Sportsnaut
The Seattle Sounders will hit the road to face Real Salt Lake looking to rectify a history of undesirable results in games played at Sandy, Utah.
Seattle is winless in its last 11 regular-season road games against Real Salt Lake dating back to 2012, with RSL earning two ties and nine victories in that span. Expect the Sounders to be highly motivated after Salt Lake knocked them out of the first round of last season’s MLS Cup playoffs on penalty kicks without creating a single shot during regulation and extra time.
“Our club has not had a great record at RSL, not at all,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said. “We’ll go down there, play for a win and try to come out with something.”
The match will be the first game back in Utah for midfielder Albert Rusnak, who joined the Sounders in the offseason. Rusnak spent five years with RSL on a designated player contract. He made 140 appearances (135 starts) over five seasons for RSL, scoring 41 goals and dishing 39 assists.
Seattle (0-1-0, 0 points) will likely push the tempo following a season-opening 1-0 loss to Nashville. For the Sounders, it’s a high risk-versus-reward scenario they will try to perfect while not putting their defense in vulnerable positions.
“It’s a fine line,” Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “You want to create tempo but you want to create it in a smart way.”
Salt Lake (0-0-1, 1 point) also needs to figure out a few things on offense after coming away with a scoreless draw against Houston in its opener. RSL did not create many chances in its opener, even after adding new pieces in the offseason designed to bolster its attack.
Defense was on point for RSL against the Dynamo. Goalkeeper Zac MacMath came up with two saves.
“Houston is a physical place to play, so I couldn’t be more proud of the effort, the commitment,” RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “There were some fine plays that created some opportunities that we thought we might get one there, but we’re really satisfied with the performance.”
–Field Level Media
