FRISCO, Texas—Playing the second of three games in a six-day stretch, Real Salt Lake were admittedly stretched thin down against FC Dallas.
The result was a 2-0 loss at Toyota Stadium, which included zero shots on goal. But RSL head coach Jeff Cassar was not hanging his head on the loss.
“We had a stretch where we played six games in 18 days – it’s difficult,” Cassar said. “You have to manage the players, you have to manage the staff. I thought this group of players did an excellent job working for each other in difficult situations.”
With 10 changes to the starting XI from Wednesday's 2-1 victory over New York, the lack of chemistry showed early when FC Dallas midfielder Mauro Diaz caught RSL flat-footed on a quickly-taken free kick in the 18th minute. He was able to find fellow midfielders Kellyn Acosta and Michael Barrios slipping behind the RSL backline, and as a result notched the game's first goal.
“Diaz is a very intelligent player that recognized we weren’t really set up,” Cassar said. “We talk about it all the time: never let somebody play quick. And we were a little surprised. Typically that won’t happen, and shouldn’t happen.”
A bright spot in the midst of the loss was the MLS debut of Omar Holness – RSL’s first-round pick (No. 5 overall) in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.
Holness played the entire 90 minutes in his MLS debut, despite having one of the most tumultuous beginnings to a rookie season imaginable, including an on-the-field seizure while playing for the club’s USL side in March.
“It was just absolutely incredible,” Holness said of his debut. “A couple weeks ago, a month ago, I had a seizure as everyone knows. It was good to overcome that, build my way back into it, continuously improve, work my way from the bottom back up. Just incredible.”
Added Cassar: “I thought he was great. I really do. He’s had a tough year. We have very high hopes for him, and he did not let us down. He looked like he made a big step in becoming a man out there.”
Real Salt Lake have a quick turnaround, with a U.S. Open Cup match on Tuesday, followed by a Friday league match-up at home against D.C. United.
While Cassar acknowledged the difficulty of the stretch, he also stressed the importance of not focusing too much on a single game in the middle of it, but rather how they finish the stretch a week from now.
“I had the utmost confidence in this group of guys to get a result here, but we did show a little bit of naivete on a few plays. But they got an experience that they normally can’t get. FC Dallas at home is a very difficult place to play. I thought our men handled themselves extremely well.”
