REAL SALT LAKE SNAPS SLIDE WITH 1-0
ROAD WIN AT CHIVAS USA
FW Alvaro
Saborio Notches Team-High 7th Goal of 2011;
GK Nick Rimando Collects
Clean Sheet #11 of Season and #49 of RSL Career,
Despite
First-Half Red Card to DF Nat Borchers
CARSON, Calif. (Saturday, August 27, 2011)–Real Salt Lake (11-7-6, 39 points) emerged victorious tonight with a gritty 1-0 win over 2005 expansion brethren Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center, riding an 11th minute goal by Costa Rican international Alvaro Saborio and four scintillating saves by 2009 MLS Cup MVP Nick Rimando, despite playing 66 minutes with only 10 men. Tonight’s win allowed RSL to keep pace with two of the Western Conference teams it is chasing, as both Seattle and Dallas also earned three points on the day.
Saborio notched his fourth goal in the last seven games in the 11th minute, pressuring Chivas DF Junior Lopes – making only his second MLS appearance – and out-hustling him to an Ante Jazic back pass, winning the ball and rounding the Rojiblanco ‘keeper Dan Kennedy. Saborio’s tally adds to his franchise-high 27 goals across all competitions the last two seasons, with 10 regular-season games remaining on the current campaign.
Just 13 minutes later, stalwart RSL DF Nat Borchers mis-timed a touch deep in his own half and got tangled with Chivas MF Nick LaBrocca on the edge of the area, with Referee Kevin Stott immediately ruling that Borchers denied a goal-scoring opportunity, ejecting him from the game. The red card was the third in 32 MLS and CONCACAF games for Borchers this season, after the veteran central defender has played virtually every available minute for RSL in 2009 and 2010.
Despite the Borchers ejection, Rimando and the Real Salt Lake defense stood strong for the remaining 66 minutes, Rimando notching four saves and All-Star DF Jamison Olave – back in the lineup for the first time in five games since suffering an MCL strain in the late-July MLS All-Star Game against Manchester United – shepherding various Chivas USA opportunities out of danger. Rimando’s clean sheet was his 11th of the season (one shy of league-leader Kevin Hartman of Dallas), and RSL’s 12th in 24 games.
Real
Salt Lake Match Notes
- Tonight’s victory allowed RSL to avoid a third consecutive loss, something that has occurred only once in the Jason Kreis coaching era, back in July of 2007, 10 games into Kreis’ tenure.
- RSL improved to 6-12-2 all-time at The Home Depot Center, with three road wins against each of the building’s tenants, Chivas USA (3-7-1) and the Los Angeles Galaxy (3-5-1). Six of RSL’s 17 all-time road victories – more than 1/3 of the total – have now come at The HDC (RSL 17-60-26 in 103 career away matches). RSL returns to face the Galaxy on October 1.
- Real Salt Lake DF Nat Borchers’ red card was the 31st in RSL history, the team playing 698 minutes a man down, allowing just nine goals over that span. Incredibly, six of those nine goals were allowed in the same game, an 0-6 loss at NY in August of 2006.
- FW Alvaro Saborio moved into a tie with former striker Jeff Cunningham in 3rd place in the RSL all-time goal-scoring annals with his 19th career MLS goal, trailing only Robbie Findley (29) and current teammate Fabian Espindola (23), who he tied for the 2011 scoring lead in MLS play with his 7th tally. Last year, “Sabo” scored 12 MLS goals in 24 games, to go along with his 7 in 18 games this season.
- Four RSL players – FW Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica), FW Arturo Alvarez (El Salvador), MF Will Johnson (Canada) and MF Jean Alexandre (Haiti) – will join Borchers among the group not available for selection by RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis, missing next week’s home game vs. Philadelphia due to national team duty for CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers or international friendlies. Captain and MF Kyle Beckerman will remain with RSL for Saturday’s match, despite being called to United States duty, joining Jurgen Klinsmann and the U.S. squad on Sunday in Brussels in advance of the Sept. 6 friendly in Belgium.
- Real Salt Lake returns home next week to play one of only two MLS games moved to Labor Day weekend, hosting Eastern Conference power Philadelphia Union at Rio Tinto Stadium to kick off a critical six-game September, three of which will be played on the Wasatch Front.
- Tickets for the next home Real Salt Lake contest against Philadelphia Union on Saturday, September 3 remain available and can be purchased online at www.RealSaltLake.com, over the phone at 801-727-2700 or in person at the Rio Tinto Stadium Box Office, Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. MT and on gameday beginning at 10:00 a.m. The match will feature a special appearance by U.S. Women’s National Team standout Megan Rapinoe, who will be recognized for her efforts in helping lead Team USA to the Final of this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
RSL POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
CHIVAS USA 0 : 1 REAL
SALT LAKE
REAL
SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the key to defending
65+ minutes a man down:
“I think a lot of it is tactical … 50% (tactical) and 50% hard work. I think the guys have to be in the right shape, the guys have to have a real sense of the passes they’re going to allow, and the passes they’re not going to allow. On top of that, they’ve got to work extremely hard. So all of the players for me tonight, after we got them in at halftime, had a real good idea of how we wanted to defend, and all of them were willing to do the defending.”
On what was the most
impressive part of RSL’s performance:
“For me, it’s just the guys believing, because it takes a lot of belief to go down a man as early as we did. It takes a lot of belief from the guys, a lot of willingness to stay together as a unit. To be through the stretch we’ve just been through, it would be extremely easy [to have not believed], and I think 80 or 90 percent of the teams in this league couldn’t have been as mentally tough as we were.”
On the effort of his
team:
“I’m really, really pleased. Just pleased with the response that we got from the group tonight, pleased that they came out with such a positive mentality, pleased that they worked so incredibly hard, and pleased that they stayed together and believed.”
REAL
SALT LAKE GOALKEEPER NICK RIMANDO
On the result:
“It was a good one for us. We knew we could come in here and get a result, we’ve done it before. The objective was to get a zero. We know when we play good defense we’re capable of getting results on the road and that’s exactly what we did. [Saborio] came in and got a good goal for us.”
On his feelings after
going down a man:
“The first thing you want to do is make sure that everyone is pitching in, giving that extra ten percent. We don’t want to drop and invite them to play, we wanted to make sure to stay high. So I was trying to get our defenders and midfielders to step up and make sure we still play the same game, but with that extra ten percent [effort].”
On whether the game can
be a turning point:
“We had a couple bad games. I think this is a good win for sure; we showed a lot of guts for us. But we’re capable of these type of results and just this game isn’t going to turn our season around. I think it’s everybody pitching in every game.”
REAL
SALT LAKE DEFENDER NAT BORCHERS
On his 24th
minute red card:
“It was a situation where I put myself at the referee’s mercy. I took a bad first touch, LaBrocca positioned himself well and he was in on goal, so I fouled him. I haven’t seen the replay; I haven’t seen where Tony Beltran was at the time that I fouled LaBrocca. Could have been a yellow card, definitely, but I’m definitely to blame for putting myself in the situation.”
On his teammates’
performance after the red card:
“I thought we responded really well. It was a tough situation for them. Being a man down for sixty plus minutes in game is obviously very difficult. So I thought they really responded well, and I’m very proud of them.”
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