RSL draws in 2015 Home opener

Sandy, Utah – Real Salt Lake and the Philadelphia Union entered the pitch tonight both looking for their first goals of the season.  Last week both clubs received one point in scoreless draws in their season openers.  The game was a thriller, but not necessarily in a good way as both teams leave with one point.

447A8786Real Salt Lake looked to be in good form after last weeks draw against the Portland Timbers as they showed the 4-3-3 for the first time at home.  RSL showed a great deal of energy on the attacking half of the field, with a four corner kicks early in the match, but none of them were able to connect with the net.

After an string of high powered play

Javier Morales goal from a free kick.

Javier Morales goal from a free kick.

Javier Morales started off the scoring for RSL in the 29th minutes from a free kick that resulted after a foul on Alvaro Sabario just outside of the penalty box.  The Morales kick went over the line and hit the right side of the net out of M’bolhi’s reach.  RSL responded well to the counters by the Union until the 34th minute of play when Fernando Aristequieta was able to capitalize on an errant ball and some sloppy defensive play to get one past Nick Rimando.

The Union didn’t stop there as the defense once again got a little out of step and as Nick Rimando punches the ball out Kyle Beckerman attempts a clearance and Aristequieta again capitalizes on the lapse and taps in his second goal of the night. Leaving the score at 2-1 for the Union at the half.

Both clubs returned the pitch as play resumed with the same lineups that they began the match with.  Real Salt Lake kept up the attack just as they did in the first half and in the 55th minute another set piece resulted in another goal as Jamison Olave was able to get one past the keeper to level the score at 2-2, but the excitement was muted somewhat when three minutes later Olave was credited with an own goal to give the lead back to the Union.

RSL brought in some fresh legs starting in the 65th minute by replacing Sebastian Jaime with Jordan Allen and then Luke Mulholland replaced Luis Gil just five minutes later.  This was just enough to level the score when Luke Mulholland kept fighting and was eventually fouled in the penalty area, and Alvaro Saborio was able to put the PK in the net.

Not the result RSL wanted, but with the string of unfortunate goals against, it was a relief to end up with a draw.

Lineups

Real Salt Lake (0-0-1): Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran; Jámison Olave; Chris Schuler; Demar Phillips (Abdoulie Mansally, 81′); Javier Morales; Kyle Beckerman; Luis Gil (Luke Mulholland, 70′); Sebastián Jaime (Jordan Allen, 64′); Álvaro Saborio; Olmes Garcia

Substitutes not used:  Jeff Attinella; Elias Vásquez; Luke Mulholland; Devon Sandoval; Sebastian Saucedo

Philadelphia Union(0-0-0): Rais M’bolhi; Sheanon Williams; Ethan White; Steven Vitoria; Raymon Gaddis; Maurice Edu; Vincent Noguiera; Sebastien Le Toux; Cristian Maidana (Michael Lahoud, 79′); Andrew Wenger (Zack Pfeffer, 79′); Fernando Aristeguieta (Conor Casey 88′)

Substitutes not used:  John McCarthy; Fabinho; Fred; Richie Marquez

Quotes from Real Salt Lake

Utah Sporting News– Coach Jeff Caesar

On the foul on Luke Mulhollad

“Luke showed me the big mark on his shin.  Without a doubt it”

On the upcoming bye week

“Obviously the bye week will help, but I think a good video session will help a lot too.  When you can really show, for myself as well, but for the players, when you just talk about “why did you make this choice?” “what were you thinking on this play?”, usually when you open up the lines of communications and talk and look at things, things get resolved.”

On getting a draw

“I wouldn’t say relieved.  At the end of the day, the score was probably the right score.”

– Luke Mulholland

On the penalty kick

“Was it a penalty?  In my book, no.  Tony slipped me in, and I took a touch inside the box, chopped it inside.  Defender caught me with his stray leg on my shin and knocked me off balance.  Then I tried to regain the ball again.  Then I thought we won a corner, but then the referee gave us a penalty, so I’ll take that.  Philadelphia is going to feel it hard.  I hope they know that I didn’t take a dive.  I got the bruise on my shin to show it, but sometimes luck goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t”

On the overall match

“Feeling was a wacky weird game.  Home openers aren’t meant to go that way.”

447A8675– Javier Morales

On his free kick

“It was too close to go over the wall, and I have great confidence to shoot it through the goal keeper, so it was pretty good”

On the bye week

“We have time, especially now we had two games and now we have two weeks until next game, so it’s going to be good for us to keep working and get everyone onto the same page and looking forward”

Up Next for Real Salt Lake:

Real Salt Lake host the San Jose Earthquakes at Rio Tinto Stadium on April 5th after a bye next week.

 

 

 

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