Set pieces a bright spot for Real Salt Lake in home opening draw, except the finishing

Real Salt Lake forward Aaron Herrera (22) and New York defender Patrick Seagrist compete in Sandy on Saturday, March 7, 2020. RSL tied with New York 1-1.   | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Led by aerial dominance against New York, RSL outshot the Red Bulls 21-4 but found the back of the next just once

SANDY — Set pieces were a big talking point for Real Salt Lake this preseason after the club hired Matt Glaeser to be its set-piece specialist to improve efficiency in dead-ball situations.

It seemed to have an obvious effect in Saturday’s home opener against New York.

With Albert Rusnak delivering precision crosses throughout the game on corners and free kicks, and his teammates getting on the end of most of them against New York’s zonal marking, there were a ridiculously high number of scoring opportunities throughout the match.

“Overall you could easily say we had seven just golden opportunities, and (in) a normal game I think we put at least four of those away.” — Real Salt Lake forward Corey Baird.

Unfortunately for RSL it didn’t finish any of those pieces off, and needed a late equalizer on an open play cross from Aaron Herrera to salvage a point in its home opener.

After the match, RSL’s players and coaches pretty much all agreed the numerous opportunities weren’t an accident.

“We’ve been working on it. If anything I think Albert put some good balls in. I think, of the people in the box now, we have our plan of where we’re supposed to be and things we are supposed to do and I think it makes it very difficult for teams to defend. We have good size as well,” said defender Nedum Onuoha.

The aerial dominance was obvious early.

In the 11^th minute, Damir Kreilach headed a corner kick on frame that was narrowly tipped away for another corner kick. In the 30^th minute, Onuoha got to another Rusnak corner first, flicking it across the face of goal where it hit the post and then Kreilach’s close-up rebound shot was cleared off the line.

Six minutes later, Marcelo Silva’s free kick header was acrobatically cleared off the line inches before it crossed the goal line.

Those type of clear-cut chances were the norm against the Red Bulls, when most nights it’s tough to create one or two scoring chances in the air over 90 minutes.

“Matt did a good job of scouting New York and the last week he was talking a lot that there was going to be opportunity on how they zoned that we could have some dominance and we created the chances,” said RSL coach Freddy Juarez. “Some amazing saves from their goalkeeper, scrapping there and saving one off the line, but we were pretty effective. It also starts with the service of Albert and I thought his service was spot-on today in a difficult situation. Anytime it’s windy it complicates things, but the service was there and where we wanted to get the ball we got it there.”

With all those set piece opportunities, Real Salt Lake outshot New York 21-4.

Last season, RSL recorded more than 20 shots just once, and that came in a 2-1 loss to the L.A. Galaxy back on April 28 when it generated 22 shots.

If RSL continues to create those type of set-piece chances in future games, that bodes well for the rest of the season.

“Overall you could easily say we had seven just golden opportunities, and (in) a normal game I think we put at least four of those away,” said Corey Baird.

In the build-up to next Saturday’s game at Columbus, Glaeser will closely analyze the Crew’s tendencies on set pieces to try and find similar opportunities for success.

Columbus has started the season off strong with a 1-0-1 record, and the only goal it has conceded was on a penalty kick at Seattle on Saturday in a 1-1 draw.

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