Turnaround? Real Salt Lake dominates Galaxy 6-2

StubHub Arean, Carson City, CA – Has Real Salt Lake finally started to turn their season around?  It sure looked like it as they went into StubHiub Arena to a sold out holiday crowd and an struggling LA Galaxy.  Albert Rusnak and Jefferson Savarino combined for impressing offensive play, helping the club set a new record for road goals as they handily defeated LA 6-2.

RSL started out the match with an explosive offense let by Rusnak and Savarino, and was able to get on the board first by capitalizing on a Galaxy turnover at midfield that led up to Luke Mulholland finding Albert Rusnak unmarked at the top of the box and 1 on 1 with Clement Diop who just couldn’t stand up to the skilled play of Rusnak who put RSL up 1-0.

LA was able to equalize in the 41st minute, when Ashley Cole caught RSL on it’s heals after he was not penalized for being offside.

It started to feel like the score would be level going into the half, but shortly after the 3 minutes of stoppage time began, Kyle Beckerman hit a diving header off of an Albert Rusnak Corner to make it 2-1 at the half way point.

The fireworks started early as the second half kicked off with a flurry of goals.  First in the 62nd minute Yura Movsisyan was the beneficiary of a perfect cross from Demar Philips to put Real Salt Lake further in the lead at 3-1.  This was Yura’s 6th goal of the year.

The scoring didn’t stop there, with RSL continuing firing on all cylinders, most importantly taking shots on goal.  Jefferson Savarino got his first MLS goal int the 72nd minute when LA was not able to clear the RSL corner kick, he intercepted the ball just outside the penalty box, took a couple of steps and sent a rocket to the upper-right corner of the net.  He followed this up in the 77th minute when he made Diop pay for the not controlling the ball.  Savarino’s brace put RSL up 5-1.

The Claret and Cobalt was not done yet.  Joao Plata joined the fun in the 80th minute after Diop left his line and slid to the ground.  Diop just couldn’t get back in time to stop Plata from making it 6-1. Only the second time that 6 goals have been scored on the Galaxy.

Bradley Jaimeson offered up another LA goal late in the match to make it 6-2 in the 89th minute, and providing us with the final score.  It was an amazing team effort, with Nick Rimando making a couple of great saves during the match, but he didn’t have a busy night with LA only taking 5 shots during the match.

 

 

Goals by Period         1  2  F
Real Salt Lake                  2  4  6
LA Galaxy                        1  1  2

 

Scoring Summary:
RSL – Albert Rusnak – 36′
LAG – Ashley Cole – 41′
RSL – Kyle Beckerman – 45’+1′
RSL – Yura Movsisyan – 62′
RSL – Jefferson Savarino – 72′
RSL – Jefferson Savarino – 77′
RSL – Joao Plata – 80′
LAG – Bradford Jamieson – 89′

 

Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Demar Philips – 16′ – Unsporting behavior

 

Officials
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistant Referee:  Kevin Klinger
Assistant Referee: Felicia Mariscal
4th Official: Baboucarr Jallow

 

Attendence: 25,667

 

Lineups:

Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Aaron Maund; Demar Philips, Justin Glad; Tony Beltran; Luke Mulholland; Kyle Beckerman; Joao Plata (Sebastian Saucedo, 82′); Albert Rusnak (Ricardo Velasco, 84′); Jefferson Savarino; Yura Movsisyan (Brooks Lennon, 71′)

Substitutes Not Used: Lalo Fernande; Chris Wingert; Chris Schuler; Danilo Acosta

LA Galaxy: Clement Diop; Nathan Smith, Bradley Diallo; Dave Romney; Ashley Cole (Ariel Lassiter, 67′); Jaime Villarreal; Joao Pedro; Bradford Jaimeson; Jose Villarreal (Jack McBean, 73′); Emmanuel Boateng; Jack McInerney (Romain Alessaandrini, HT)

Substitutes Not Used: John Kempin; Hugo Arellano; Raul Mendiola; Rafael Garcia

Next up for RSL

Real Salt Lake gets a couple of week off before hosting Manchester United in Rio Tinto Stadium for an International Friendly on July 17th and returns to MLS action 2 days later on Wednesday July 19th to take on the Portland Timbers at Providence Park.