By IVES GALARCEP
Real Salt Lake’s mission to erase the bad memories of last year’s early U.S. Open Cup exit continued on its successful trajectory on Wednesday night, with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over the Carolina Railhawks.
RSL fullbacks Tony Beltran and Chris Wingert scored goals, while Alvaro Saborio added a second-half strike to book the team’s place in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals.
Up next, Real Salt Lake will face the red-hot Portland Timbers, who are riding an 18-match unbeaten streak that was extended on Wednesday courtesy of a 3-2 victory vs. FC Dallas. RSL and the Timbers will meet in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals on August 7th at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Beltran opened the scoring in the 35th minute with a long-range blast, his second career U.S. Open Cup goal. Wingert added RSL’s second in the 50th minute, while Saborio added an insurance tally in the 86th to seal the victory.
RSL now stands on the verge of reaching their first U.S. Open Cup Final, but must beat a streaking Portland side they will see plenty of in the coming months. RSL and the Timbers will meet three times in August, including a pair of MLS league meetings.
What did you think of RSL’s victory? Impressed or disappointed with Carolina’s performance? See RSL beating the Timbers in the semifinals?
Share your thoughts below.
3-0 is not a romp, 5-1 is. Once again the Fire gets no recognition, Why? They are playing some of the best soccer in the MLS.
Excellent win. Now to keep getting stronger in league play and develop youngsters Olmes Garcia and salcedo. RSL and timbers should be entertaining with both teams willing to attack at will.
The Timbers/RSL game should be really good. I expect both teams to load up their starting 11. Going to be an interesting August for both teams.
RSL handled business. For Carolina to have a realistic shot at getting past Salt Lake they would have needed an awful lot of luck considering that the organization started the match missing five starters.
I understand that the league match on Saturday is huge for them seeing as how they can clinch the NASL spring championship if they win it and with it the right to host the NASL yearly championship but I was still disappointed that they went the personnel route that they did.
Obviously it’s not just MLS clubs who feel obligated to deprioritize the USOC on some occasions. Maybe that is actually a good thing, a testament to how important winning the league is to Carolina but thw helpless romantic that I am–I still found it a bit disappointing…