Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – It was a tough night for Real Salt Lake as they fall to Tigres UANL 1-0 in the inaugural Leagues Cup match. With time running out RSL continued to press the ball and created several good opportunities, but when Brooks Lennon was sent off in the 83rd minute it was just too easy for Tigres to play keep away and deny RSL the chance to move on.
Tigres dominated the first half of play holding the ball the majority of the time but Real Salt Lake came into this tournament looking to advance as they pressed on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. It looked like RSL caught a break in the 24th minute when Jefferson Savarino broke away from the pack and Guzman came out of the box and handled the ball but it was ruled that Jefferson was offside and gave a big blow to the home club. By the time the clubs went to the locker room at the half it was still 0-0 and hopes were high for a result in the second half.
Kyle Beckerman entered the match at the half way mark and although he did bring some maturity to the pitch it didn’t really look like he had a big impact on the match. One of the best chances for the Claret and Cobalt came in the 55th minute with a shot to the far post from Joao Plata but it caught a slight tip from the Tigres player and hit the post hard. Eduardo Vargas put the loan goal in the net with a long shot that took a slight redirection off of Justen Glad and left Nick Rimando with no time to adjust.
Even though the skies directly over Rio Tinto were dark it didn’t keep us from having a few fireworks inside the stadium. After the Tigres goal things did start to get a little chippy but when Brooks Lennon committed a hard foul in the 83rd minute the referee went to his pocket and pulled out a yellow card. The VAR got involved and the subsequent red card sent Brooks packing. The second yellow followed in the 88th minute just outside of the Tigres penalty area however things didn’t stop at the final whistle with Mike Petke seeing a red card after the match had concluded.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 0 0 0
Tigres UANL 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
TIG – Eduardo Vargas – 58′
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Brooks Lennon – 83′ – serious foul (Red)
TIG – Carlos Salcedo – 88′ – unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: John Pitti
Assistant Referee: Christian Ramirez
Assistant Referee: Michael Barwegen
4th Official: David Gantar
Video Assistant Referee: Quetzalli Alvarado Godinez
Attendence: 14,036
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Brooks Lennon; Justen Glad; Erik Holt; Aaron Herrera; Everton Luiz (Kyle Beckerman, HT); Nick Besler; Jefferson Savarino; Damir Kreilach; Joao Plata (Sebastian Saucedo, 64′); Corey Baird (Tate Schmidt, 82′)
Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Putna; Luke Mulholland; Marcelo Silva; Noah Powder
Tigres UANL: Nahuel Guzman; Carlos Salcedo; Jorge Torres; Hugo Ayala; Jesus Duenas (Rafael Carioca, 17′); Javier Aquino; Jurgen Damm (Luis Quinones, 73′); Eduardo Vargas; Guido Pizarro; Luis Rodriguez; Enner Valencia (Andre-Pierre Gignac, 78′)
Substitutes Not Used: Raul Torres; Jair Diaz; Juan Sanchez; Lalo Fernandez
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake returns to MLS action Saturday July 27th when they travel Toyota Stadium in Frisco Texas to take on the FC Dallas.