Star striker Chicho Arango didn’t make the starting lineup.
Designated players Matt Crooks and Diogo Gonçalves cost their team chances during regulation and missed their pressure penalty kicks.
And by the time standout Diego Luna watched his penalty ricochet off the post, it was clear that Real Salt Lake’s dream season would end in a nightmare.
After finishing the regular season with a club record 59 points, RSL’s biggest stars melted down when it mattered most. The end result: a first-round playoff exit after losing back-to-back penalty shootouts to the underdog Minnesota United.
Crooks, Gonçalves and Luna each failed to convert as RSL lost a 1-1 contest 3-1 on penalties at Allianz Field on Saturday night.
“We’ve trained penalties ad nauseam,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “We walk the long walk in training. But there’s not 20,000 people sitting there and there’s not the pressure. There’s no way to mimic it. It’s really about the moment.”
The RSL coach expressed some disappointment with Major League Soccer’s playoff format, which goes straight to a shootout if teams are tied after regulation.
“It coming down to two penalty kicks, it just feels wrong,” Mastroeni.
Saturday‘s defeat marked the third straight year RSL’s playoff run has ended on penalties.
“Maybe if we had extra time, we find a goal and win the game,” goalkeeper Zac MacMath said. “But that’s the way the playoffs are set up and it hasn’t been good for us.”
Minnesota jumped out to a 1-0 lead after an unmarked Joseph Rosales beat MacMath to the far post for his first goal of the season.
Salt Lake midfielder Emeka Eneli leveled the game in the 75th minute.
But RSL will lament a number of failed opportunities that could have extended the club’s season.
“We should’ve had one before, we should’ve had one after,” Eneli said.
Salt Lake center back Brayan Vera, in the lineup again after serving a three-game suspension for spitting on a Minnesota United player during the regular season, thought he’d found a breakthrough in the 47th minute. Off a short corner, Vera fired a left-footed bullet into the back of the net and raced down the field in celebration. But the veteran Crooks was in an offside position and a review determined he had impeded the goalkeeper’s view.
Six minutes later, Minnesota came racing down the right side of the field, before working the ball to Rosales who tucked a shot inside the far post.
In the 69th minute, the veteran attacker Gonçalves had a clear opportunity for RSL but flubbed his shot without testing Minnesota goalie Dayne St. Clair.
And in the 86th minute, RSL defender Justen Glad thought he’d scored only to see that midfielder Maikel Chang had been ruled offside in the process.
“I think we played the way we wanted to play,” Mastroeni said. “We created some good opportunities on goal. But when we had two goals called back it just felt like no matter what we did it was never going to be enough on the day.”
Mastroeni said he started striker Anderson Julio over Arango to stretch Minnesota’s defense. He opted to bring Arango on in the 72nd minute when the game was tighter. The Colombian forward converted his penalty but, after tying a club record with 17 goals this season, Arango finished his season without a goal over his final 10 games.
