Editor's note: This is the first of what we hope will become a regular feature in which we rewatch the previous game and give tactical notes. This first installment is free to all members, but will likely go behind a paywall in future installments.
When announcer Danny Higginbotham describes your mid-game defending as "Lackadaisical," that is certainly worrying. "I'm not saying they're underestimating this young RSL team," the seasoned English defender of yesteryear quickly added, perhaps sensing the imminent wrath of Rave Green supporters. But c'mon Danny. You're British. We know when you say that you definitely mean the opposite.
Going into this game, the Seattle Sounders should have been very prepared for the team they were about to face. These coaches have squared off for over a decade now. The narrative ahead of the game had Diego Luna's entry on the injury report as Sounders' best chance in ages to break the long-standing curse of that infernal Hellmouth of a field. The seeds of motivation were clearly there to put in a shift. But Danny was right. The traveling team didn't seem fully prepared for the dynamics at play in Sandy's hostile environs.
Per Futi's Team Tendency model, among Major League Soccer teams in 2025 Real Salt Lake had one of the strongest "Direct Progression" tendencies in not just the West but the entirety of the league. Last month, I talked about how MLS has been drifting away from direct progression through midfield these last few seasons. Pablo Mastroeni has incidentally been one of the few to resist this pull toward patience. And that's exactly how it played out Saturday. New season, same Pablo.
American Soccer Analysis' "Average Vertical Passing Distance" measure gives us a sense of just how direct Salt Lake's approach was in this game: their average 7.51 yards of vertical distance eclipsed all but two of their games in 2025. For comparison, the most direct team in MLS, the Philadelphia Union, had a 7.65 yards of average vertical passing distance last year. Even by their own prior standard, RSL was pushing the envelope in this game. They were absolutely going for it.
The home team's strong "Central Attacking" tendency as measured by futi is very apparent when plotting American Soccer Analysis' "Goals Added" model (aka "g+") onto a field map. g+ measures "a player’s total on-ball contribution in attack and defense" and breaking out where these high-value actions occurred on a field heatmap does a good job of illustrating this team's areas of attacking emphasis.
