REAL SALT LAKE BACK ON TRACK WITH 3-0
WIN OVER RED BULLS
DF Nat Borchers,
MF Luis Gil and FW Álvaro Saborío all Tally, while Captain Kyle Beckerman
Notches Pair of Assists
SANDY, Utah (Saturday, August 6, 2011)–Real Salt Lake squashed any fears of a lengthy losing stretch tonight in Sandy, as the Utah side ran roughshod over the New York Red Bulls during a3-0 victory in front of 19,081 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium. The thorough win for RSL snapped its two-game losing slide, while New York saw its winless streak in away affairs dating back to mid-April stretched to 10 games.
Real Salt Lake (10-5-6, 36 pts.) reversed its early-game struggles from recent matches, staking out an early lead in the 13th minute through DF Nat Borchers. The RSL centerback fought to get free at the top of the six and nodded MF Kyle Beckerman’s corner kick just inside the left post and past Red Bulls GK Frank Rost to put the home side up.
A minute before the halftime break it was Beckerman making things happen once again, as the RSL captain jumped in front of New York DF Chris Albright’s clearance and knocked it ahead to MF Luis Gil. The 17-year-old – making his first start in the playmaking role at the top of RSL’s diamond midfield – reacted immediately, taking a touch before firing a blast from 20 yards into the right side netting, resulting in his first career MLS goal and a doubling of RSL’s lead just before the interval.
While New York (6-6-12, 30 pts.) would have a sprinkling of chances throughout the second half, none would seriously challenge Real Salt Lake ‘keeper Nick Rimando, whose only save in his 10th shutout of the season – and 84th of his MLS career – came on FW Juan Agudelo’s shot in the 7th minute. Real Salt Lake would ice away the affair in the 77th minute through FW Álvaro Saborío, who converted from the penalty spot after a handball was called on the Red Bulls’ DF Roy Miller a minute prior.
Real
Salt Lake Match Notes
- At 17 years, 265 days of age, Luis Gil became the youngest player to score a regular season goal in RSL’s seven-season history. Freddy Adu previously held the record, his goal on May 20, 2007 at FC Dallas coming at 17 years, 352 days of age. The first career MLS goal for Gil came in his 14th league appearance and fifth start, all coming this season for the second-year product out of Garden Grove, CA.
- Álvaro Saborio’s second half penalty kick brought him even with fellow forward Fabian Espíndola for Real Salt Lake’s scoring lead, each striker now hitting the net six times in league play.
- Saborío’s penalty kick was his third conversion in as many tries in MLS play this season, and brought RSL to a perfect 5-for-5 on the league campaign (Espíndola & Javier Morales each with one).
- Kyle Beckerman had his second multi-assist performance of 2011 [June 25 v. TOR (3-1 W)]. The RSL captain’s fourth game-winning assist of the season on the Borchers tally put him alone in second place across MLS in the category, but only because Los Angeles’ David Beckham registered his fifth in a 3-1 win over FC Dallas later in the evening.
- With his sixth and seventh assists of the season, Beckerman also registered a new single-season high in the category. The 12-year MLS veteran’s previous high-water mark in assists was five with the Colorado Rapids back in 2003.
- The shutout was Real Salt Lake’s 11th of the 2011 regular season and lowered its MLS-best goals against average to 0.76 per game.
- The offense hasn’t been too bad either, as Real Salt Lake scored at least three goals in a contest for the fifth time in 21 contests, and multiple goals for the fifth time in its last seven affairs (4-2-1). The goal by Nat Borchers snapped RSL’s scoreless streak at an even 200 minutes, ending its second-longest goalless stretch of the year (longest was 270 minutes from 5/07 v. CHV through 5/28 v. SEA).
- Beckerman will depart Utah Sunday for Philadelphia, where he will join the 22-man U.S. Men’s National Team camp under the direction of new sideline boss Jurgen Klinsmann in advance of Wednesday’s high-profile international friendly against archrival Mexico. The 29-year-old midfielder will not be forced to miss any action for the Claret-and-Cobalt and will rejoin the squad on Thursday north of the border in Toronto.
