It was a busy week for Real Salt Lake and Nick Rimando’s game-saving PK stop against the LA Galaxy on Wednesday set the tone for The Wall of the Wasatch to earn a spot on the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week for the first time this season.
In the first match of the week, Rimando made a stoppage-time save on a Juninho penalty kick to preserve a scoreless draw for one of his three saves in his 119th career shutout. Then he came back on Saturday and had two saves in his 100th MLS regular season win with Real Salt Lake.
“Good effort from the boys in front of me. We were the better team today and we deserved to win that one,” Rimando said in his postgame interview on KMYU. “We grinded it out to the end and that’s what it takes to get points for us.”
Rimando was joined on Team of the Week by defenders Kemar Lawrence (New York Red Bulls), Emanuel Pogatetz (Columbus Crew SC) and Raul Rodriguez (Houston Dynamo); midfielders Mauro Diaz (FC Dallas), Fabian Castillo (FC Dallas), Pedro Morales (Vancouver Whitecaps FC) and Federico Higuain (Columbus Crew SC); and forwards Giles Barnes (Houston Dynamo), Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls) and Kei Kamara (Columbus Crew SC).
In addition to Rimando, Jordan Allen was also named among the seven players on the bench after notching two assists against the Fire on Saturday and contributing to the defensive efforts in both matches from the midfield.
Real Salt Lake’s Team of the Week honorees include:
Week 1: Chris Schuler.
Week 2: Javier Morales.
Week 4: Javier Morales.
Week 5: Javier Morales, Tony Beltran.
Week 6: Jamison Olave.
Week 10: Nick Rimando.
For the full story on the team, click here.
