REAL SALT LAKE
EARNS POINT IN SCORELESS DRAW AT TORONTO FC
GK Nick Rimando
& “Bor-Lave”-led Defense post Team Record-tying 10th Clean Sheet
of Campaign as RSL Improves to
3-4-2 Away from Home
TORONTO – (Saturday, August 28, 2010) – Real Salt Lake rebounded from Wednesday’s “epic” CONCACAF battle in Mexico City with a stellar effort tonight nearly 3,000 miles north, earning its 11th road point of the season and remaining undefeated in 16 of its last 17 MLS contests with a scoreless draw Saturday against Toronto FC at BMO Field. The road point earned equals the organization’s highest-ever point total with eight games remaining, while RSL GK Nick Rimando and the defense led by Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave equaled a team record with the team’s 10th clean sheet of the season, Rimando posting the 70th of his career, the 4th highest total in MLS annals.
RSL was unlucky not to have left
Canada with three points, as both DF Chris Wingert and MF Will
Johnson hit the same left post in the final 10 minutes of the game, just
after FW Fabian Espindola had rounded Toronto netminder Stefan Frei and
shot wide right earlier in the 2nd half.
Head Coach Jason Kreis made
four changes to the starting XI that played in swamp-like conditions at Estadio
Azul in Mexico City on Wednesday, falling 5-4 to “La Maquina.” In addition to
Olave’s return to his imposing place in central defense, DF Tony Beltran
replaced Robbie Russell on the right side of the back line, while MF Ned
Grabavoy and Toronto native Andy Williams replaced Nelson Gonzalez
and Will Johnson on the outside of RSL’s traditional 4-4-2 diamond formation.
Borchers, with tonight’s 90 minute effort, remains the only RSL player to have
appeared in all 26 competitive RSL games this season, missing just 27 minutes
total out of 22 MLS, two U.S. Open Cup and two CONCACAF contests in 2010.
Real Salt Lake remained winless at
Toronto’s BMO Field, with a pair of 0-0 draws in 2007 and 2010 sandwiching 0-1
losses in 2008 and 2009. Exactly one month from tonight, RSL returns to Ontario
for Matchday #5 of the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League in a Group A tilt for
the teams’ 3rd meeting in 30 days. Toronto FC visits Real Salt
Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium home on Wednesday, Sept. 15 in CONCACAF play.
Before the Toronto game, RSL returns
home to host Thierry Henry and the New York Red Bulls on Sat., Sept. 4 at 7:00
p.m. MT, in an effort to match the MLS-record 22-game unbeaten streak set last
season by the Columbus Crew. Johnson and RSL’s leading scorer Alvaro Saborío
will each miss that game, as Johnson (Canada) and Saborío (Costa Rica) will
each represent their national teams in friendlies next weekend. Both players
will re-join RSL for the Thursday, Sept. 9 return to Qwest Field in Seattle, as
Sounders FC hosts RSL in its first trip back to the site of its greatest achievement,
winning MLS Cup 2009 last November.
Click
here for the MLSsoccer.com recap of tonight's contest
Click here to
view the match highlights from tonight’s contest at BMO Field
TORONTO
FC (7-8-6, 27 pts.) v. REAL SALT LAKE (11-4-7, 40 pts.)
SATURDAY,
AUGUST 28, 2010 – BMO FIELD
Goals by
Period
1
2 F
Toronto
FC
0
0 0
Real
Salt
Lake
0
0 0
Scoring Summary:
None
Misconduct Summary:
RSL -- Jamison Olave (caution; Tactical Foul) 18
Real Salt Lake -- Nick Rimando, Chris Wingert, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Tony Beltran, Ned Grabavoy, Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Andy Williams (Will Johnson 69), Alvaro Saborío (Robbie Findley 62), Fabian Espindola (Jean Alexandre 83).
Substitutes Not Used:
Pablo Campos, Nelson Gonzalez, Robbie Russell, Kyle Reynish.
