Real Salt Lake by the numbers
May 27, 2009 by f4denz.
Well it is already Wednesday and time again to look at RSL’s numbers, the first number of note is that RSL got their first road point of 2009 with their 0-0 draw against the top team in the Eastern Conference, DC United. It was a match that saw RSL dominate the first half and play fairly even in the second half but without the ability to get our first road goal of 2009 we were limited to the draw. There was no movement in the standing of the Western Conference which still have Chivas USA as the top team in all MLS with 24 points from their 7-1-3 record.
Points
For RSL it is a convergence moment, in week 10 of the MLS season the team has 11 points, the same total as 05,06,08. That leaves us with the question of which direction will the team go from here? 2005 and 2007 we went on to horrible seasons, in 2005 we earned just 9 more points to end the season with 20, and in 2007 we ended just 7 above that with 27. However, given the talent and success of last year it is more likely that we will follow closely the 2008 season which saw us end with 40 points and earning a playoff spot on the last day of the season.
The team can step back in front of its past with a win this weekend as getting to 14 points would put them back in front of last season’s pace, it would also mark the first road win of the season and the first time RSL would have a road win before the month of June. In order to get a win RSL will need to get their first road goal of the 2009 season.
Goals Scored
RSL has fallen behind the 2006 and 2008 seasons, our best two seasons for goals scored with 45 and 40 respectively. It been 3 weeks without a goal and for a team with 14 goals in their first 7 matches that is a hard pill to swallow, the drought on the road has reached 450 scoreless minutes.
Goals Against
This is the one area where RSL’s 2009 season is still in front of its past seasons and with the defense playing up to their 2008 form last week at United, this could be the start of a great streak like RSL’s defense had at this time last year. From the 9th week to the 19th week RSL allowed only 4 goals to be scored against them, including 6 clean sheets, if they can repeat that run you will see them jump right back into the top of the Western Conference standing.
As of now Real would miss the playoffs, but it was during that middle portion of the 2008 season that RSL scored 19 points from the 10 matches and it was the most productive portion of the RSL season, can we repeat that type of success? A win at San Jose would be a very good way to get momentum back on our side.
OFF MY SOAPBOX