Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake maintained their home field dominance tonight as they defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-1.It took Real Salt Lake over 60 minutes to find their groove, but when they found it, things really turned around. New York got off to an early start with both hard fouls and points after receiving 2 yellow cards and a goal in the first 8 minutes of play.
It takes a team effort to win.
Gideo Baah was the first to strike when he buried a header into the net past Nick Rimando. The match went from bad to worse in the 13th minute Sunny went down right in front of the net and stayed down. Sunny left the match on a stretcher with a possible facial fracture and was replaced by John Stertzer in the 14th minute of play.
Yura Movsiyan
The half ended with the Red Bulls up 1-0 and and when play resumed we picked up right where we left off. Real had it’s share of chances, but just couldn’t make that last connection. All of that changed after getting fresh legs from Jordan Allen in the 60th minute followed shortly after when John Stertzer found Yura Movsisyan in the 65th minute to level the score at 1-1.
The spark never left RSL after they pulled ahead in the 87th minute on a goal scored by Jordan Allen on a Tony Beltran assist. The crowd witnessed some early fireworks in the 90th minute when Sean Davis committed a hard foul on a streaking Joao Plata, and after he is shown a yellow card Aurelian Collins is shown a straight red card for violent conduct.
Jordan Allen reacts after scoring the go-ahead goal
Plata (left) reacts after Jordan Allen (bottom) scored the go-ahead goal (photo: Rob Gray)
Real Salt Lake stays in third place in the West and remains undefeated in Rio Tinto Stadium this season.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 0 2 2
New York Red Bulls 1 0 1
Scoring Summary:
NYRB – Gideo Baah – 7′
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 65′
RSL – Jordan Allen – 88′
Misconduct Summary:
NYRB– Lloyd Sam – 6′
NYRB– Aurelien Collin – 8′
RSL – Javier Morales – 45′
NYRB – Sean Davis – 90′
NYRB – Aurelien Collin – 90′ (Red Card)
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 90′ + 2′
Referee: Fotis Bazokos
Referee’s Assistant: Mike Rottersman
Referee’s Assistant: Cameron Blanchard
4th Official: Allen Chapman
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Aaron Maund; Demar Phillips; Justen Glad; Tony Betran; Sunday Stephen (John Stertzer, 14′); Javier Morales; Luke Mulholland (Jordan Allen, 60′); Juan Manuel Martinez (Olmes Garcia, 84′); Yura Movsisyan; Joao Plata
Substitutes Not Used: Jeff Attinella; Jamison Olave; Devon Sandoval; Chris Wingert
New York Red Bulls: Luis Robles; Sal Zizzo; Gideon Baah; Aurelien Collin; Justin Bilyeu; Gonzalo Veron (Chris Duvall, 63′); Felipe Martins; Sean Davis; Alex Muyl (Sacha Kljestan, 77′); Lloyd Sam; Anatole Abang (Bradley Wright-Phillips, 67′)
Substitutes Not Used: Kyle Renish; Derrick Ettienne Jr.; Sacha Kljestan; Connor Lade; Dax McCarty
New York Red Bulls starting lineup (Photo Rob Gray)
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake travels to Toyota Stadium in Frisco Texas to take on FC Dallas on Saturday June 25.