Mike Petke and club
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake is finally above the red-line, sitting in 6th place in the west. But with at 2 games up on Houston and Dallas the playoffs are definitely not a sure thing. Getting the win against 2nd place Portland goes a long way to save a season that got off to a very rocky start.
RSL dominated the first half, and took an amazing 12 shots on goal. The aggressive play should have amounted to more than the lone goal by Albert Rusnak in the 14th minute. At the half it looked like the Claret and Cobalt had once again figured out how to handily defeat Portland still leading the Timbers 1-0.
Just after the second half began in the 47th minute Diego Valeri gave RSL a reality check as he set the MLS record by scoring a goal in 8 consecutive matches to level the score 1-1.
Albert Rusnak celebrates a goal
It didn’t take Jefferson Savarino too long to respond when he hammered a long curling shot on a Albert Rusnak that was too much for Timbers keeper Jeff Attinella in what ended up being the game winner,
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 1 1 2
Portland Timbers 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Albert Rusnak – 14′
POR – Diego Valeri – 47′
RSL – Jefferson Savarino – 61′
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Kyle Beckerman – 68′ – unsporting conduct
POR – Darlington Nagbe – 70′ – unsporting conduct
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 87′ – unsporting conduct
Jeff Attinella not quick enough for Albert Rusnak shot
Officials
Referee: Robert Sibiga
Assistant Referee: Kevin Klingler
Assistant Referee: Mike Kampmeinert
4th Official: Ricardo Salazar
Attendence: 19,667
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake Starting XI
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Danilo Acosta; Justen Glad; Marcelo Silva; Tony Beltran; Albert Rusnak; Kyle Beckerman; Luke Mulholland; Jefferson Savarino; Luis Silva (Yura Movsisyan, 58′); Joao Plata (Brooks Lennon, 75′)
Substitutes Not Used: Matt VanOekel; David Horst; Sunny; Sebastian Saucedo; Chris Wingert
Portland Timbers Starting XI
Portland Timbers: Jeff Attinella; Zarek Vanentin; Larrys Mabiala; Liam Ridgewell; Roy Miller; Sebastian Blanco; Dairon Asprilla; David Guzman; Darlington Nagbe; Diego Valeri; Darrn Mattocks
Substitutes Not Used: Jake Gleeson; Vytas Andriuskevicius; Victor Arboleda; Jack Barnby; Jeremy Ebobisse; Lawrence Olum; Ben Zemanski
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake welcome the Seattle Sounders to Rio Tinto Saturday, September 23rd.