Real Salt Lake was missing several key players, such as Alvaro Saborio, Will Johnson and Nat Borchers, when they took on the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night, but there was still enough quality in the RSL lineup to keep the team climbing toward the lead pack in the Western Conference.
Kyle Beckerman blasted home a long-range goal, while centerback Chris Schuler added a header goal of his own to help Real Salt Lake post a 2-1 victory over the Union at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night.
RSL jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute when Beckerman belted home a right-footed blast from 26 yards out. Schuler made it 2-0 when he beat Sheanon Williams to a corner kick, heading home from six yards away.
The Union responded in the 30th minute when Sebastien LeToux volleyed home a perfect cross from Justin Mapp to make the score 2-1, but that goal was the best chance the Philadelphia attack mustered all night.
Philadelphia's offense produced just one other shot on goal after LeToux's goal, and still couldn't get going against RSL's defense even after the introduction of Freddy Adu in the second half.
The loss dropped the Union to 8-7-12, leaving the club winless in six matches. Philadelphia will be looking for all three points against New England on Wednesday, with a chance to move into second place in the East with a victory.
The victory improved RSL to 12=7-6, pushing the team to within four points of FC Dallas for third place in the Western Conference.
Beckerman will leave RSL to join the U.S. national team for its upcoming friendly against Belgium on Tuesday.
Here are the match highlights.
What did you think of the match? Impressed with RSL scoring a victory despite missing so many players? Starting to worry about the Union, or do you see them turning it around against some weaker opponents in coming weeks?
Share your thoughts below.
This made my morning so far.
I understand your frustration, but doesn’t it also stand to reason that the rotation is because no one is emerging as a bona ride starter? LeToux hasn’t been scoring, but he has been very productive offensively. It’s not a coincidence that this rough patch has come at the hands of RSL, Dallas, Columbus, all top tier teams that are really clicking. Mondragon aside, Philly is a young team, and the players that the pups are looking to for leadership are either hurt in the midst of a goal scoring slump or now playing in Mexico. Plus, what was a nearly airtight defense at the beginning of the season has let up some questionable goals in this poor stretch. I would not be surprised if the team gets 6 points from it’s next two matches, but it won’t change the issues that this fret h has revealed.
So I guess 2 1/2 matches = the average attention span of an American football fan…
Freddy Adu is a $600,000 per year flop.
old serb is their best player on the field right now. g farfan has done well so far at lb, his brother was horrendous there last night. Mwanga still is not effective as a starter and proabably would have been subbed last night if Mondragon wasn’t injured. Thw simplw truth is that since ruiz left, noone has stepped up. no one can put the ball in the net, let alone create chances….
Awesome. The Red Bulls ended up with two weeks off and every one of their close rivals in the Eastern Conference laid eggs. So much for those games in hand. Looks like Rodgers, Rost, and Solli will be back on the 10th.
Jason Kries has been complaining about MLS not raising the salary cap to be able to have two Javi type players. RSL ownership is reticent to bring DP’s like crazy and that’s partly due to their small market.
He’s only a month out. Morales type players, for a cheap price, aren’t the easiest things to find, either.
RSL still is still good team, but not the same without Morales….It’s quite a shame they were too cheap to get a replacement playmaker.
They could have uses the englishman Tait in this one
Philly didn’t look bad in the run of play. Their set pieces and corners were horrendous against RSL, though.
This coaching staff is seriously pissing me off… How is a team suppose to flourish if the starting 11 literally changes every game… Nowak needs to decide if Mwanga, Adu, and Okugo are starters… It’s September and I wouldn’t be surprised if McInerney started ahead of Mwanga and Adu next game… It makes no sense keeping all of our talent on the bench for the first 65 mins of every game… I really don’t understand why he loves Farfans and Paunovic… even Le Toux to a certain extent… he scored his first non PK goal last night which is just plain embarrassing…
haha
“still couldn’t get going against RSL’s defense even after the introduction of Freddy Adu in the second half.”
That tells you everything you need to know about Philly and their coaching staff.
FYI, 12≠7-6.
Russell left at the very end of the game with severe cramping…not an injury that I am aware of….
I don’t think that’s true. Where have you heard this? I’d be surprised if we moved away from a balanced schedule even with the eventual 22 teams we’ll have.
Just shows how flawed your thinking is. Once mls expands past 20 teams there will be no balanced scheduleand conferences will be more relevant
Not to mention Chris Wingert, Javier Morales, and Nelson Gonzales and also losing Robbie Russell to injury during the match.
The Union were also pretty shorthanded, missing Valdes who is the key to the defense and Carroll who is a top notch defensive center mid. That’s half of the spine of our defense.
If KB had to miss international duty for this game, I’m glad he made it count!
Just adds an ! to how flawed the MLS play-off system is going to be in this balanced schedule, with nobody in the woeful Eastern Conference deserving of a higher seed than 6th. But will get 3 of the top 6 seeds anyway. Would it surprise me much if the MLS Cup comes out of the east? Absolutely not…Does it make the regular season virtually meaningless aside from the Supporters Shield? Absolutely…