REAL SALT LAKE FALL 0-2 TO COLUMBUS IN
RARE HOME LOSS
Pair of Columbus
Finishes in First 10 Minutes Doom RSL to Second-ever Regular Season Defeat at
Rio Tinto Stadium in 37 Tries;
RSL Sees
Third-longest Undefeated Streak in Club History Snapped at Seven Games
SANDY, Utah (Saturday, July 30, 2011)–Real Salt Lake saw its seven-match undefeated streak snapped unceremoniously tonight by the Columbus Crew, who used two goals in the first 10 minutes to power past the Utah side 2-0 in front of 18,516 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Shrugging off RSL’s dominant record in Sandy, it was Columbus looking right at home at the onset, as MF Robbie Rogers used his pace down the left flank to set up both of the visitors’ goals. The U.S. National Team winger got the Crew off to their dream start five minutes in, when he blew past a pair of RSL defenders and into the penalty area before slotting a square ball that MF Eddie Gaven easily one-timed past helpless RSL ‘keeper Nick Rimando to rock the home side back on its heels.
Things only got worse for RSL five minutes later when Rogers found space on the left again, only this time he floated his delivery towards the penalty area. FW Tommy Heinemann crashed the spot and nodded the cross off the turf, the bouncing ball hand-cuffing Rimando before sneaking into goal and doubling the visitors’ advantage.
Real Salt Lake would slowly climb back into the proceedings and gain the bulk of the possession after the opening 20 minutes, but found it difficult to create quality chances throughout the contest. FW Jean Alexandre’s sliding attempt to redirect a FW Fabian Espindola cross in the 23rd minute marked the Claret-and-Cobalt’s best chance to make a dent in the lead in the opening 45 minutes. Espindola’s own effort a minute after halftime was about as good as it got in the second stanza, forcing Crew netminder Andy Gruenebaum to make one of his three saves on the night.
Real Salt Lake Match
Notes
- This evening’s loss was just RSL’s second at Rio Tinto Stadium in 37 regular season contests. RSL is now 24-2-11 at its Sandy home in MLS play dating back to the building’s opening in October 2008.
- Tonight’s contest also marked the first time that Real Salt Lake lost at Rio Tinto Stadium by multiple goals, the previous three losses across all competitions dating back to 2008 all coming by a one-goal margin [10/15/08 v. New York (0-1 L), 4/30/11 v. Monterrey (0-1 L), 5/28/11 v. Seattle (1-2 L)].
- Real Salt Lake faced a two-goal deficit for only the third time in its 19 regular season contests in 2011, with all of those occasions coming at Rio Tinto Stadium (also 5/28 v. SEA and 7/04 v. New England).
- Tonight’s loss snapped the third-longestregular season unbeaten streak in Real Salt Lake history at seven games (3-0-4), the run ranking behind only the 18-game and 10-game streaks that originated during the club’s record-setting 2010 campaign.
- Real Salt Lake’s shutout streak was snapped at 212 minutes, good for the second-longest such run for the Claret-and-Cobalt in 2011.
- Tonight was the fourth occasion on which a team posted a pair of goals in the first 10 minutesagainst Real Salt Lake. FC Dallas was the last team to accomplish the feat back on 9/26/09 at Pizza Hut Park (0-3 L).
- M/F Luis Gil capped a busy week against the Crew, his 70th minute substitution ensuring the 17-year-old would represent both club and country in short order. Earlier this week, Gil made a pair of appearances for the U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team at the Northern Ireland Milk Cup, the youngster coming off the bench and notching an assist in Monday’s win over Israel and going the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Mexico on Wednesday before flying back stateside to rejoin RSL in time for its weekend match-up against Columbus.
- After signing with Real Salt Lake late last week, FW Chris Agorsor suited up on the 18-man gameday roster for his new club for the first time against the Crew. Also making his 2011 debut on the 18-man list was GK Tim Melia, who is taking over back-up duties to Nick Rimando while Kyle Reynish recovers from a concussion.
- Real Salt Lake will break its five-game home stand in Sandy this Wednesday, August 3, when the Utahns will travel to the nation’s heartland for their first-ever visit to LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to face off against Sporting Kansas City (6-6-9, 27 pts.). Kickoff at Major League Soccer’s newest soccer-specific facility is set for 6:30 p.m. MT and can be seen live on KMYU 2.2 (Comcast 22 / Dish Network 12).
REAL SALT LAKE
0 : 2 COLUMBUS CREW
SATURDAY, JULY 30,
2011
RIO TINTO STADIUM – SANDY, UTAH
Goals by
Period
1
2 F
Real Salt Lake (9-4-6, 33 pts) 0 0 0
Columbus Crew (9-6-7, 34 pts.) 2 0 2
Scoring Summary:
CLB – Eddie Gaven 3 (Robbie Rogers 2) 5
CLB – Tommy Heinemann 2 (Robbie Rogers 3, Dejan Rusmir 2) 10
Misconduct Summary:
None
Lineups:
Columbus Crew – Andy Gruenebaum; Sebastian Miranda, Julius James, Chad Marshall (CAP), Josh Gardner; Emmanuel Ekpo, Eddie Gaven, Dejan Rusmir (Eric Gehrig 61), Robbie Rogers; Tommy Heinemann, Justin Meram (Bernardo Anor 76)
Substitutes Not Used: Kevin Burns, Jeff Cunningham, Cole Grossman, Chris Konopka, Andres Mendoza
Real Salt Lake -- Nick Rimando; Robbie Russell (Arturo Alvarez 61), Chris Schuler, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert; Ned Grabavoy, Kyle Beckerman (CAP), Andy Williams (Collen Warner 61), Will Johnson; Jean Alexandre (Luis Gil 70), Fabian Espindola.