- And Toronto is indeed where Real Salt Lake will pick up MLS play next Saturday, August 13, as the squad looks for its first-ever win at BMO Field against Toronto FC (3-11-11, 20 pts.). Kickoff from the shores of Lake Ontario is set for 5:00 p.m. MT for a contest that will air live on KMYU 2.2 (Comcast 22 / Dish Network 12).
- Saturday’s contest marked the middle of a five-game stretch for Real Salt Lake against Eastern Conference opposition, with the run coming to end an with road contests at Toronto FC next Saturday and at Houston the following weekend (Aug. 20). With tonight’s win, Real Salt Lake is back to .500 against the East at 3-3-5, which includes a 2-1-3 mark at Rio Tinto Stadium.
REAL SALT LAKE
3 : 0 NEW YORK RED BULLS
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6,
2011
RIO TINTO STADIUM – SANDY, UTAH
Goals by
Period
1
2 F
Real Salt Lake (10-5-6, 36 pts.) 2 1 3
New York Red Bulls (6-6-12, 30 pts.) 0 0 0
Scoring Summary:
RSL -- Nat Borchers 2 (Kyle Beckerman 6) 13
RSL -- Luis Gil 1 (Kyle Beckerman 7) 44
RSL -- Álvaro Saborío 6 (penalty kick) 77
Misconduct Summary:
NY -- Rafael Marquez (caution; Delaying a Restart) 76
RSL -- Will Johnson (caution; Delaying a Restart) 84
Real Salt Lake -- Nick Rimando, Robbie Russell, Nat Borchers, Chris Schuler, Chris Wingert, Andy Williams (Arturo Alvarez 82), Kyle Beckerman, Luis Gil (Collen Warner 67), Will Johnson (Jean Alexandre 87), Álvaro Saborío, Fabian Espíndola.
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Agorsor, Tony Beltran, Rauwshan McKenzie, Tim Melia.
TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (Andy Williams 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 7 (Andy Williams 3); FOULS: 10 (3 tied with 2); OFFSIDES: 4 (Fabian Espindola 2, Alvaro Saborio 2); CORNER KICKS: 6 (Kyle Beckerman 4); SAVES: 1 (Nick Rimando 1)
New York Red Bulls -- Frank Rost (Bouna Coundoul 46), Chris Albright, Rafael Marquez, Tim Ream, Roy Miller, Jan Gunnar Solli (John Rooney 69), Mehdi Ballouchy, Dax McCarty (Stephen Keel 46), Joel Lindpere, Juan Agudelo, Thierry Henry.
Substitutes Not Used: Corey Hertzog, Matt Kassel, Tyler Lassiter.
TOTAL SHOTS: 7 (Juan Agudelo 2, Roy Miller 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 1 (Juan Agudelo 1); FOULS: 13 (Rafael Marquez 3); OFFSIDES: 3 (Juan Agudelo 2); CORNER KICKS: 4 (Dax McCarty 2); SAVES: 4 (Bouna Coundoul 2, Frank Rost 2)
Referee: Elias Bazakos
Referee's Assistants: Ian
Anderson; Eric Boria
4th Official:
Tyler Ploeger
Attendance: 19,081
Time of Game:
1:47
Weather: Sunny-and-93-degrees
MLS POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 3 : 0 NEW YORK RED BULLS
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On if the team
brought a different mentality to tonight’s match:
“I think there is no doubt about it. I think that we finally got back to what we do well. Individually, I think that a lot of the players took the message on board that we gave them yesterday about ‘why you are here.’ So many players on our team do certain things extremely well and need to stay within themselves when they are playing for us.”
On Real Salt Lake
midfielder Luis Gil scoring his first goal:
“It’s very, very rewarding. Anytime anyone scores their first goal for us we get a little bit emotional with the moment. Luis is a kid that has worked extremely hard for us for a year-and-a-half. He’s done a great job keeping his head down and not listening to other people around him telling him he should be playing all of the time.”