Statistics: Shots: 10; Shots on Goal: 5; Saves: 4; Fouls: 7; Corners: 5; Offside: 6
Toronto FC -- Stefan Frei, Maksim Usanov (O'Brian White 46), Ty Harden, Adrian Cann, Nick Garcia, Dan Gargan, Martin Saric (Jacob Peterson 69), Julian de Guzman, Nick LaBrocca, Dwayne De Rosario, Mista.
Substitutes Not Used:
Gabe Gala, Raivis Hscanovics, Fuad Ibrahim, Joseph Nane, Jon Conway.
Statistics: Shots: 12; Shots on Goal: 4; Saves: 5; Fouls: 8; Corners: 5; Offside: 1
Referee: Baldomero
Toledo
Referee's Assistants: Craig Lowry, Brian Poeschel
4th Official: Steven DePiero
Time of Game: 1:50
Weather: Sunny and 84 degrees
Attendance: 21,047
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010
BMO FIELD – TORONTO,
ONTARIO, CANADA
TORONTO FC
0 : 0 REAL SALT LAKE
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD
COACH JASON KREIS
On the squad’s effort
on a quick turnaround…
“Very happy with what
the guys put into it tonight. Our main objective here was to get a shutout –
that was really all we were focused on – so I’m pleased to get a point here
away at the end of a difficult road trip.”
On difficulty of
selecting starting lineup…
“It was interesting. If
we’d won the game against Cruz Azul I feel like we probably would have taken a
few more risks, played a few different players in this match. But being the way
the (Cruz Azul) game played out, how disappointing it was for us, we really
felt like we needed to respond and allow guys opportunities to respond.”
On hitting a pair of
posts late…
“I feel like it was
unlucky or we were a little hard done by, but we don’t seem to have too many
problems scoring goals these days.”
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER
WILL JOHNSON
On any fatigue from
travel…
“A little bit. It was a
tough week. Obviously I would have liked to play 90 minutes tonight, but you
know, it wasn’t quite in the cards. But we’ve got a full week to recover, so
we’ll get back at it at home next week.”.
On the feeling within
the team…
“We’re in a good
spot. We’ve put ourselves in a good position. We’ve got 40 points
with eight games to go and last year we won the MLS Cup with 40 points, so
we’re definitely in a much better spot than we were last year. At the
same time there’s still a lot of room to grow, we’re a few plays away from
really being out front in this league.”
On playing in
Toronto…
“Yah, it’s always fun.
We always enjoy coming back to Canada. The fans here are great, so it’s always
fun to come out and play here.”
REAL SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
Thoughts on the
night:
“It’s a hard place to
play, but our team mindset coming in was to get that zero and it was a hard
defensive effort and we got that zero. It was good and bad to play after
the loss to Cruz Azul just Wednesday because you get a bad loss and you want to
get right back at it, and this was an opportunity to get right back on
track. We didn’t get a win, but we wanted have a good defensive effort
and that’s exactly what we had tonight, a full team effort on the defensive
end. That was a positive.”
TORONTO FC HEAD COACH
PREKI
Thoughts on game…
“We gave it a really
good effort tonight; I mean it could have gone either way. Both teams had some
chances but thought the commitment from the group was really good. We worked
ever so hard; at times I’d like to see us work a little bit smarter – making
better decisions with the ball.”
Comments on Ty
Harden’s play in for Attakora…
“I thought he did a decent
job they worked really hard – both of them (Adrian Cann). That’s why we brought
Ty here, we knew he had some talent and he is a good guy in the locker room and
works really hard, and today he stepped in and I thought he was pretty decent
in Panama too.”
On Mista playing the
whole 90 minutes…
“I mean when he has the
ball we all know that Mista is talented he’s just still lacking the 90 minute
fitness and sharpness but you know he gave a really good effort tonight and
hopefully in the next few games he’ll get more fitness level in his legs and
he’ll be better for us.”
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