By TYLER GRAY
SANDY, Utah– After an overtime U.S. Open Cup match that threatened to derail Real Salt Lake’s recent form, the Claret and Cobalt rode three first-half goals to a thunderous shutout win in Rio Tinto Stadium over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night.
RSL forward Robbie Findley and midfielder Javier Morales were the catalysts all night long with both notching a goal and an assist each. The two RSL players partnered up throughout the match to wreak havoc on a short-handed Earthquakes defense that had no answers.
Morales has been particularly lethal against San Jose in recent matches, notching 6 goals and 5 assists in the last 12 encounters between the two teams.
“I want to score every game and assist every game. I know that the record now against San Jose is pretty high,” Morales remarked.
RSL blitzed San Jose with three goals in a 22-minute span with three different players getting in on the action.
Morales notched the first goal in the 16th minute after a botched save from San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch fell right to the feet of Morales, who slotted the ball home.
Midfielder Ned Grabavoy nabbed the second in the 33rd minute after a beautiful sequence that saw forward Joao Plata dummy the ball to a wide-open Grabavoy, who blasted the ball into the top corner.
Findley scored the third and most spectacular goal in the 38th minute when he laced a curled shot from a tight angle at the edge of the 18-yard box past San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch.
“It felt good,” said Findley when describing his goal. “It’s always a good feeling to score a goal. “My defender had a poor clearance, it came straight to me. I had my mind set when it was on its way to me. Took a touch and hit it, and thankfully it went in.”
RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis had high praise for Findley’s performance, explaining that the RSL forward has had to work through a couple of injuries already this season.
“Tonight, I think, was Robbie’s best game of the season,” exclaimed head coach Jason Kreis. “Tonight I think he showed that he’s back at the top of his game.”
In the second half, the Earthquakes showed much better but were unable to get on the board thanks to some spectacular saves from Nick Rimando.
RSL wanted to get back to posting multiple shutouts and rediscovering their dominant defensive ways. Grabavoy thought the victory was a step in the right direction.
“The soccer wasn’t necessarily there in the second half and it was a little bit sloppy but in saying that I think we battled hard,” Grabavoy said. “Those things for me and for our team are just as important as the attractive soccer going forward and creating chances.”
Here are the match highlights:
Great win for RSL. What a rip by Robbie findley. RSL needs to take advantage of the international break and up next is LA who were just humbled by New England.
The only way a team plays that poorly is if the locker room is getting a little sour…guys not playing for each other. Beside the ongoing issues with the back line, the midfield nose dive started with the benching of Baca and the integration of Martinez. Martinez isn’t an improvement, he doesn’t get a lot done on the field at ACM and even less at flank mid. As much as Yallop would like to see more out of the ACM position, I think you have to stick with Baca for stability – without him the midfield looks completely disjointed. Yallop needs to bring in another CB who is better than Hernandez – which I’m sure will tick off even more players. Bottom line, the Quakes aren’t playing well and the chemistry is poor. Seems odd coming after the performance of last season, but this goes beyond injuries and suspensions…more of a transition…I wouldn’t be surprised if Yallop started a major house cleaning…
the coach is partly to blame for some strange lineup choices, but i think he’s looking for answers like everybody else. most of the Quakes dismal performances so far are entirely on the players. the same poor defense along with bad attacking play = no results.
I agree, it is on the players and I support Yallop 100%. I always have and I always will. I have the utmost faith in Frank. He has built competitive teams with skimpy budgets and other team’s cast-offs. He has a great eye for talent and is one of the best coaches in the league. He’s trying to find solutions while dealing with injuries, suspensions and under performing starters. Also, a leadership vacuum on the field with Corrales and Hernandez fading to back up roles. I think we are going to see some big changes soon. Yallop has never needed an invitation to move a player that is under performing or detrimental to the team’s success. As unbelievable as it may sound, I think the Quakes are actually getting ready to spend some cash.