When Chicho Arango leaped to head a ball late last month, it ended with his hands covered in blood and a gash on his forehead that would require more than 15 stitches to close.
Two weeks later, with the Real Salt Lake star in front of goal and the ball again flying through the air, Arango wasn’t thinking about any of that — perhaps to his wife’s chagrin.
“My wife gets more worried than I do,” Arango said through a translator after helping beat Atlanta United 5-2 last weekend. “But my instinct is just to go for the ball when I see it.”
On Saturday, the striker’s instinct gave Arango his 17th goal of the season, tying RSL’s all-time single-season record.
“Very happy and very proud,” Arango said of matching the mark Alvaro Saborio set in 2012. “I had set a goal to break that record, so I’m just happy to be able to do that.”
With three road games in the next seven days — starting Saturday night in Portland — the striker will have plenty of opportunity to stand alone atop the club’s record book.
RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni expects that to happen sooner rather than later.
“He’s a killer in front of goal,” the coach said.
With his team already up a goal in the 68th minute last Saturday, Arango did what he does best.
“We practice that a lot. Before [midfielder Diego] Luna took the corner, I had told him that I was going to be at the back post, so if he could try to play it in there,” Arango explained. “But I also told [left back] Alex Katranis and [midfielder Nelson] Palacio to kind of block out the defenders. Without them blocking out different areas, I wouldn’t have been able to be open.”
Arango did the rest, beating his defender to the ball and heading it into the netting at the far post.
It was Arango’s first goal since scoring a hat trick against Austin on June 1.
“There’s always these runs of games where he’s just not going to score every game and I think he’s put a lot of pressure on himself these last few games to find that goal,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “… Now I think he can breathe and the pressure is lessened. Now he can play more free.”
Arango has been a goal-scoring threat at every stop in his career, but the 29-year-old has been able to take another step as RSL’s leader.
“My previous teams have supported me; they’ve all supported me in different ways to be able to become the player I am now,” he said. “But, of course, it’s a little different here. Having players like Luna and [Andres] Gomez around me has helped me grow, and hopefully I’m able to keep it up, to keep up the numbers.”
Mastroeni said that has a trickle-down effect.
“I’m just super excited for him and I know what that does for the rest of the group as well,” the coach said. “You see it in all sports. When the big guy’s putting balls in the back of the net, everyone else feels like they’re 2 inches taller than they really are.”
Perhaps that can help Arango and RSL to score a few more headers.
“It did hurt a little bit when I went for the goal,” the striker admitted, “But it’s just instinct to go for it.”