REAL SALT LAKE GETS ROAD POINT FROM 0-0
DRAW AT FC DALLAS
Tie Gives RSL
First Away Point against “Hoops” in Tenth Trip to North Texas;
Thunderstorms
Delay Contest for Nearly Two Hours Late in Second Half
FRISCO, Texas (Sunday, May 22, 2011)– Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas struggled to move the scoreboard before struggling to even finish out their contest at Pizza Hut Park, the two sides settling for a 0-0 draw in a match delayed nearly two hours due to severe thunderstorms. Under the odd circumstances, Real Salt Lake (5-1-2, 17 pts.) also came up with an out of the ordinary result, as the Utah side registered its first-ever point on the road against Dallas (5-3-3, 18 pts.), the draw coming in RSL’s tenth trip to North Texas.
Both Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas struggled to create chances during the first half, with the two sides putting just two of their five combined shots on frame. It was Dallas picking up the pace offensively in the second stanza before thunderstorms stopped the proceedings in the 83rd minute, the match halting for an hour and 52 minutes before picking up for the finish.
Real
Salt Lake Match Notes
- Real Salt Lake’s defensive dominance continued on the evening, as the Utah side saw its already-miniscule goals against average drop to 0.25 with 83 more minutes of shutout soccer. RSL’s two goals allowed has tied the mark for the lowest total conceded through eight matches to start a MLS season, drawing even with last year’s edition of the Los Angeles Galaxy (RSL scored one of the goals against LA during that stretch in a 1-2 loss at The Home Depot Center on April 17, 2010).
- With their dueling shutouts, RSL’s Nick Rimando and FCD’s Kevin Hartman took over the season lead in individual shutouts with their fifth clean sheets of the season. Rimando’s current 338-minute shutout streak is the third longest in MLS play in 2011, following Columbus’ Will Hesmer (414) and Hartman (399).
- Tonight marked the third contest in Real Salt Lake history to be delayed due to thunderstorms. Back on June 28, 2006 at Chicago, a pair of Chad Barrett goals in the final 10 minutes following a lengthy second half delay allowed the Fire to down RSL 2-1. Last June 9 at Rio Tinto Stadium, a first-half stoppage against the Los Angeles Galaxy might have helped RSL stop the visitors’ momentum, as a Javier Morales goal in the 80th minute lifted RSL to a 1-0 win and snapped LA’s season-starting 12-game undefeated streak.
- The match marked the longest in Real Salt Lake’s seven-year history, the three-hour, 43-minute affair easily beating the previously delayed contests at Chicago (2:46) and against Los Angeles (2:29).
- Tonight’s contest marked the fourth in club history in which an RSL played failed to take multiple shots, and the first since June 20, 2009 at Houston (1-1 T). Five different players accounted for the team’s five shots against FC Dallas on the evening.
- Due to the thunderstorm delay, tonight’s previously-scheduled MLS Reserve League contest between RSL and FC Dallas was cancelled. A make-up date for the Central/Mountain Division affair has not yet been determined.
- Real Salt Lake will head back home to Sandy next Saturday, May 28 for another high-profile clash within the Western Conference, this time against Seattle Sounders FC. Kickoff from Rio Tinto Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m. MT.
- Tickets for the contest against Seattle remain available and can be purchased online at www.RealSaltLake.com, over the phone at 801-727-2700 or in person at the Rio Tinto Stadium Box Office, Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. MT and on gameday beginning at 10:00 a.m.
FC DALLAS 0 :
0 REAL SALT LAKE
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011
PIZZA HUT PARK – FRISCO, TEXAS
Goals by
Period
1
2 F
FC Dallas 0 0 0
Real Salt Lake 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
None
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Chris Wingert (caution; Reckless Tackle) 44
DAL – Andrew Jacobson (caution; Persistent Infringement) 53
RSL – Kyle Beckerman (caution; Reckless Tackle) 58
RSL – Ned Grabavoy (caution; Reckless Foul) 61
FC Dallas – Kevin Hartman; Jackson Goncalves (Bobby Warshaw 83), Ugo Ihemelu, George John, Zach Loyd; Eric Alexander (Eric Avila 77), Daniel Hernandez (captain), Andrew Jacobsen, Brek Shea; Fabian Castillo (Ruben Luna 72), Marvin Chavez
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Seitz (GK), Bruno Guarda, Moises Hernandez, Ricardo
Villar
Real Salt Lake
-- Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert; Ned
Grabavoy, Kyle Beckerman (captain), Andy Williams (Collen Warner 72), Will
Johnson; Álvaro Saborío, Arturo Alvarez (Jean Alexandre 81)
Substitutes Not Used: Kyle Reynish (GK), Fabian Espindola, Nelson González, Robbie Russell, Chris Schuler
Referee:
David Gantar
Referee's Assistants:
Claudio Badea, Eric Boria
4th Official:
Matthew Foerster
Time of Game:
3:43
Weather:
Cloudy and 90 degrees
MLS POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
FC DALLAS 0 : 0 REAL SALT LAKE
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD
COACH JASON KREIS
Overall thoughts on
the match:
“We didn’t come here and play the way that I wanted to play. It wasn’t pleasing to my eye, but I'm thrilled about the result. We have to feel proud of what we did and say this is the first point we have ever picked up in Dallas.”
