Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – On a beautiful evening the Seattle Sounders are in the RioT for the first time this year and they have been playing very well with the second best record in the West. Real Salt Lake has been struggling early but have been finding their form as of late with a high scoring win on their last outing against San Jose. On a night that saw a full 90 minutes of hard fighting action the home club was able to take the full 3 points on a 48th minute goal from Damir Kreilach.
The match was full of action for the entire 90 minutes. The first half was non-stop action with both clubs threatening multiple times and both Frei and Ochoa stepped up big for their clubs to keeping the match scoreless in the first half. With 3 yellow cards issued in the half it looks like both clubs want this one and are putting it all on the line.
With no substitutions coming in at the half things picked up exactly were they left off with both clubs pushing hard but it was the Claret and Cobalt that were able to capture some momentum with Aaron Herrera and Albert Rusnak finding Damir Kreilach who was able to put his club on top in the 48th minute. Both clubs started to get fresh legs in starting in the 61st minute but neither could finish as they seemed very evenly matched. With 4 minutes of stoppage RSL still had the advantage with intensity of the match not letting up at all with Seattle trying to keep up and until the last play of the match a goal kick from Ochoa followed quickly by a whistle from Elfath to end the match.
With the win Real Salt Lake moves into the fifth spot in the west as they now prepare to host the LA Galaxy on September 29th.
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 0 1 1
Seattle Sounders 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Damir Kreilach – 48′
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Everton Luiz – 33′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Damir Kreilach – 41′ – unsporting behavior
SEA – Abdoulaye Cissoko – 45′ – persistent infringement
RSL – Aaron Herrera – 53′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Anderson Julio – 85′ – unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referee: Ian Anderson
Assistant Referee: Corey Parker
4th Official: Tim Ford
VAR: Michael Radchuk
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
Attendence: 19,850
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake: David Ochoa; Justen Glad; Erik Holt; Aaron Herrera; Toni Katkovic; Pablo Ruiz; Damir Kreilach; Justin Meram (Noah Powder, 61′); Albert Rusnak; Everton Luiz; Rubio Rubin (Anderson Julio, 71′)
Substitutes Not Used: Donny Toia; Jonathon Menendez; Nick Besler; Maikel Chang; Milan Iloski; Anderson Julio; Justin Portillo; Andrew Putna
Seattle Sounders: Stefan Frei; Xavier Arreaga; Nouhou; Brad Smith (Jimmy Medranda, 64′); Abdoulaye Cissoko (Yeimar Gomez Andrade, 64′); Cristian Roldan (Freddy Montero, 64′); Alex Roldan (Kelyn Rowe, 46′); Nicolas Benezet; Danny Leyva; Josh Atencio; Raul RuidiazSubstitutes Not Used: Joao Paulo; Will Bruin; Leo Chu; Shane O’Neill; Stefan Cleveland