By JOSÉ M. ROMERO
Much was made of Real Salt Lake's regular season-ending six-match winless streak and how it might be a sign that RSL is in trouble heading into the playoffs.
On Saturday night, Real Salt Lake put that notion to rest in emphatic fashion.
The attacking combination of Alvaro Saborio, Fabian Espindola and Javier Morales served notice that RSL has the potential to make a 2009-like run through the MLS playoffs, as the trio led the team to a blowout 3-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders in the first leg of the Western Conference semifinals Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah.
For Real Salt Lake, victory had to be sweet against the higher-seeded Sounders after ending the regular season without a win in its final six matches. With Saborio's two goals and a third one late from Ned Grabavoy, RSL heads to the Pacific Northwest for the second leg with an overwhelming advantage in aggregate goals, meaning the Sounders will have to be on the attack from the start of that game in order to stay alive.
Saborio opened the scoring in the 41st minute when he tapped home a Chris Wingert cross. The Sounders screamed at the officials for an offside call, but replays showed that, while a close call, the goal call was correct.
The second and third RSL goals left no room for debate. Saborio scored what could end up being the niftiest goal of the playoffs with a back-heel touch with his right foot that defender Jeff Parke and goalkeeper Kasey Keller could do nothing about.
The ball found the net far post in the 53rd minute. What followed soon after could have completely wrecked the Sounders' chances, not that they're good at this point anyway.
Midfielder Osvaldo Alonso went after an RSL player with hands to the face and got only a yellow card for the infraction. A red card in that siutation — and without several monster saves from Keller over the course of the match — and the Sounders could have been in even deeper a hole.
With Espindola attacking, Morales creating chances and Saborio the finisher, RSL's defense could have been lost in the accolades. But the four-man crew, which lost center back Jamison Olave in the first half due to injury, was as stalwart as any has been against the Sounders this season. Shot after shot never even made it to goalkeeper Nick Rimando, as defenders blocked them first.
In the 79th minute, Grabavoy entered the game for Morales. In the 88th minute, Grabavoy took advantage of a failed clearance and drilled a shot from Keller's left that took a deflection and went into the net.
When the final whistles blew, the Sounders were left to ponder a few things. They truly missed the playmaking ability of midfielder Mauro Rosales, who missed the match with a knee injury and can only hope to be available for the second leg Wednesday night.
Secondly, Real Salt Lake took the fight to the Sounders, who have a history of unraveling in playoff games when being out-physicaled (see the Houston series in 2009). That appeared to be the case again Saturday, and when things got rough and goals were allowed, the Sounders seemed to lose their composure out of frustration.
Third, a 3-0 deficit is not only a physical challenge to overcome, but a mental one as well, and the Sounders have to battle their thoughts of elimination even before the next leg kicks off.
Travis you’re a little too overprotective. Its a good joke. Go lick your leg 1 wounds and cry on your Flounders pillowcase.
Probably nothing will happen because the league wouldn’t want to handicap their precious darling Seattle Sounders any more than the team’s own incompetence already has.
Agreed. Johnson is an absolute workhorse, goes 100% from whistle to whistle, never even slows down. Not a flashy player, but core to RSL.
Your comment is so ignorant, it’s sickening.
1. You should have watched the game before commenting on the play of Salt Lake.
2. You should have watched any of Real’s previous games before commenting on how they would ‘bunker’. Since when have they ever taken that approach.
3. Please get off the internet where your words are unfortunately immortalized despite having no substance nor value.
No, they already host the 2nd leg, the joke was that Seattle could not ALSO buy the 1st leg, and THUS play all games at home as they do in the Open Cup.
Morales got a red card from league when he took a cheap shot at a player during a corner kick. The ref didn’t see it but the cameras don’t lie. I would love to see him get the red card for it.
im well aware of what the joke was, it just doesnt make sense since they would hypothetically want to buy second leg…
He was making a joke regarding Seattle’s “buying” of home field advantage in the US Open Cup… Made me chuckle, so I say “Stay troll”…
Any chance Alonso gets suspended by the league for his hands-to-the-face attack after the second goal? I don’t know if this has ever happened before (obviously suspensions have been extended in the case of Beckerman a couple weeks ago) so I’m curious if it is a possibility or if the league will remain out of it since the ref only showed yellow.
