Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

The return of Luna

I don’t know what Diego Luna’s knee injury entailed, but I was worried for a minute there that he would be heavily protected until the World Cup. Instead, he came on as a substitute and showed what exactly RSL has been missing. If we’re being honest, I’ve been a bit worried about how Luna and Morgan Guilavogui will play together, and in the 83rd minute, we got our first look at how they might just be able to form a nice combination. We saw Luna weaving through players and bouncing passes off Guilavogui, and it just looked — I don’t know — almost like they’d been training together for more than just a week or so. It played into Guilavogui’s deeper-lying strengths, and it played into Luna’s excellent movement. Color me excited.

Always in RSL’s control

Despite RSL not being in a winning position until the 88th minute, they largely controlled the match from an attacking perspective. Austin FC had a couple good opportunities saved by Rafa Cabral, and of course they have their opening goal to consider, but they simply weren’t getting into RSL’s defensive third with any frequency. On the other hand, RSL was consistently in the final third, and the pressure eventually helped lead to the game-winning goal from Stijn Spierings.

This chart is a good illustration.

Even after RSL went up 2-1, the match didn’t turn into a slog in Austin’s favor — it more turned into RSL foray forward after RSL foray forward, with Olatunji, Guilavogui, Luna and Gozo all contributing to an attacking outlay. Weirdly, that became a series of offside calls and lost balls — absolutely not ideal, but it worked out well enough that I won’t complain too heartily. Still, better opposition may have capitalized on the profligacy.

Midfield selection

Griffin Dillon had a quiet match in the best of ways. He never looked particularly worried in the midfield, and that calm attitude made for a really nice performance in his first-ever MLS start. I’ve been skeptical, but I think that was a solid enough performance that I’m now at least somewhat optimistic. Oddly, though, I think his most impactful move was getting injured, because otherwise, I don’t think Stijn Spierings actually emerges from the bench.

Noel Caliskan had a very effective match, and he can feel very good about his performance. He was strong in possession, smart defensively, and generally a steadying presence. It’s a huge start to the year for the 25-year-old, who looks to have won a starting position. He was always favorite for it — his qualities match well with what Pablo Mastroeni’s trying to do, especially around his work rate — but he’s proving he deserves to keep his spot when Spierings is ready to start.

Stijn Spierings’ goal isn’t reflective necessarily of his midfield performance, and he came into a very specific game state — RSL and Austin knotted at 1-1, Austin happy to take a point, and RSL desperate to give the fans something more exciting. It’s an excellent shot, just don’t read too much into how he’ll play as a result of that. I love that dipping, bouncing shot, though. We’ve seen so many attempts at rockets from deep; it’s just

Pablo Ruiz hasn’t touched the pitch since Pablo Mastroeni criticized him in a media appearance. (I think it was a press conference, but I’ve forgotten, and I just had the quote transcribed for the podcast. My bad.) Unless there’s a pretty significant injury crisis, it’s hard to see him playing significant minutes again for this club.

"That's been a five-year journey, but he's so instinctive that it's at times difficult to change those behaviors because he's so instinctive, ‘I wanna go win the ball.’ He doesn't realize there are consequences for the team if you don't."

Two more things

• My concerns about relying on Zavier Gozo in right-back-like roles hasn’t changed — see the 62nd minute when he is forced into a deep position and just can’t get his positioning quite right. He’s a brilliant attacker, but we need players to be able to shift out to cover wide spots in the box, not force Gozo into more defensive stances. It was only a minute later that Philip Quinton, playing at wide center back on the right, popped up in the attacking third. I dunno, it’s a weird mismatch going on there. Still, when Gozo is defending in a more natural right wing back position, he’s got a good tendency to try to nick the ball back. I think that part still makes a good deal of sense, and probably more sense than I initially gave credit.
• I’m now fully torn on Victor Olatunji and Sergi Solans starting. I think Solans is probably a stronger back-to-goal player, which played well with Gozo, Guilavogui and Hezarkhani, with the two youngsters proving a bit of a task for Austin. With Luna in the mix, that calculus changes.