Real Salt Lake loses to Vancouver in 4-1 beating

RSL dropped all three points in its first game without Freddy Juarez as the Vancouver Whitecaps absolutely steamrolled them with a 4-1 victory. An own goal followed by scores from Brian White, Ryan Gauld, and Florian Jungwirth sealed the win for the home side. Anderson Julio scored one late in the game but it was too little too late.

RSL was without Damir Kreilach, David Ochoa, Zac MacMath, Aaron Herrera, Andrew Brody, and Bobby Wood so interim coach Pablo Mastroeni had to plug some holes. Noah Powder and Ashtone Morgan started in the right and left back spots, respectively, while Nick Besler and Pablo Ruiz started as holding mids.

Vancouver opened the scoring in the first half off a corner kick sent in toward the front of the goal. The ball sailed over heads and bounced off of Marcelo Silva, catching Andrew Putna off guard. It would go down as an own goal, putting the home side up 1-0.

Noah Powder nearly pulled one back less than 10 minutes later off of a beautiful shot from about 40 yards out. ‘Keeper Maxime Crepeau made a great diving save to keep the ball out of the net, just barely keeping RSL off the board.

The Whitecaps doubled their lead just after the halftime break when Cristian Dajome sent a cross in from the far right side followed by a gaffe from Andrew Putna. Putna parried it up and out of reach while Brian White lunged in and tapped the loose ball into the back of the net, increasing their lead to 2-0.

Roughly another 10 minutes later saw Vancouver’s third goal as they looked to turn the game into a rout with an easy header from Ryan Gauld off a perfect cross from the right side. Gauld found himself completely unmarked and had absolutely no trouble heading it in past Putna to make it 3-0.

Gauld got an assist five minutes later in the 69th minute when he sent a corner kick in from the far right side. It found Florian Jungwirth, who quickly rose up a and headed it in to the far post just past Putna, turning the scoreline into somewhat of a rout at 4-0 with 20 minutes left to play.

RSL actually pulled one back in the 90th minute, but it would only serve as a consolation goal. Jony Menendez sent a cross in from the left side that was deflected by a Whitecaps defender. The ball hit the crossbar and went back into play where Anderson Julio was able to tap it in, his fifth goal of the season.