Javier Morales is playing out of his mind right now.
The veteran playmaker continued his hot start to the season on Sunday, scoring the lone goal of the match in impressive fashion as Real Salt Lake beat the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 at Avaya Stadium.
Morales is 35 years old, playing his eighth season for RSL and helping his team adjust to a brand new formation. He also happens to be leading the team in goals and assists this season, shepherding the Utah side to eight points from their first four matches.
Morales’ most recent piece of brilliance came off a free kick in the 44th minute of Sunday’s match.
RSL was awarded a set piece at the top of the 18-yard box after midfielder Luke Mulholland suffered a hard foul from San Jose’s Innocent, the Quakes’ Designated Player crashing into Mulholland in mid-air with both his leg and elbow outstretched, leaving an Easter egg-sized lump on the Englishman’s forehead.
Morales, who has either assisted or scored on all of RSL’s goals this season save for one, stood over the ball and prepared to strike.
Morales’ initial attempt was put straight at the wall, appearing to ricochet off a defender’s arm, but the rebound bounced forgivingly right in front of the Argentine and he took another crack at it.
This time he blasted his shot past everyone, the ball spinning away from San Jose goalkeeper David Bingham before it crashed off the bottom of the crossbar and into the net.
Morales couldn’t even appreciate how beautiful his game-winning strike was because the Quakes’ wall was blocking his view. But he did see it rebound off the bar and in.
“The ball was coming to me and it was coming to me in the perfect way to hit it like I did,” Morales recounted after the match. “My first thought was, “Penalty!” and then, “No, let me take it!”
Morales has scored nine goals in his 15 matches against the Quakes, but played coy when asked why that is.
“No, I’m happy to play against them,” Morales said. “I don’t know. It sometimes happens. I can score a lot of goals against [San Jose], but I didn’t score against other teams. It’s just statistics.”
It doesn’t show up on the stats sheet, but Morales made an equally influential play in the 60th minute, defending on the break practically by himself and making two huge sliding tackles to stem the threat of a Quakes counterattack.
“I didn’t know what happened,” Morales said after the match. ”Just everyone get back and come at the ball. I tried to make a tackle and then I made a tackle. I don’t really think much about it. It’s just, do it. It just happened and I tried to help the team.”
RSL head coach Jeff Cassar gave Morales credit for the goal, but singled out that specific defensive moment for its impact after the match.
“He’s playing at an extremely high level right now and I think his confidence is very high,” Cassar said. “We’re going to talk a lot about that goal, but I’m going to think about the defensive play that he made in the second half that was unbelievable.
“That’s what I hold dear to my heart. That’s the kind of thing that other people watch and see, and it rallies them.”