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Agorsor, Tony Beltran, Rauwshan McKenzie, Tim Melia
Referee: Jasen Anno
Referee's Assistants:
Frank Anderson, Corey Rockwell
4th Official:
Fotis Bazakos
Attendance:
18,516
Time of Game:
1:48
Weather:
Cloudy-and-86-degrees
MLS POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE 0 : 2 COLUMBUS
CREW
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD
COACH JASON KREIS
Overall thoughts
on the game:
“To me it just came down to mental lapses. You’re down two goals to a team that’s very good defensively and works hard together and, I think, was going to come in to this game and try and put a lot of numbers behind the ball. It’s difficult to break them down.”
On RSL’s second
half:
“We got a bit frantic and certainly a bit frustrated. In the second half I was pleased with the effort, I was pleased with the fight. I don’t think any of [the guys] out there quit, I think that they tried to put everything they could into that game to get back into it. I think that we just came up a bit short in the quality department today.”
On the decision to
not substitute players at halftime down 2-0:
“When you get into halftime and you’re down two-nil you have to consider whether there needs to be a couple of changes. I think the easy thing to say is, ‘I’m going to make these changes, because it needs to change now.’ For me, I was a little more interested to see what that group could do, how they would respond to that difficult circumstance, so I didn’t want to make [any substitutions] at halftime. But I did make them fairly early.”
On the play of
forward Fabian Espíndola:
“We know that Fabian [Espíndola] is a very emotional player. I thought he was trying to make a difference for us every time he got the ball tonight. He was going at players, trying to get behind them and trying to make the final pass or make the goal, but it wasn’t coming off for him, as it wasn’t for the other players.”
REAL SALT LAKE
MIDFIELDER ANDY WILLIAMS
On whether Real
Salt Lake was unprepared for the game:
“We were prepared, but I just think [Columbus] came out with a game plan and kind of caught us napping a couple of times, and in that 20-minute span they were able to take over the game by creating chance after chance. After that things kind of adjusted, but we just couldn’t get that first goal.”
REAL SALT LAKE
FORWARD JEAN ALEXANDRE
On Columbus
successfully putting away their early opportunities:
“I wouldn’t say they dominated the game, but they definitely put their chances away early in the first 15 to 20 minutes. Putting away your chances changes the game, and it did [tonight].”
On being prepared
as a late addition to the starting lineup:
“I didn’t feel unprepared [to start] at all. I was focused throughout the week. The coaching staff was helping me ahead of time and there was the possibility that I would be playing the game.”
REAL SALT LAKE
MIDFIELDER ARTURO ALVAREZ
On the deciding
factor in the game:
“You’ve got to give a little bit of credit to Columbus. I think they came in and played a very well-defended game and we weren’t keeping the ball at all. The simple passes weren’t there tonight.”
COLUMBUS CREW HEAD
COACH ROBERT WARZYCHA
On the Crew’s
quick start this evening:
"I think that was the best 10 minutes we have had all season. Especially playing here in Salt Lake against a good team, it was very encouraging."
On the play of
midfielder Robbie Rogers:
"I think he caught Robbie Russell by surprise a bit in the first 10 minutes. We always talk about the final pass and today the final pass was there."
COLUMBUS CREW
MIDFIELDER EDDIE GAVEN
On getting a
result at Rio Tinto Stadium:
"It feels good to come in here and play really, really well tonight. It feels nice to get the win."
On the team's
first 10 minutes:
"It was great. It took a little bit of pressure off our defense. We scored two really good goals early, but after that we really didn't play great."
On notching
back-to-back wins to jump into first in the East:
"There's still a lot of soccer to be played, obviously, but we definitely feel good about the win. The way this team is going right now, being able to come here and get a win and getting the win last week at home, the team is playing well, so we just got to keep on going."
COLUMBUS CREW
MIDFIELDER ROBBIE ROGERS
On the team's
performance:
"I'm just really happy with the win, happy we're still first place in the East, and being able to get our first win here at Rio Tinto is an accomplishment for this team. It's about time we gel and make a push towards the end of the season."
On gaining the
lead in the first 10 minutes:
"Well [Real Salt Lake is] really good defensively; they have a great defensive record. We talked about really getting after them and testing them. In my mind, I really wanted to test them and get after their defenders and cause some trouble for them."
On holding the 2-0
lead into the second half:
"We're a pretty good defensive team. The communication and work-rate defensively we put forth together in the second half was amazing."
www.RealSaltLake.com / www.RioTintoStadium.com / www.ESPN700Sports.com
