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RSL stay unbeaten, topple struggling Red Bulls

RSLbeatsRBNY (Getty)

Real Salt Lake continued their dominance of the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night, shutting down the Red Bulls offense yet again on their way to another impressive victory.

Goals from Fabian Espindola and Luis Gil were all RSL needed as the team's tough defense posted a fourth straight shutout against New York, frustrating Thierry Henry and Co. on their way to a 2-0 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The Red Bulls were able to keep Real Salt Lake off the board until later in the first half, when Espindola ran onto a pass from Paulo Jr. before beating Red Bulls rookie Ryan Meara in the 39th minute.

RSL didn't waste much time adding to that lead, making it 2-0 early in the second half when rookie Sebastian Velasquez set up Espindola with a chance on goal that Meara saved. The rebound fell to Luis Gil, who slotted home the 58th minute goal.

The Red Bulls had their share of possession, but couldn't break through, falling to RSL via shutout for the fourth straight meeting between the clubs.

Here are the match highlights:

What did you think of the match? Impressed with Espindola's performance? Starting to wonder what Hans Backe is thinking with some of his lineup decisions?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. I have to say most RSL fans prefer our teams ability to build players into a team mentality rather than purchasing overpriced names from Europe. Morales came in fairly unknown and is now a star, Velasquez was barely mentioned in the draft and he has had an incredible start, and the list could go on and on. Players like Henry seem like a monumental waste of money to me.

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  2. Let’s see — your tem looked 1000% more dangerous last week with Cooper paired with Henry. So the obvious solution is . . . to sit Cooper on the bench until you’re down a goal

    Roy Miller deserves a seat on the bench. He has played a direct role in three of the four goals conceded by RBNY so far.

    And Ryan Meara should demand combat pay.

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  3. That would awesome. Kries may not want it. He’d take a big ego as long as that big ego took a back seat to a team first concept.

    NYRB is atrocious and underachieved a little bit but the tactics by backe are caca.

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  4. This NY team looks amazingly mediocre. With 3 d-mids starting, is it any wonder that their play is so uninspiring? This is the most unenthusiastic I’ve felt about this team this early in the season in years.

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  5. I usually try to be optimistic about the RBs so early in the season but yes, they looked terrible. Did they even have one legitimate shot on goal? How many of their aimless passes were intercepted? Henry seemed to be the only one out there trying. Sad…

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  6. Schuler and Gil were the stand outs. NY looked better in the second half, and will probably be a more dangerous team when Marquez is back. But with that being said RSL and Seattle are the class of MLS. LA has horrible depth as well as NY. These two glam teams are supposed to be the big teams in MLS, but neither one can compete with Seattles and RSL’s depth. L.A. might find themselves as the 4th or 5th best team in the west this year especially with Portland, Dallas, Colorado, and Vancouver all up grading and adding better depth to their squads. NY will probably be the third best team behind SKC and Houston. Actually they will probably be in the top 2 because Houston just is not that dangerous at striker.

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  7. You are soo right! Beside obviously Henry which other player can start on another team? They all look lie lone of each other. thick in the body, slow w/ heavy feet.

    It will be a long yr. Instead of wasting more $$ on another DP spas it out for some descend player. Look at remaking SKC for Christ sake.

    PS less than 8 thousand to Chivas game. Come on MLS stop kidding yourself with this team. Relocate, relocate, relocate. We need a strong MLS

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  8. Gil should definitely be on the U-23 Olympic team. Hell of a lot better than Stephens. But he will be a stud for our U-20 team. Gil, Bijev, Salgado, Anthony Brooks, Packwood, Keisewetter, Pineda, Ocegueda, Cunningham, Top etc… This is going to be a very exciting U-20 cycle. Very talented U-20 group.

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  9. Not to rub salt in a wound but…Nick Rimando used to be with NYRB. I don’t think he was even allowed to practice before he got shipped back to RSL when Garlick sudden retired. But that’s a great example of a guy who has no international glitz, just a freaking good MLS GK. For all of the revolving door that NYRB (and to a lesser extent DCU) have had at GKs, if either team had kept Rimando, that might have provided better GK (for the most part) and consistency and a lower salary.

    As for the NYRB team, when Hans B. was hired, I was very public about how tough it is for a foreign coach to transition to MLS. His first year he proved me wrong–smart decisions bringing in people like Lindpere. But since that point, the personnel decisions by “Hans und Franz” have been mostly stupid. This is a team where the owners are willing to spend a lot of money so it’s not like they have the excuses of maybe a Columbus or KC that are trying to make it on a budget on a non-glamourous location. This team is a mess.

