Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Tonight Real Salt Lake and Tigres UANL met in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions League Quarterfinals at Rio Tinto Stadium. After the RSL lost the first leg, they are down 2-0 in the aggregate with a considerable hill to climb to keep their CCL hopes alive.
Sunny Obayan in his Rio Tinto Debut
The additions of Yura Movsisyan and Sunny Obayan helped to elevate the aggressive play of RSL in the first half as both players were instrumental in keeping the tempo high. Movsisyan looked very comfortable up top.
Real Salt Lake took the lead in the 22nd minute of play when Movsisyan sent the ball into a waiting Joao Plata who rolled the ball past Nahuel Guzman. RSL had plenty of other chances that looked strikingly similar with Movsisyan almost connecting with Plata on a number of occasions.
The first half ended with RSL on top 1-0. Real looked better on the field, but statistically Tigres led with almost 65% of possession and a stellar 86% passing accuracy. This didn’t help Tigres as Rimando had very little to do in the first 45 minutes.
Guzman pulls one out of the air.
RSL picked up where they left off as the second half started, with a continuation of the aggressive play that marked the first half. There were plenty of chances, but the best one came in the 74th minute, when Martinez was fouled in the corner of the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Javier lined up on Guzman, stutter stepped and kicked the ball directly at Guzman who bobbled the ball, and as Javier rushed in to follow-up was called for hard foul and given a yellow card.
Olave had a less than stellar night
The final straw for RSL came in the stoppage time when Gignac was able to beat Olave and draw Rimando out of the box and then easily tapped the ball into the net. This would give us the final score of 1-1 and gave Tigres the win on aggregate 3-1.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 1 0 1
Tigres UANL 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
RSL– Joao Plata – 22′
Tigres – Andre Gignac – 90′ + 1′
Misconduct Summary:
Tigres – Andre Gignac – 10′
RSL – Tony Beltran – 25′
Tigres – Isreal Jiminez – 43′
RSL – Javier Morales – 74′
Real Salt Lake
Lineups: Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran; Jamison Olave; Chris Wingert; Kyle Beckerman (C); Aaron Maund (Jordan Allen, 89′); Javier Morales; Sunny Obayan; Joao Plata; Juan Manuel Martinez; Yura Movsisyan (Olmes Garcia, 84′)
Substitutes Not Used: Justen Glad; Luke Mulholland; Jeff Attinella; John Stertzer
Tigres UANL
Tigres UANL: Nahuel Guzman; Isreal Jimenez; Juninho (C); Lucas Zelarayan (Damian Alvarez, 69′); Andre Gignac; Jose Torres (Manuel Viniegra, 76′); Guido Pizarro; Javier Aquino; Jose Rivas; Jurgen Damm (Huga Ayala, 83′); Jesus Duenas
Substitutes Not Used: Jorge Estrada; Hector Mancilla; Enrique Palos; Jonathan Espericueta
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake travels to the Citrus Bowl in the MLS Season opener to take on Orlando SC on March 6th.