America First Field, Sandy, UT – It was the Chicho show tonight at America First Field with a Hat Trick to list RSL to a 5-1 victory over Austin FC. Chico and Anderson Julio both offered a brace in the first half and Chico completed his Hat Trick with Penalty shot midway through the second half.
This is Chicho’s second Hat Trick of the season and puts his season total to 16 goals. The record for most goals is held by Alvaro Sabario with 17 goals with Chicho in position to shatter that stat.
The match started off with a real stunner when Chicho took a shot from behind the midfield line over the head of keeper Brad Stuver and right into the back of the net in the 16th minute. The pressure was on for the duration and Anderson Julio added the lead first in the 24th minute and followed that up with his second goal in the 31st minute. In the waning minutes of first half stoppage Chicho punched in a goal but he was called offsides, this was when VAR got involved and after review Chicho was awarded the goal in the 45’+5′ mark. It could have easily been 6-0 in the first half the way the Claret and Cobalt were playing.
After the break RSL was still on fire but Austin was able to keep up and in the 71st minute it looked like they were able to pull one back, but VAR showed up again and not only was the goal waved off, but RSL was awarded a Penalty kick for a handball that had happened at the other end of the field and Chicho easily beat the keeper and earned his Hat Trick. Austin was finally able to find some positive in second half stoppage time when they were awarded a penalty and Alex Ring beat Zac MacMath to deny him the clean sheet.
RSL gets some much needed time of for the next two weeks before they before another marathon 3 matches in 8 days with trips to Montreal then Sporting Kansas City before returning home to take on the LA Galaxy
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 4 1 5
Austin FC 0 1 1
Scoring Summary
RSL – Chicho – 16′
RSL – Anderson Julio – 24′
RSL – Anderson Julio – 31′
RSL – Chicho – 45+5′
RSL – Chicho – 71′ (PK)
AUS – Alex Ring – 90’+2′ (PK)
Misconduct Summary
AUS – Dani Pereira – 45’+1′ – unsporting behavior
AUS – Alex Ring – 54′ – unsporting behavior
AUS – Guilherme Brio – 82′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Nelson Palacio – 83′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Brayan Vera – 84′ – unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: Alexis Da Silva
Assistant Referee: Jeremy Hanson
Assistant Referee: Eric Weisbrod
4th Official: Matthew Thompson
Video Assistant Referee: Kevin Stott
AVAR: Craig Lowry
Lineups
Real Salt Lake: Zac MacMath; Brayan Vera; Alexandros Katanis (; Justen Glad; Andrew Brody; Braian Oveido; Emeka Eneli (Nelson Palacio, 47′); Diego Luna; Chicho (C) (Zavier Gozo, 78′); Andrew Gomez (Fidel Barajas, 47′); Anderson Julio (Bode Hidalgo, 63′)
Substitutes Not Used: Gavin Beavers; Brain Ojeda; Bode Hidalgo; Philip Quinton; Bertin Jacquesson
Coach: Pablo Mastroeni
Austin FC: Brad Stuver; Jon Gallagher (Hector Jimenez, 56′); Julio Cascante (Brendan Hines-Ike, 47′); Leo Vaisanen; Guilherme Biro; Jhojan Valencia; Alex Ring (C); Jader Obrian (CJ Fodrey, 82′); Dani Pereira; Zan Kolmanic (Owen Wolff, 47′); Diego Rubio (Gyasi Zardes, 79′)
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Hedges; Matt Bersano; Stefan Cleveland
Coach: Josh Wolff