Rocky Mountain Cup comes Home!

Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – The Rocky Mountain Cup comes back home to Rio Tinto Stadium as Real Salt Lake defeats the Colorado Rapids 2-1.  RSL also gets those much needed home points as the end of the MLS Season approaches as they moved past Colorado to take over 2nd place in the Western Conference.

Real Salt Lake and Colorado play 3 matches this season, and with each club winning 1-0 on their home pitch tonight’s result decided who will hold the Rocky Mountain Cup.  RSL won this years series 2-1-0.

 

Colorado got off to an early start when Shkelzen Gashi was able to intercept the deflection off of Nick Rimando and send the ball to the back of the net.  RSL had its chances early on, but did seem a little out of sync during to start the match.  That all changed in the 39th minute when Demar Phillips found Yura Movsisyan who beat Tim Howard to level the match at 1-1.

Real Salt Lake took the lead early in the second half when he took a touch from Joao Plata and was able to rocket the ball past Tim Howard to put the Claret and Cobalt up 2-1 over the Rapids.

It looked like Yura Movsisyan would

get the Hat Trick tonight with the best opportunity in the 57th minute when he was fouled by Marc Burch in the penalty area.  Tim Howard went right, but Yura’s shot to the left went wide of the post.

RSL had another chance for an insurance goal late in the match when Eric Miller fouled Juan Manuel Martinez just to the left of the goal.  Tim Howard made an amazing save on the PK attempt by Javier Morales.

Chris Schuler made a late appearance in the match when he was subbed in for Juan Manuel Martinez in the 92nd minute of the match to give RSL added defense to wrap up the win.

Congratulation to Kyle Beckerman who became the all-time field minutes leader in MLS!

88′ – #RSL Captain @KyleBeckerman now the all-time @MLS field player minutes leader at 33,143 #IronLion #KB5 pic.twitter.com/oRfOWtUq9B

— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) August 27, 2016

Goals by Period         1  2  F
Real Salt Lake             1  1  2
Colorado Rapids         1  0  1

Scoring Summary
COL – Shkelzen Gashi – 5′
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 39′
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 48′

Misconduct Summary
COL – Dillon Powers – 60′ – Unsporting Behavior
COL – Marc Burch – 84′ – Dissent
COL – Tim Howard – 90’+2′ – Unsporting Behavior

Officials
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistant Referee: Adam Garner
Assistant Referee: Apolinar Mariscal
4th Official: Alejandro Mariscal

Attendance: 21034

Lineups:

Real Salt Lake (12-8-7): Nick Rimando; Jamison Olave; Justen Glad; Chris Wingert; Demar Phillips; Kyle Beckerman (C); Javier Morales; Luke Mulholland; Juan Manuel Martinez (Chris Schuler, 90’+2′); Joao Plata (Jordan Allen, 89′); Yura Movsisyan (Olmes Garcia, 76′)

Substitutes Not Used: Jeff Attinella; Omar Holness; Boyd Okwuonu; John Stertzer

Colorado Rapids (11-4-10): Tim Howard; Eric Miller; Marc Burch; Bobby Burling; Axel Sjoberg; Sam Cronin; Dillon Powers (Michael Azira, 61′); Shkelzen Gashi; Marco Pappa; Dominque Badji (Caleb Calvert, 61′); Kevin Doyle

Substitutes Not Used: Zac MacMath; Dennis Castillo; Conor Doyle; Jared Watts; Mekeil Williams

Next up for RSL

Real Salt Lake hosts the LA Galaxy at Rio Tinto Stadium Wednesday September 7th at 7:30 PM.