Real Salt Lake 4 at Portland Timbers 1
July 19, 2017; Portland, Oregon; Providence Park
Real Salt Lake (7-12-2, 23 points); Portland Timbers (7-8-6, 27 points)
Man of the Match: Joao Plata had two goals (and three chances created) and Kyle Beckerman had a vintage Becker-bomb to open scoring. However, Albert Rusnák was a creative force in the midfield. After posting one goal and two assists against the LA Galaxy on July 4, he was equally productive, even if it didn’t show as much on the score sheet against Portland. He created six scoring chances in the match and was credited with the third goal of the night, his fifth of the season. In a meeting of two attacking midfielders worth the price of admission, Rusnák was clearly better than Diego Valeri on the night.
Telling Stat: Real Salt Lake was 0-14-5 on artificial turf since topping the Timbers in the 2013 Western Conference Finals. RSL’s convincing win on Wednesday put an end to that streak in convincing fashion. Now with two consecutive road wins, the streaks are trending in a positive direction for RSL.
What You Missed: 11v11 soccer. Baldomero Toledo issued three red cards in the match – one inexplicably to Kyle Beckerman after Fanendo Adi lost his mind after a foul whistled on Beckerman. After an early sending-off of Victor Arboleda, the two teams played the final 34 minutes with RSL holding a 10v9 edge. In total, 10 cards were shown in the match.
So What: Even with long-term injuries to Jordan Allen (knee), Chad Barrett (knee), Omar Holness (knee) and Ricardo Velazco (ankle), Real Salt Lake is getting healthier and it is showing on the field. While those victories both came against somewhat depleted clubs in LA and Portland, they count the same in the standings and few were sympathetic to RSL’s cause when it was stricken with mass absences in large chunks of the first half of the season. Now with the squad coming together and eight of the final 13 matches on the schedule at Rio Tinto Stadium, it’s not difficult for RSL fans to be optimistic about the final months of the season.
