Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake takes 3 points at home against Toronto FC in an exciting afternoon match at Rio Tinto Stadium. With goals from Damir Kreilach, Sebastian Saucedo and Jefferson Savarino the Claret and Cobalt seem to have found their stride as they gain some stability in the lineup. Toronto has been only taken 1 point out of Rio Tinto Stadium in the previous 8 visits and today makes that 9 trips to Salt Lake without a win.
Things started off a little bit rocky for the home team as Toronto looked to have their number for the first 15 minutes but that was brought to an abrupt end in the 14th minute when their defense lost track of a cross from Albert Rusnak that found the back of the net off the boot of Damir Kreilach. With RSL firmly into their game plan it only took until the 28th minute to double the lead on a rocket from about twenty-five yards out from Sebastian Saucedo.
The first sub of the afternoon saw Jozy Altidore enter the match in the hope of gaining some momentum for Toronto but any thought of getting back in the match was put to rest with a shot from Jefferson Savarino in the 60th minute to put RSL up 3-0. The situation turned dire for Toronto with Alejandro Pozuelo getting his second yellow card and being shown the exit in the 61st minute and they were never able to mount any kind of response an RSL squad that was hitting on all cylinders.
Nick Rimando was in the goal for the first time in four matches after a knee injury he suffered in practice last month and although he wasn’t really tested today he came up big when he needed to preserve the clean sheet. Sam Johnson was stuck on the bench today after he was late for practice this week. The ejection of Alejandro Pozuelo was his first red card in his MLS career and it will definitely have an impact on Toronto next week as it did today.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 2 1 3
Toronto FC 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Damir Kreilach – 14′
RSL – Sebastian Saucedo – 28′
RSL – Jefferson Savarino – 60′
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Nick Besler – 25′ – unsporting behavior
TOR – Ashtone Morgan – 44′ – unsporting behavior
TOR – Alejandro Pozuelo – 53′ – unsporting behavior
TOR – Alejandro Pozuelo – 61′ – unsporting behavior (Red)
TOR – Jozy Altidore – 66′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Donny Toia – 82′ – unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referee: Phillipe Briere
Assistant Referee: Apolinar Mariscal
4th Official: Rosendo Mendosa
Video Assistant Referee: Allen Chapman
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Justen Glad; Aaron Herrera; Nedum Onuoha; Donny Toia; Nick Besler; Damir Kreilach (Everton Ruiz, 77′); Albert Rusnak; Corey Baird (Brooks Lennon, 84′); Sebastian Saucedo (Joao Plata, 70′); Jefferson Savarino
Substitutes Not Used: Adam Horwath; Marcelo Silva; Luke Mulholland; Sam Johnson
Toronto FC: Eriq Zavaleta; Ashtone Morgan (Jozy Altidore, HT); Drew Moor; Jonathon Osorio; Auro (Nick DeLeon, 70′); Michael Bradley; Marco Delgado (Jay Chapman, 71′); Justin Morrow; Alejandro Pozuelo; Jordan Hamilton
Substitutes Not Used: Alex Bono; Richie Laryea; Liam Fraser; Terrence Boyd
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake welcomes Atlanta United FC to Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday, May 24th to start off the Memorial Day Weekend right.