Ahead of tonight's match at rivals Real Salt Lake, SportingKC.com caught up with RSL broadcaster and Sirius XM FC host Brian Dunseth to preview #RSLvSKC. Live coverage of tonight's match (9 p.m. CT) is available on FOX Sports KC+, FOX Sports GO, Sports Radio 810 WHB, and La Grande 1340 AM. Check out MatchDay Central for complete online coverage.
What was the key to Real Salt Lake's two impressive road wins in their last two league matches (6-2 at LA Galaxy, 4-1 at Portland timbers)?
The easiest explanation is that this is a team that's healthy.
This is a team that's missed over 150 games so far because of international duty, suspensions, and injuries. It's just been a tough year for them and with such a difficult schedule on the front side, specifically in May and June, this team just never found any consistency. They've been relying on first and second round draft picks from this year that weren't specifically slated to see the light of day for a while. They were slated to see games and minutes with Real Monarchs.
The big thing obviously was losing four guys to the U-20 World Cup who at the time were playing significant roles. Albert Rusnak being called into the Slovakia National Team for World Cup Qualifiers as well as the Euro U-21 tournament. Nick Rimando and Jefferson Savarino missing games because of national team duty. And then crazy suspensions whether it was Sunny, Luke Mullholland, or Kyle Beckerman and not being able to find any consistency on the backside of Jeff Cassar being fired and Mike Petke being hired.
There's also been the almost season ending injury for Chad Barrett, knee surgery for David Horst, Jordan Allen out for the year, Omar Holness out for the year, and Ricardo Velazo is out for the year. And yet I'm talking about how healthy the team is because that's how bad it's been so far this year.
What's been Real Salt Lake's form at Rio Tinto Stadium this season?
It's been a struggle at home. I hate to repeat myself but a lot of the struggles really come back to pure and simple fact of having so many injuries. The good news is I think this team is trying to look at these last two weeks as they've put everything behind them and gone into two tough venues and walked away with six points. It's something they're looking to build upon.
Early in the season, they had a couple of one off wins and felt confident about it but they've been nowhere as consistent as they want to be. The major thing in this league is if you're dominant home and take maximum points, you almost assured yourself a spot in the playoffs.
Coming off the midweek match at Portland, do you expect much change in the Starting XI?
I think they're going to put the strongest possible lineup that they can. When you're in a good run of form, you're excited to get back on the field. One of the talking points for Mike Petke, coming off that win on at LA on July 4th, was this was maybe the worst time to take a break because they wanted to get back on the field and play and build on that performance. They did that against Manchester United for 32 minutes and they absolutely did that against Portland on Wednesday. Right now even though it's a short turnaround and you're coming off playing on turf, Portland to Salt Lake is only an hour and twenty minute flight so you don't have to worry about that.
If there were three changes to make looking at this lineup, I would say Marcelo Silva will start alongside Justen Glad, Luke Mulholland in for the suspended Kyle Beckerman alongside Sunny, and the only other change I could see would be Brooks Lennon coming in with fresh legs in a wide spot. That could be for Savarino, Rusnak, or Plata. The good news is Mike Petke finally has some tough decisions for what his Starting XI looks like.
Finally, what are you going to be watching for from tonight's match?
For me, it's always about the midfield, They're two teams that play a similar style although both coaches will say when you look at the shape they're just a little bit different in how they go about their business.
For Real Salt Lake specifically, it's the short recovery time and the partnership of Glad and Silva if they are the two starting centerbacks and how quickly can they acclimate to one another. And most importantly for Real Salt Lake, can they continue to build on what they've had over the last three matches. They've been incredibly dynamic. The only outlier in this equation is what's the role for Yura Movsisyan. There's been a lot of talk about his role in the team and a lot of whispers he could be on his way out. If he's available, that's another asset for Mike Petke off the bench.