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  10. It may just be me, but after all the talk before the season about how goalkeeper was going to be the problem this year, Meara has not done badly at all. I would say that so far he’s been a pretty good pick up for a rookie goalkeeper out of college. That said, the entire team in front of him looks disinterested in defending too hard.

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  11. After watching that game, do you understand why nobody attends Red Bulls matches? Most people would rather watch reruns of 80s sitcoms than sit through that garbage night after night.

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  12. Henry sounds envious of RSL and I wonder if he has contemplated buying out his own contract and transferring himself to RSL to play for nonDP money just to play on a team that gets it and go out having fun (wow what a run-on). Probably not, but would be a good story.

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  13. That simply can’t be true about Velazquez—Soler assured everyone before the draft that players selected in the second round [cough, Meara, cough] aren’t good enough to even make a team like his, full of, as it is, seasoned European professionals.

    Instead of wasting their time/money on building through the draft, finding obscure college and South American players, why aren’t RSL signing guys from the Finnish 3rd Division—Europeans invented the game, you know?!

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  14. Gil probably wasn’t going to make the U-23 roster. Klinsmann is big on players not being “up a level” if it can be avoided, and Gil should be with the U-20s given his age.

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  15. RSL fan here as well. Can someone please tell me why Cooper isn’t starting for NY, once he came in NY seemed to press more and more placing RSL in their defensive third. This couldve been a much stronger matchup had Cooper started and NY was able to pressure earlier. Was a great game, props to Henry for that sick bycicle kick, most impressive attempt on goal of thr night.

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  16. NY have the talent, but there seems to be some kind of mental thing going on with the team. I think Backe needs to go!

    Interesting that Gil missed the U23 camp for qualifying because he was injured, but here he is playing for Real Salt Lake. I wonder if that was a RSL suggested miss of the U23 qualifying campaign.

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  17. Oh that’s who that was. Yea he was bad. My favorite bit of insight came when cooper and Schuler fell down together in the box and messing said cooper was dragged down by a jersey pull only to have the play by play guy correctly contradict him by saying that it was actually cooper doing the jersey tugging.

    I also loved seeing big Kenny Cooper get bounced by Olave. Olave is a beast. Schuler is could start on almost any other MLS team. He’s had amazing game again.

    Velasquez with some nifty ball control and passing on the second goal. What a find.

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  18. I am an RSL fan and I have to say NYRB looked way more dangerous in second half with Kenny Cooper up top. Not sure why he’s not making starting XI. Henry’s bicycle was siiiick and while we were glad it didn’t go in, there was a lot of admiration from the RSL fans around me. Pumped for the win and awesome to see our 18 year old playmaker Luis Gil bag a goal. Hoping EspĂ­ndola keeps his form up because he is off to an amazing start. Dude’s on fire. So rad to be back at the RioT!

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  19. Messing is a terrible commentator, hopefully the New York Cosmos’ rich Saudi ownership can give him some useless figurehead position where he doesn’t have to talk about anything besides the good ol days with Pele.

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  20. Count me as one of those who was, before tonight, blissfully unaware of Shep Messing. I found it almost unbearable to listen to these two. Two questions. 1)Do these guys do every NYRB game? 2)Am I the only one that found them intolerable?

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  21. Yeah..no arguments here. But I must say it would seem very dificult to inspire my teamates as captain if I just said in the press that RSL is way better.

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  22. Everyone talks about the depth in Seattle and even LA… I say RSL are the deepest team.
    Two starters (Johnson, Borchers) have yet to play, two others (Morales, Saborio) are being brought along slowly as substitutes… Not only are they able to rely on four youngsters in their absence (Schuler, Paulo Junior, Gil, Velasquez), but they have another handful of young talent that they haven’t even unleashed on the rest of the league yet (Enzo Martinez, Bonfigli, de Almeida, Y Alvarez, Cruz, Muniz, Tanaka)… Sure not all of those guys will pan out, but I’d bet serious money that Lagerway/Kreis get it right far more often than the average MLS front office. And of course at the other end is New York, where Soler/Backe have absolutely no idea how to construct and manage MLS rosters.

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  23. Simply atrocious from NY. This team is bad. Like, really bad. They play with multiple DMs (Tainio, Palsson, and McCarty) and can’t come close to stopping RSL’s attack. Even worse is the lack of a playmaker. It’s becoming quite obvious that they can’t function without one. The “tactics” are very predictable (and ineffective): get the ball to Linpere or Miller on the left, or Solli on the right, and aimlessly lob the ball into the box. There’s no sense that all that possession ever adds up to anything. They are chronically unable to play the ball on the ground or in the middle of the park. Just terrible. They need a lot of new players and a new coach if they hope to even reach the playoffs.

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