a bit tighter, as is prone to happen in a World Cup year in this schedule, his approach can be a little more vulnerable.

Two of RSL's three losses (prior to Saturday) came on short rest — four days between games. I'm inclined to think it's not an exhaustion problem but a rotation problem: I've long hypothesized that he over-rotates and over-plans short-rest starters and subs, and that rarely plays out the way he'd hope. The most recent loss seems pretty much up to Justen Glad being out injured. He's still listed as Questionable in the most recent injury report, so that might be a problem with which we're faced again.

BCS: Diego Luna is fighting to make the US World Cup roster and looks to be in good form since he returned from injury. How important is Luna to what Salt Lake does offensively and as a team?

WSS: Luna's an interesting player. He's somebody we've sort of tactically built around in the way our attack is constructed. We really prioritize giving him the space and time to just sort of make things work in his own particular way, and it's worked. That doesn't answer any questions defensively, and I think that's often put the team in a difficult position. We've very much pushed toward a "score more than the opposition" team instead of what we've been more recently (a "don't concede and try to score a single goal" team, and I think this year is a lot more fun), and Luna is crucial in any success. But the results this year are somewhat mixed.

Luna isn't a metronome player — he's a wild card. That's what we've built around. We have a bunch of unpredictable players in the attack, and sometimes when they're on, they're really on. When things aren't working, often because the opposition sits a bit deeper (not in a park-the-bus way, but in a line-of-confrontation way), it can really stymie the attack.

BCS: RSL has some other players that have impressed this season, including youngsters Zavier Gozo and Sergi Solans. What can you tell us about this RSL roster and the way they like to play under Pablo Mastroeni?

WSS: Like I was saying above, RSL has prioritized unpredictable attacking movements. Morgan Guilavogui is a surprisingly effective figure, not because he's a great goalscorer but because he is connective tissue — it's almost like he's the connective tissue we wanted from Diego Luna, but I think it's actually enabled Luna to succeed as a role player and not the person taking the team on his back.

Zavier Gozo's impact can't be understated in all this. As a 'right wing back', mostly by name, he's making long, aggressive sprints, both with the ball and without. When he's bombing up the right side, he's getting into great positions, stretching defenders, and often beating them to the ball. He's so quick, but he's also really smart with his runs.

Sergi Solans is an interesting figure, too. He came out of the college system after having been drafted last year. I was entirely skeptical because he took another year at college, and I just generally don't think those skills translate. I think I was wrong about that, at least with his early returns. He's as natural a goalscorer as I've seen at the side for a long time, and he's really good with his head. I like the player a lot.

BCS: How has RSL done defensively this season in what looks to be a back five that they have been playing?

WSS: It's funny. It's a back five on paper, but Zavier Gozo defends like a normal winger would in a good ol' 4-4-2, tracking back at times and bombing forward at others, and Juanma Sanabria defends like a modern wing back. In a sense, I think RSL is playing an asymmetric 4-4-2 more than they're playing a back three or five, but the club has really prioritized calling it a back three. Jason Kreis (president of soccer stuff, or something to that effect) talked about how the team would be defending in the same shape with which it attacked. I think there's some truth to that, but it's all made me think it's still a Pablo Mastroeni formation: he lets the players go out and attack the way they see fit. It often works. When it doesn't, it looks pretty bad, as we saw on Saturday.

BCS: Does RSL have any injury concerns coming into this match and what do you expect to see for a midweek lineup in this busy time of the season?

WSS: Center back's a concern — Justen Glad, Juan Jose Arias and Lukas Engel are all out, and it puts the team in a position where two of the three center backs are backup options, and the other is DeAndre Yedlin, who you'll of course know more as a right back. It gets messy.

I'd expect something a bit like this, rendered as a 3-4-3:

Cabral; Yedlin, Quinton, Junqua; Gozo, Caliskan, Spierings, Sanabria; Luna, Guilavogui, Solans

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We want to thank Matt for his time and wish our friends in Salt Lake City the best of luck tonight.