Real Salt Lake: Dominating midfielders a bright spot

For 90 minutes, Real Salt Lake dominated the run of play in its 1-1 tie with the Chicago Fire.

If not for one brief slip-up in the 91st minute on a clearance at the defensive end, a victory would have been in the books. But notwithstanding the one goal, there were several positive things to take from the season opener.

One of the brightest things the team can build on was the play in the midfield.

Real uses a 4-4-2 formation, but it is not used in the typical fashion. With basically four central midfielders manning the positions, the team pinches those four to the middle and has the outside backs run the sidelines and push forward. It almost makes it a 3-5-2 formation, with the backs alternating in the midfield. Against Chicago it gave RSL just what it wanted: more possession and scoring chances than the other team.

"I thought it was very good," said coach Jason Kreis of his midfield play. "You have to rely on possession. You have to rely on those four central midfielders really being the engine for your team and keeping the ball. I thought it was pretty effective, but we can be a little better at getting our wide players into space."

The statistics back up how dominating the possession was. Real outshot Chicago 17-8, with eight being on target for RSL compared to only two for the Fire. Quality chances were about 8-1.

"We had all the possession today. We had all the shots," said starting midfielder Andy Williams. "I thought that we outplayed them in the middle."

His running mates agreed.

"I think we had some pretty good spells in there. I thought our midfield definitely controlled the game for quite a few portions," said starter Carey Talley. "It is something we can build on. The field is tough for both teams. The ball is bouncing all over the place, so it is difficult to keep possession. But I thought we did a good job at keeping control of the ball."

The starting four of Williams, Talley, Javier Morales and Kyle Beckerman smoothly and swiftly flowed in and out of positions. On one run, Williams would go up the right side. On the next, he was attacking straight up the middle. The versatility of the unit helped keep the pressure on. Even when Williams was subbed in the 69th minute by Dema Kovalenko, they didn't miss a beat. In fact, it was Kovalenko's cross in the 71st minute that resulted in the RSL goal.

Although there was not a satisfied feeling in the locker room following the tie, there was still the feeling that this tactic will succeed.

"At times we looked really well and dominated the midfield," said Beckerman. "I think it is working for us and we just need to keep working on it and fine-tuning things."

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