Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake secures the Rocky Mountain Cup and the full 3 points with a 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids. On a crisp night at the RioT the home club led the for the whole match after an early goal from Damir Kreilach with Rubio Rubin adding to the lead early in the second half. Yones Namli pulled one back late in the match but it was not enough with Anderson Julio putting the nail in the coffin in the final minute of stoppage time. The effort tonight could have earned the Rapids a playoff spot but with the loss they will have to wait for the more days to try for that again. RSL moves up a notch into 5th place in the west and keeps their playoff dreams alive for now and takes off just a little bit of the pressure.
The first half started out very chippy and the hard playing continued throughout. It sure seemed like the 5 yellow cards was a bit low for the level of physical play we saw tonight. It didn’t take long for the claret and cobalt to get on the board with a heavy shot from Damir Kreilach into back of the net in the 13th minute of the match. With that goal Kreilach set a new club record with 14 goals on the season.
Rubio Rubin doubled the lead in the 57th minute when Damir Kreilach stepped in and grabbed the ball that Colorado was trying to clear and put the ball right in front of Rubin and there was nothing that William Yarbrough could do to save the goal, Rubin’s 8th of the year.
Colorado was awarded 8 corner kicks on the night and they were finally able to take advantage of it when Younes Namli was able to pull one back in the 73rd minute with a shot that took a deflection off of Damir Kreilach and left David Ochoa with no chance at saving the clean sheet.
Colorado kept up the pressure and threatened a number of times in regulation play and for most of the 6 minutes of stoppage time. Anderson Julio had 3 great shots at the goal late in the match but it was at the final minute of stoppage time that he was able to put together a full run at the goal and put the exclamation point on the match with a nutmeg of Yarbrough and a goal.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 1 2 3
Colorado Rapids 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Damir Kreilach – 13′
RSL – Rubio Rubin – 57′
COL – Younes Namli – 73′
RSL – Anderson Julio – 90’+6′
Misconduct Summary:
COL – Collen Warner – 22′ – foul
COL – Jack Price – 31′ – foul
RSL – Erik Holt – 61′ – foul
COL – Diego Rubio– 65′ – foul
RSL – David Ochao – 90’+6′ – wasting time
Officials
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistant Referee: Jeffrey Greeson
Assistant Referee: Adam Gardner
4th Official: Mark Allatin
Video Assistant Referee: Malik Badawi
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
Attendence: 15,864
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: David Ochoa; Andrew Brody; Justen Glad; Erik Holt; Aaron Herrera; Pablo Ruiz; Damir Kreilach; Albert Rusnak; Maikel Chang (Ashtone Morgan, 88′); Everton Luiz (Nick Besler, 88′); Rubio Rubin (Anderson Julio, 76′)
Substitutes Not Used: Donny Toia; Bobby Wood; Justin Meram; Jonathan Menendez; Zac MacMath; Noah Powder
Colorado Rapids: William Yarbrough; Keegan Rosenberry; Auton Trusty; Lalas Abubakar ; Lucas Esteves; Jack Price; Cole Bassett (Nicolas Mezquida, 81′); Collen Warner (Younes Namli, 58′); Jonathan Lewis (Dominique Badji, 88′); Diego Rubio (Andrew Shinuyashiki, 88′); Braian Galvan (Michael Barrios, 58′)
Substitutes Not Used: Clint Irwin; Drew Moor; Dominique Badji; Jeremy Kelly; Steve Beitashour
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake.