Real Salt Lake became the first Major League Soccer team to advance to the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals with a convincing 4-1 victory over the Columbus Crew at Rio Tinto Stadium Tuesday night.
Javier Morales set up Alvaro Saborio's opening goal in the 22nd minute and scored in the 35th and 76th minutes in a standout performance. Midfielder Andy Williams, who received the start after sitting in favor of Ned Grabavoy in the first leg, had a hand in two goals and punctuated the victory with a stoppage-time free kick to help guide RSL.
Andres Mendoza pulled the Crew within 2-1 minutes into the second half, but the visitors hardly tested goalkeeper Nick Rimando after that and bowed out of the tournament after holding RSL to a 0-0 draw in the opening leg in Columbus.
Here are the video highlights:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXyDZGrqgQo]
Salt Lake awaits the winner of the Olimpia/Saprissa quarterfinal in the next round and will host the opening game of the two-legged tie on March 15. Cruz Azul, which punched its ticket to the semifinals with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Santos Laguna, will face either Monterrey or Toluca.
What did you think of the match? Do you think RSL can reach the final?
Share your thoughts below.
Allocation money is now offered to teams who qualify for this. It’s a start.
+1
RSL looked good last night. Columbus helped out with some poor defending but RSL looked like they have more quality and like they wanted it more. Also give some props to RSL fans who came out despite the lousy weather.
I’m a Timbers fan but also a soccer fan who wants MLS to grow. So I’ll be rooting for RSL in the CCL. Good luck to them.
dont look at one example and extrapolate to 36,000.
And don’t bad mouth us that walk on water either 😉
I was very impressed with Duka last night.
The league has to realize that winning this whole thing will go a long way to giving the league credibility in the eyes of more fickle fans.
I wouldnt say Rogers is elite anymore, not knocking the guy but he doesn’t look that imposing on the wing anymore. And I don’t see how any goal outside of maybe the free kick being put on Burse. The first 2 were poor tracking by the CBs on their men making runs across the face of goal. And Burse was screened on the 3rd and looked like there was a deflection as well. Columbus is going to have a rough year unless guys like Mendoza, Renteria and Ekpo really put together a consistent campaign.
RSL sold out their last group stage game, over 22,000 last fall. It was a Tuesday night, and I was there for the win.
Pretty sure it’s the same format as Mexico and most of Latin America. Season runs fall-spring, with two championships. They’re currently in the second leg of the 2010-2011 season.
Be MASSIVE Columbus: cry all day while eating your usual box of jelly doughnuts.
funny that all sounders fans can gloat about is attendance. i’m sorry to say that means nothing.
The crew are still a decent team without GBS and Hejduk but when your MLS best 11 goalkeeper and CB are out it makes it that much more difficult. Burse had some nice saves but his teammates looked pretty annoyed on a couple goals. This Crew team still has 4 elite players in Rogers, Gaven, Marshall and Hesmer and then 4 good players in Iro, Mendoza, Rentera and Ekpo then combine that with Duka, Belchren, Grossman and Sebastian and you have a team that can get to the playoffs, however, they are not as good as RSL who have talent at every position and depth.
Props to the RSL team and staff. They can win the whole thing. I’ll be rooting for them the whole way, even if I have to stay up past midnight.
Is the Costa Rican league on the same time schedule as MLS or are they mid-season? This is something that CONCACAF needs to consider when scheduling the rounds. Mexico has the advantage by being in form.
Come on you saltines.
*yawn*
There are no trophies for fan attendance.
OMG. I have been very happy about the whole Sounders success story. I think it is great for the league. But it has finally hit me. Sounders fans are the most annoying in the history of the league. One upping elitists that think they walk on water. I understand the pride, but there is also a certain level of respect that should be paid to all the teams that have grinded it out through the dark ages of MLS to set the stage up for the Sounders “Grand Entrance”. Hopefully the Galaxy knock them out of the playoffs again.
Dude he wasn’t saying the attendance was bad, quite the opposite. His response was to a different Seattle guy bragging about Seattle attendance, that’s why he stated he was a Sounders fan for 30 years…
I was also nervous about quality after the 1st leg – but considering it was both team’s first competitive match since the fall some rust and cobwebs were to be expected. last night was a fun match to watch.
Great game by RSL, could have been 6-1 hitting woodwork twice. Columbus’ defence is, quite frankly, criminally atrocious. It’s going to be a long, playoffless season if they don’t address that issue.
While Rio Tinto is not as imposing fan-wise as Saprissa (has Nike developed a uniform impervious to bodily fluids yet?) and the altitude is similar, Salt Lake City mean temp for March 15 is 43 degrees. Neither Saprissa nor Olimpia will relish that.
After watching the first leg, I decided to skip this one. The highlights made it look like a totally different quality. Looks like RSL couldve easily scored a couple more, will be rooting for them to take the CCL.
so if you have been a sounders fan for 30 years, does that mean you were in attendance in 2008 when you averaged 3 thousand on a good day?????… Bragging is ugly, especially when your large attendance history dates back to 2009… and who knows what percentage of that are bandwagon.
I hope Ben Olsen is Jason Kreis 2.0. Good luck, RSL!
Come on.
Don’t care that the Sounders would crush that and I have been a Sounder’s fan for 30 years.
Nice number for a bad weather game on a weekday.
I would hope and guess they would sell out in the semis. I think these MLS teams are marketing it all wrong.
They are what ? 6 victories ? Away from winning the Club World Cup.
I wouldn’t have one exec, one player, one ad speak to the public without mentioning that.
When the Sounders actually make the quarters, feel free to come and gloat about Sounders attendance. Until then…
Professional level keeper needs to be able to save that 4th goal, its was 2 feet off the post and the back stick wasn’t loaded with players.
+1
As much as I wanted to see the Crew win and move forward, I think RSL will have a better chance. The Crew need more time to really gel (& they could use one or two more standout players). RSL is holding on to a veteran team that knows they can win some of these games down south. (Now had you asked me in Nov – completely different story).
Good luck RSL! Let’s see an MLS team in the World Champions League!!!
Not very. Most MLS teams have their sights set on the MLS season. Even RSL (returning intact) still isn’t in as good of shape physically or in playing form as the rest of the sides in the competition. And then there’s the cap disparity-RSL vs. Cruz Azul, well, the MFL teams are going to be spending about 7- on players.
what about 22000 for the sounders in a group stage game??? thats right, set the standard once again… lets see the sounders in the quarterfinals and the attendance will be double 15.5 k
Williams is pure class…Every team needs a player like him
I wonder how far an MLS team can go?
Good goals all around. I’m happy that RSL won, they really do have a shot if they can get past Saprissa. It is a good thing they have Saborio. He will be a key player for them in Costa Rica. He can prepare the players mentally for what to expect there.
Ultimately I would like to see RSL win it all and see how they stack up against the world’s best clubs. Good luck!
They can tie too, ya know? (2 leg semis and and final)
RSL is a strong road team…Saprissa should be tough at home but RSL has more talent. RSL showed they can play with Cruz Azul in the last round. They must have gained some confidence in that classic match in the rain.
One problem–actually two problems. RSL will have to win in Costa Rica (Saprissa will advance past Olimpia), and if they do that, they have to be the first MLS team
EVER to win in Mexico–and against an excellent Cruz Azul squad. Not an easy road ahead, especially as the regular season advances.
The Crew is a joke…They dumped all of the important players they had. The midfield was awful. GBS, Lenhart, Padula, Hejduk are the guys that got them there. Cunningham, Renteria, and Mendoza are good players but there isn’t anybody to get them the ball and the defense is porous.
Thanks.
Wow, that’s huge for a CCL game. I hope they can keep it up for the semis.
15,405
Not bad
The announcers said they expected anywhere between 10,000 to 14,000 tonight. There were only a couple thousand in Columbus.
15,405 attendance according to MLSsoccer.com
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/ccl-recap-morales-williams-lead-rsl-concacaf-semifinals
15.5k announced, probably pretty close to that.
I think that RSL has the ability to win the whole thing. I think the thing for them is how they play on the road. They have shown that they cannot be beat at home. Having the first game at home, RSL is going to need a pounding like tonight to build a good lead.
Awesome game. What a free kick by Williams! Took my kids for a late night but they soldiered through. I think attendance was announced at 15,504. Definitely over 15,000.
RSL can go all the way if they can keep gaining their form after the off-season. They showed glimpses of how they’ll dominant MLS this season. For now Kries is putting everything into winning CCL. Let’s go RSL!
Can anyone give an estimate of the attendance? Better turnout than Columbus had?
Come on you Royals. Great free kick at the end.
Morales was fabulous. What happened to the Crew team I saw last week?
We need to tighten up our midfield, but we looked really good tonight overall.
Proud day to be an RSL fan…we are going to win this whole thing…:)