Two winners, two losers from RSL’s 4-1 win over Phoenix Rising FC

Following a good showing from RSL in a 4-1 win against USL Championship side Phoenix Rising FC, let’s take a look at two players that had great nights and two players who will hope to move forward and show a little better in RSL’s next outing.

Winner: Damir Kreilach

Kreilach seemed to be just about everywhere throughout his 77 minutes on the pitch for RSL tonight. Not only did he score two goals, but he also harassed the Phoenix players constantly while on defense and was pivotal in multiple promising looking attacks going forward. If we had to pick a man of the match, Kreilach would certainly be it. It appeared that Kreilach was filling the number 10 role in this preseason lineup, and did so admirably.

Loser: Marcelo Silva

While Silva did not have a terrible night tonight, he definitely seemed a little bit off of his game. He seemed caught off guard on the turnover that led to the Rising’s only goal, and had multiple times where he lost challenges that he typically wins. In the end it wasn’t an awful performance from Silva, just not quite the same type of performance we are used to typically seeing from him.

Winner: Justen Glad

As was talked about last week, after a shaky first preseason outing, Justen has stepped up his game and performed very well. Tonight against Phoenix Rising FC, Justen had a solid game anchoring the defense. He appeared to be in the right place at the right time consistently throughout the night, putting out the few fires of promising attack that the Rising were able to conjure. If Justen continues to play as he has, I would expect to see him in RSL’s starting lineup on opening day.

Loser: Joao Plata

This is going out on a limb a little bit, but based upon tonight’s lineup, it looks as if Plata has possibly lost his starting position to one of either Bofo Saucedo or Corey Baird, who both played 77 minutes tonight compared to Plata’s 13 minutes. The big concern to me with this is that even when Plata came on, he appeared to have some difficulty creating even decent movement against an already tired Phoenix team. Maybe I’m reading into things too much or too quickly, but off the cuff, this was the feeling I got while watching this preseason matchup.

What did you think about tonight’s preseason matchup? Who did you think showed well or displayed a need for improvement? Let us know in the comments!