SANDY, Utah — These things happen. They just do. Alex Ring knows. A night that began with the Austin FC captain sending his team to the top of the standings ended putting his arm around the shoulder of an apoplectic Dani Pereira.
Put in a tough spot just after halftime, Pereira put his hand on the beck of Bobby Wood and was deemed to have denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.
Red card. Equalizer. Winner. Three points evaporated in the Utah desert, just like that.
"I've been in the same situation that Dani is in," Ring said. "So I was just building him up. He's a young kid. You learn with experience and it also happens to experienced players. He'll take it on the chin and he'll come back stronger."
As guilty as Pereira might have looked on his walk to the bus, his teammates didn't see it that way. They shouldered the 2-1 loss together just like they have the successes of a still-young season. Verde could've climbed to the top of the mountain with a win, but it still sits high in third place heading to face conference-leading Los Angeles FC on Wednesday.
"We're a family, I'm sure you've noticed that throughout this year," right back Héctor Jiménez said. "It comes down to the whole team, not just one play. The fight is there. We didn't give up even though we were down a man and down a goal. We still created some decent chances."
Even prior to the red card, cracks were starting to form in Austin's 1-0 lead. Real Salt Lake had Verde penned in its own end for a several-minute stretch before halftime as goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell made two of his five saves.
"We bent but we didn't break there," Jiménez said. "Sometimes when you go on the road, you go through tough spells like that where you just kind of have to buckle up and defend. I thought we did well there at the end of the half."
Austin barely had time to implement necessary adjustments before Pereira was left scrambling as the last man back following a corner kick. Center backs Julio Cascante and Ruben Gabrielsen were pushed forward as targets for the set piece, and RSL launched its attack before they could get back in position.
"I've got to go watch it, it's tough," Tarbell said. "I know Pepe (Pereira) is not trying to foul, but why do we have our six dealing with a center forward on the ball? I don't know how we got in that spot, but we shouldn't be in that position."
Wolff said he felt multiple players had chances to stop the play before it got to that point, either by sending the ball out of bounds or by retreating quicker. Jiménez raised his hand as one of those who missed an assignment.
What Austin FC didn't do was protest the decision made by head referee Lukasz Szpala, a telling sign after Wolff and Ring have both been animated over refereeing decisions in the past.
On this occasion, they chalked it up to a learning lesson — one they hope won't show up again anytime soon.
"You can see small things decide games and I hope we learn from this," Ring said.
