Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO – Real Salt Lake traveled to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for the second leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup where they fell to the Colorado Rapids. Jermaine Jones’ provided the lone goal of the night to lead Colorado to a 1-0 victory and continued the fantastic season for the Rapids.
RSL came into the match tied on points with both Colorado and Dallas, the loss was just the second of the season for Real, and the first on the 6 week road trip. Coach Cassar again put the loss on the shoulders of poor preparation, and too many turnovers, particularly the turnover that led to Jones’ goal.
“We turned the ball over in core areas which led to us retreating back to the goal. You never want that,” Cassar said. “With that being said, I feel like a draw on the night was more accurate. I didn’t feel like they were the better team, they just put away their chance.”
“We turned the ball over about 35 yards away from oal. We had it contained and we just didn’t do a good job,” Cassar said. “Jones was dangerous all night. We had spoken about it and probably didn’t deal with it great.”One positive of the night for RSL as they suffered the first shutout of the 2016 season was the return of Joao Plata from a flexor stain he suffered in April. RSL will need the energy and play-making that Plata has been providing as they continue this tough road trip.
“I thought [Plata] gave us a big spark,” Cassar said. “We were planning on bringing him in to have that spark; we just didn’t want to have to do it down 1-0. His movement caused some problems tonight.”
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 0 0 0
Colorado Rapids 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
COL – Jermaine Jones – 47′
Misconduct Summary:
COL – Mekeil Williams – 15′
RSL – Sunny – 29′
COL – Jermaine Jones – 53′
RSL – Tony Beltran – 79′
COL – Shkelzen Gashi – 81′
COL – Zac MacMath – 90′ + 1′
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Demar Phillips; Justen Glad; Jamison Olave (Devon Sandoval, 85′); Tony Beltran; Javier Morales; Sunny (Luke Mulholland, 59′) ; Kyle Beckerman; Jordan Allen (Joao Plata, 58′); Yura Movsisyan; Juan Manuel Martinez
Substitutes Not Used: Jeff Attinella; John Stertzer; Olmes Garcia; Devon Sandoval
Colorado Rapids: Zac MacMath; Marc Burch; Axel Sjoberg; Bobby Burling; Makeil Williams; Shkelzen Gashi (Dillon Serna, 89′); Luis Solignac (Dominique Badji, 77′); Jermaine Jones; Sam Cronin; Michael Azira Kevin Doyle
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Froschauer; Conor Doyle; Marlon Hairston; Dillon Powers; Dillon Serna
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake travels to BBVA Compass Stadium on Saturday May 14th to take on the Houston Dynamo.