On whether or not
Gil staked his spot in the midfield:
“I think a little bit. It wasn’t a perfect performance and we need to be completely honest about that as well. The goal that he struck was fantastic, but there are some tactical things that we need to talk through and improve upon in the next match.”
On midfielder Kyle
Beckerman’s performance:
“He is the guy for us that needs to be on the ball the most often of anybody on the field. We want to walk off after the game, look at the video, do our analysis and find out that he touched the ball more than anyone on the field. I think that tonight he probably did that.”
REAL SALT LAKE
DEFENDER NAT BORCHERS
On the 3-0 result:
“After giving away two games like we did to Columbus at home and Kansas City away, I think we got our heads down a little bit. We knew we had to come out with some energy tonight and we really just wanted to improve from how we've been playing, which wasn't hard to do with the way we played against Kansas City. I'm really happy with the result and the three points are so big at this point of the season.”
On what Real Salt
Lake improved on tonight:
“Our energy was good from the start, which we've been trying to work on for the last couple weeks. Our possession game was very sharp. I thought a lot of times Luis (Gil) unlocked things by finding space behind Dax McCarty.”
On the importance
of getting three points after back-to-back losses:
“This isn't a team that's used to losing. When we do lose games, we take it very seriously. The message from Jason (Kreis) was we needed to come out and show some signs of life, and obviously we did that tonight with a result against a very good team.”
REAL SALT LAKE
MIDFIELDER LUIS GIL
On scoring his
first career MLS goal:
“I thought, ‘I can't let this one go. Get it on target and we'll see what happens,’ and I got the goal. It's finally done.”
On playing at the
top of RSL’s midfield diamond:
“Playing in the midfield you obviously get the ball a lot. Sometimes you have a bit of time and get to have some fun with the ball and it just gets more and more comfortable.”
On the affect his
goal had on the match:
“It changes the game. It makes (New York) come out with a different mentality and it gives us a little more freedom. We still had to play our defense, but it made it hard for them.”
REAL SALT LAKE
DEFENDER CHRIS WINGERT
On building on the
win during an upcoming three-game road swing:
“We need to keep trying to improve. We're not really worried about where we are playing, we just need to play our game the best we can and try to implement that, no matter what stadium we are in. When we are able to do that, we're a tough team to beat.”
On the importance
of the win:
“It's very important. Every win is an important win in a league like this when there's a lot of parity. There are only 30-something games, it makes every win seem like a big one. That's certainly the case tonight, coming off a couple of bad results and bad performances more than anything.”
NEW YORK RED BULLS
HEAD COACH HANS BACKE
On his team’s
performance as a whole:
“We had a very weak performance today, I must say. I don’t think I’ve seen us that weak before in one-and-a-half years. No energy, a number of unforced errors. Conceding goals … once again, a goal from a set play. We know very well what kind of run Borchers does. It’s sloppy, it’s very very sloppy. We just need to change things if we’re going to reach the playoffs.”
On RSL’s second
goal and the injury to Frank Rost:
“That is a strange one because I think, at the same time, Rost injured his hip or quadriceps so he couldn’t go for the ball. It looked very strange.”
NEW YORK RED BULLS
FORWARD JUAN AGUDELO
On RSL’s first
goal:
“I just thought that we broke down on defense and, unfortunately, they were able to put the goal away. It seems like Real Salt Lake, when they’re up a goal, are able to control the game.”
On his missed
opportunity for a goal:
“I tried to put it on frame and it kept on rising. I mean, it’s tough with this kind of ball. The balls, I feel like, are really light and different from regular balls. I don’t blame it on the ball because I’ve been playing with this ball for the whole season and I should have put it away.”
NEW YORK RED BULLS
DEFENDER CHRIS ALBRIGHT
On his own fitness
and New York’s performance:
“I felt okay. I think I’m still getting to match fitness, but it’s tough to say how I felt out there. We weren’t very good tonight overall, so I could have been better along with the rest of us. It’s a tough loss.”
On having to take
a two-goal deficit into halftime:
“We were just sort of flat and any time you can get a two-goal lead going into half it obviously gives you a big advantage, especially here. It’s a tough place to play to begin with, so we kind of dug ourselves a hole.”
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