The Real Salt Lake Academy concluded its tour of Germany with a 2-1 loss to GNK Dinamo Zagreb, giving the team a 2-4-1 record across seven matches.
In its sixth and final match in the tournament Real Salt Lake looked to end the trip on a positive not, but the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb made the task at hand difficult, facing a bigger and more aggressive squad, the Claret-and-Cobalt took a minute to settle in and place their mark on the match. From there the two sides alternated chances in the other teams final third. Goalkeeper Rocco Von Marees made several big first-half saves, while Armani Haro and Linkon Ream each rocketed shots, testing Zagreb’s ‘keeper.
In the 19th minute Gio Aguirre slipped a pass through several Zagreb defenders to the feet of Haro who dribbled around the Croatians before sending a shot soaring into the upper-right corner of goal to take the lead. Moments later Zagreb looked to equalize, but a kick save from Von Marees kept the ball in front. Then, in the last minute of the first half Zagreb equalized, leaving the score heading into the halftime break.
The Claret-and-Cobalt looked to have several chances early in the first half from Rowan Martin and Antonio Riquelme, but both were called back for being offside. The midfield trio of Aguirre, Riquelme and Juda Casas made good work of stopping many of Zagreb’s advances, limiting their attacking players from getting into the final third. With ten minutes remaining Head Coach Jordan Allen made an offensive line change, putting in Omar Garcia, Sebastian Gamez and Cristopher Rios for the front three attackers. The team continued to press for the go-ahead goal, but were unable to thread one through into the back of the net. Zagreb found the eventual game winner in the 46th minute, tucking a shot into the near post to take the 2-1 lead and victory.