Biggest challenge
after a delay like that…
“To keep the guys in it. I remember at Chicago we thought we locked down a good result; we had eight to 10 minutes left and we came out super flat. I was pleased the guys came out and were ready and gave a decent effort for the last 10 minutes.”
On what his squad did
during the delay…
“Yeah, you don’t know when the game is going to start. The guys kept the mood light, having the music on and joking around. It wasn’t like they were sitting there with their head in their hands.”
On the play of Nick
Rimando and the defense…
“The (shot) he dug out in the left corner was phenomenal. It’s critical. When you’re not playing your best you need two things – a resilient effort and guys in back to make plays. We’ve been getting a lot of the latter lately.”
REAL SALT LAKE
GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
On his mindset while
waiting for the delay to end…
“We knew we had to be focused because the same situation happened with L.A. and they came out and lost. We were having a good time in here, just staying as loose as we could.”
On the effort
tonight…
“The chances weren’t there and the goals weren’t there, but the commitment was there.”
What the team did in
the locker room during the delay…
“Listen to music, juggled the soccer ball and just chatted. We just tried to stay loose. We got a result, something we have not done here, so we are happy.”
Thoughts on coming
and playing in Dallas…
“We have always been jinxed here. To get a result it’s a step, we have good feeling going into next week.”
REAL SALT LAKE
MIDFIELDER KYLE BECKERMAN
On the storm delay…
“It was the first time I had to do that. It is interesting because the body wants to shut down, but I had to stay focused. Our main focus was to come get a result. We wanted to get a win, but to get a result was fine as well.”
On why RSL has
previously struggled in Dallas…
“When you are playing against Dallas, the humidity is a factor. It wasn’t that hot, but it was humid. We were sweating more than at home, but humidity only gets to us because they are a good team; the same with the altitude when we’re at home.”
Outlook on the
result…
“This was a good result. We came down here and got another shutout. Hopefully some goals will start to go in for us.”
FC DALLAS HEAD COACH SCHELLAS HYNDMAN
Opening thoughts…
“It was a difficult game for both teams. It seemed that the ball wasn’t really bouncing right for either team. I thought in the second half that we came out and played much better and created some problems. I thought they (Real Salt Lake) were getting tired and then the delay came and gave everyone a chance to rest and recover. We are disappointed with the tie and, as we always say to our players, there are three points there to be taken and we are always trying to get those three points. It’s been a while since we have gotten the strike force working together, but I thought the boys really did everything we did in practice this week. The early services came across on the ground and we missed a lot of those services in the first half in terms of quality.”
How did the rain delay affect you
mentally and physically and what were you telling the team in the locker room
during the break?
“The rain delay is tough on everyone and what we try to do is talk to them a bit individually, but we also realize that they need to find their own space and do whatever they are comfortable with. We have been through it before so that was a little bit of knowledge for us. I stayed completely away from the officials. Since we have been through it before, I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of things happening in the background knowing the league was going to ask us to finish playing the game once the weather breaks. So I stayed away and spent a good hour and a half cleaning my office (laughs) because I had the time to do it and I wanted to keep busy.”
What positives did you see
offensively?
“Rimando made a great save, could be the save of the week that George (John) hit in the top corner. I think we were just a bit disconnected. We worked all week on coordinating our two strikers with our flank players and we worked all week on our early services, but we weren’t able to get on the end of them. Part of that is timing and part of it is that we don’t have the biggest guys up there.”
FC DALLAS CAPTAIN
DANIEL HERNANDEZ
“I don’t think we can complain too much coming out of here with a point against a great team like Salt Lake. They always are a tough test for us, but I think the important thing is that defensively, we’re doing a great job. (We’ve gotten) a lot of shutouts the past couple of games and we still have a long ways to go. We still need to do a lot of work on our possession and work on our attacking a lot more and hopefully get a little more done. But, at the end of the day, you can’t be too upset with a tie against Salt Lake.”
On the two-hour weather delay…
“They were able to let us know ahead of time before we went out to get a brief warm-up here in the locker room before we went down. We went through this against L.A., so it wasn’t a big shock to us. Obviously, we would have liked to finish eight minutes of the game out before we had that long delay, but we had to do that against L.A. and it was just something we had to do. We were able to get loose and warm before we had to go back out.”
FC DALLAS GOALKEEPER
KEVIN HARTMAN
Thoughts on where the
team stands now…
“The fact that we got seven out of nine points at home is certainly something we are proud of. Even though we’re on the road Wednesday, we have a great opportunity against Seattle and then we head down to Houston to face our in-state rivals on Saturday.”
Thoughts on the
success of the defense recently…
The success has come from hard work and their ability on how to morph into how to be successful. They have been winning more individual battles, which is making my job easier. Everything is more predictable. The shots that come from long distances, I expect to save.”
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