Real Salt Lake have gone nearly four months without a victory in MLS regular-season play. Their next opportunity comes against New York City FC in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday evening.
RSL (8-10-5, 29 points) erased a 1-0 deficit against the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday, but Mateusz Bogusz scored in the 87th minute to send the Dynamo to a 2-1 win and Salt Lake to 0-6-4 in its last 10 league matches.
Despite RSL’s slump leaving them a point out of a playoff spot with 11 games remaining, head coach Pablo Mastroeni’s belief that his team will make the postseason hasn’t wavered.
“A lot of the onus is on us (coaches) to make sure that we’re representing the type of behavior, the type of character, the type of positivity, so that the messages are still sent with belief, as they always are, but especially in these moments where we’re not getting the results,” Mastroeni told KSL Sports Zone on Friday.
While not to the same extent as RSL, NYCFC (7-9-8, 29 points) have faced struggles of their own: they are 0-3-4 in their last seven league outings.
New York City suffered a heartbreaking home defeat on Wednesday, as Daniel Gazdag’s goal in the third minute of second-half stoppage time sent the New England Revolution to a 2-1 win.
“We felt at 1-1, it looked like we were going to go for it and maybe find ourselves on the right side of the game,” NYCFC assistant coach Mehdi Ballouchy said after the match. “It’s a quick turnaround, and we have to try to move on as quickly as possible and look for the next one.”
NYCFC’s Nicolas Fernandez, tied with D.C. United’s Tai Baribo and the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Brian White for third in MLS with 14 goals, has a goal and three assists in his last five league matches. Sergi Solans leads RSL with nine goals.
Ballouchy served as acting head coach for New York City on Wednesday as Pascal Jansen was in Europe dealing with a personal matter. Jansen will return to the technical area on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
