Real Salt Lake made its adjustments

Teams often take on a more conservative approach on the road, and that's most definitely been the case for Real Salt Lake's first two opponents at Rio Tinto Stadium. Conversely, the players have been forced to adjust tactically on the fly and they've been efficient with a pair of victories

In Saturday's 2-1 win over D.C. United, the visitors created a lot of problems for RSL with how deep its three defenders were playing.

RSL creates a good chunk of its scoring opportunities by knocking the ball into space behind the defense and allowing speedy forwards Robbie Findley and Yura Movsisyan to run onto the ball. From there they can survey their options, and it's exactly that type of buildup that enabled Findley to score the third goal on his way to the franchise's first hat trick against Columbus two weeks ago.

That just wasn't an option against D.C. United. The visitors dropped so far back, Findley said he and Movsisyan had no choice but to tweak the game plan and play underneath the defenders.

"The game plan had to change for us a bit and I think we adjusted well," said Findley.

RSL ebbed and flowed with the adjustment, playing well at times and not so well at other times.

"It's a little uglier than we'd like it to be because it's not as open so we're not really knocking the ball around like we'd like, but that's the way it goes," said RSL defender Chris Wingert. "Good teams find a way to win, and that's not always the case with this team last year."

Up until the 80th minute, though, it looked as if the victory might elude RSL. It might've had fatigue not set in for D.C. United in the final quarter hour. Even though its players dropped further and further back with each passing minute seemingly content to play for the draw, there wasn't as much bounce to their step down the stretch and RSL capitalized.

The buildup to the winning goal came right up the middle of the field, and it was Findley playing underneath D.C. United's defense at the top of the box who ultimately set up the Javier Morales' winning goal.

As long as RSL continues to dominate at Rio Tinto Stadium it will likely continue to see conservative game plans from opponents. How well it deals with those situations will be the difference to wins or ties at home.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com