Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake reminding Sporting Kansas City how good they are when they are home at the Riot taking all 3 points after a brace from Sam Johnson. After losing three straight matches RSL needed this win as they try to get above the playoff line.
RSL served up their first and only corner kick after 15 minutes of rather timid play where we saw Damir Kreilach crossing the ball where Kyle Beckerman sent in a header that Sam Johnson was able to finish to put the home team on top. In the 29th minute the Claret and Cobalt was able to double the lead when the Kansas City defender was unable to hold on to the ball which resulted in a four on two breakaway with Albert Rusnak taking the ball all the way down the field where he crossed to Damir Kreilach but it was Sam Johnson who snagged the pass and put in his second goal on the night.
Don’t look at the game stats, they don’t represent at all what really was happening in the match. With the exception of duels won and more importantly goals scored SKC looks on paper to have better tonight. This was a scrappy affair tonight that although there were only four yellow cards there was chippy play all night from both clubs.
Sam Johnson leads MLS in goals to shots ratio and brought his 2019 and brings his tally to 7 goals on the year. Benny Feilhaber was shown a yellow card in the 66th minute before he entered the match after he got involved in a dispute after a play. He later entered the match, this may be the first time a player with a yellow card was subbed into a match.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 2 0 2
Sporting Kansas City 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Sam Johnson – 15′
RSL – Sam Johnson – 29′
Misconduct Summary:
SKC – Ilie Sanchez – 38′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Kyle Beckerman – 45’+2′ – extra flag to checker
SKC – Benny Feilhaber – 66′ – dissent (bench)
RSL – Everton Luiz – 90’+2′ – unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referee: Ian Anderson
Assistant Referee: TJ Zablocki
4th Official: Kevin Broadley
Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro Marical
Attendence: 18,933
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Aaron Herrera; Justen Glad; Nedum Onuoha; Donny Toia; Kyle Beckerman; Everton Luiz; Albert Rusnak (Tate Schmitt, 90’+1′); Damir Kreilach; Sebastian Saucedo (Brooks Lennon, 61″); Sam Johnson (Corey Baird, 67′)
Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Putna; Marcelo Silva; Nick Besler; Joao Plata
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Nicolas Hasler; Boton Barath (Andreu Fontas, 62′); Matt Besler; Seth Sinovic; Felipe Gutierrez; Ilie Sanchez (Benny Feilhaber, 71′); Gedion Zelalem; Krisztian Nemeth (Yohan Croizet, HT); Daniel Salloi
Substitutes Not Used: Adrian Zendejas; Graham Smith; Kelyn rowe; Wan Kuzain
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake.