RSL not pretty, but still only MLS undefeated team

Rocky Mountain Cup

Rocky Mountain Cup

Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT  – Real Salt Lake remains the only undefeated Major League Soccer club with a win tonight against in the first installment of the annual Rocky Mountain Cup against regional rival the Colorado Rapids at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The game, dominated by strong defense, turned inside the final 20 minutes: Miscommunication in the back between Rapids goalkeeper Zac MacMath and defender Axel Sjoberg led to a looping clearance over MacMath’s head near the outside of the box, and RSL attacker Joao Plata ran onto the ball and slotted into an empty net.

 

Yura Movsisyan

Yura Movsisyan

RSL was not nearly as crisp in what we have come to expect with passing the ball, and Colorado played a very aggressive match, but Nick Rimando came up big several times during the match to preserve the shut out tonight.

When Javier Morales substituted for Luke Mullholland in the 64th minute and you could feel a definite change in the energy on pitch.  This energy translated translated soon after in the 72nd minute on Plata’s game winning goal.

Yura Movsisyan

Yura Movsisyan

Movsisyan had a number of great opportunities, the best came in the 83rd minute when he beat the defenders to go one-on-one with MacMath to put one in the net that was wrongly ruled offside by the AR.  This was compounded when the AR again missed MacMath shoving Movsisyan and resulted in Fischer giving Yura a yellow card for arguing.

 

 

Goals by Period               1    2    F
Real Salt Lake                    0    1    1
Colorado Rapids                 0    0    0

Scoring Summary:
RSL – Joao Plata – 72′

Misconduct Summary:
COL – Bobby Burling – 61′
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 83′
COL – Eric Miller – 90’+3′

Lineups:

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake (2-0-2): Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran; Justen Glad; Chris Wingert (Demar Phillips, 73′); Aaron Maund; Kyle Beckerman (C); Sunny (John Stertzer, 84′); Luke Mulholland (Javier Morales 64′); Juan Manuel Martinez; Joao Plata; Yura Movsisyan

Substitutes Not Used: Jeff Attinella; Jordan Allen; Jamison Olave; Devon Sandoval

Colorado Rapids

Colorado Rapids

Colorado Rapids (2-1-1): Zac MacMath; Eric Miller (Dominique Badji, 79′); Bobby Burling; Axel Sjoberg; Marc Burch; Sam Cronin (C); Michael Azira; Dillon Powers; Marco Pappa; Shkelzen Gashi; Luis Solgnac

Substitutes Not Used: Chris Froschauer; Conor Doyle; Zach Pfeffer; Dillon Serna

Next up for RSL

Real Salt Lake hosts the the Vancouver Whitecaps at Rio Tinto Stadium Apriil 16.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *