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Saborio brace leads RSL past Whitecaps

LvaroSaborioBrace (Getty)

Real Salt Lake moved a step closer to first-place San Jose in the Western Conference standings after posting a 2-1 victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps at Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday night.

Costa Rican striker Alvaro Saborio headed home a Ned Grabavoy cross in the 58th minute, just six minutes after Whitecaps rookie Darren Mattocks equalized for the Whitecaps.

Vancouver's attempts at a late comeback were hampered when goalkeeper Joe Cannon was sent off for a handball outside of the penalty area. RSL forward Fabian Espindola drew Cannon out of the area, and tried to touch it past Cannon, only to have Cannon block it with his arm, which drew the red card.

Saborio was the Man of the Match and opened the scoring in the 34th minute when he converted a penalty kick drawn after Jay DeMerit handled a cross in the penalty area intended for Kyle Beckerman. DeMerit started for Vancouver just two days after going 90 minutes in the MLS All-Star Game.

The victory moved RSL to within a point of San Jose for first place in the West, while Vancouver drops eight points behind both RSL and San Jose in the West standings.

Here are the match highlights:

What did you think of the match? Think RSL looks capable of catching San Jose? Like Darren Mattocks' chances of winning rookie of the year?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Correction on the article: Ned Grabavoy did not cross the ball to Saborio–Ned passed to Javier Morales, who then hit an amazing ball into the box for Sabo.

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  2. From what I saw Borchers was responsible for many of the defensive breakdowns tonight. He needs to run the show when Olave is out but seems to lack the leadership. The show seemed to be running leaderless.

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  3. Nice win for RSL. Vancouver is very attack minded and Mattocks is a handful.

    I’d like to see Lagerway attract some d-options that are better than the current backups aside from Chris Schuler (he’s still injured). Bottom line is RSL needs to upgrade in a few places to go from good to great.

    I’m not sure if RSL needs to be DP happy but the one move the team made to improve the club was a trade for Justin Braun. Can’t help but think thats not good enough.

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  4. RSL games need to start an hour later!!! The whole East stands are looking almost directly into the sun for the first half.

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  5. Great game. Caps played well and RSL got some lucky breaks.
    Looking forward to kicking off our march to the finals of CCL this Tuesday. Go RSL.

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