Moron, it is more beneficial to host leg 2. which is why the higher seeded team gets leg 2. leave troll
There was 6″ of snow and it was 30 degrees out and the stadium’s in Commerce City accessible by car only, no public transit.
Turnout today should be good. High 60’s and sunny. A perfect Colorado fall day.
Seattle is filing a protest on the grounds that they were not afforded the opportunity to buy hosting rights to Leg 1 of their 2 game series with RSL.
It’s about what I expected. Rosales is the most important player for Seattle. He starts everything just like Morales does for RSL. I thought before hand if Rosales played it’d be close, but without Seattle would lose the series. And to all you whining Seattle fans who say RSL did not play good, it was just that yall played that bad, get a grip. RSL played like the RSL before their injuries, which was when they were considered the best in the league. And yall played how yall do without Rosales. You play more direct, and don’t work the ball near as well without him.
Offside or not – that was a hard one for the AR to call. The AR is always going to go in favor of the attacking team in that situation. It is easy for us to see it on numerous replays but during the present game it was probably very difficult for the AR to see/flag.
You’re right Colorado, can’t count you out. By the way, where were all your fans the other night? Was Tim Tebow mowing his lawn with his shirt off? Nice fan support!
oh ok cool. i need to go watch the highlights, haven’t had a chance yet though.
even if saborio didn’t touch that ball it was going in. not that this affects the offside/onside ruling, which I judge as onside. but it the goal didn’t need his last touch.
First goal looked offside to me. And Saborio didn’t even need to touch it — the ball was going in anyway.
Alonso really should have seen red.
Yes, but Saborio’s lean was even with the defender’s back foot. Onside goal.
It’s that right leg, which was extended back toward goal, that doomed the Seattle guy. (I don’t remember who it was. I think Jeff Parke.)
If Parke has his right leg under his body and not extended backward, it’s offside. That’s how close the call was.
“RSL was not that good”
Didn’t watch the game did you? They were excellent.
55% Possession
80% Passing Accuracy
11 Shots on Target (Seattle 0)
Seattle looked PDL compared to Salt Lake last night and it wasn’t even close.
i haven’t actually seen the goal, but according to Law 11, if your nose is past the last defender because you are leaning, it’s offside. the player’s entire body has to be even with the last defender. not just his feet.
RSL looked sharp. That second goal was sweet. Seattle was very fortunate not to have a man sent off,….it was a dismantling.
That was a horrible night for Seattle. RSL was not that good, momentum shifted after the first questionable goal too.
I think they still have a small chance since they are going back to Qwest or CenturyLink, whatever its called now. 3 goals is a lot to ask for and you know RSL is gonna bunker hard there. It’s gonna be a one sided game with RSL counterattacks.
Fact: Seattle Sounders have played 5 MLS playoff matches in their (MLS) history.
Fact: They have scored 1 (ONE!) goal in those matches.
There’s really no way to excuse that away — this is a three-year trend of Seattle’s attack not being able to score goals in the playoffs.
One can complain about playoff format (conference depth is cyclical, so sure, BOTH of these teams got screwed this year, but it didn’t seem to affect RSL much…), or whine about the first goal (extremely close, but onside, look at feet positioning and not body lean), but Seattle simply needs to grow some playoff mettle.
5 playoff matches. 1 goal.
So they were getting outplayed, but Seattle has got to buck up and keep it close for the return leg. They needed to shake off the first goal and keep this match at a 1-0 loss, or a 2-1 loss, or something.
Instead they continued to collapse and didn’t even give themselves a chance in the second leg. You don’t have to win or tie when it’s clear your team is having a bad night. But for god’s sake show some fight and battle to keep it a one goal….
No complaining or making excuses or whining about the MLS playoff structure please. That was as one sided as a game between two top teams can be, and Seattle are lucky to not have Alonso red carded. A pattern is definitely emerging… why are the Sounders so awful in the playoffs?
to be the best, you have to beat the best
Ask Alonso. Ask Montero. Ask Gonzalez. Ask…
Mondaini
And that Chivas player who broke Morales’ ankle should still be shot. Dude’s not even worth his weight in Chiclets.
I hate it so much that these two teams play in round one.
Result shouldn’t be too surprising though. The Seattle team that finished 10 points ahead of RSL had Rosales all year and the RSL team that finished 10 points below Seattle didn’t have Morales all year.
Whatever, hope RSL can get back in the CCL.
made my night too!
unsung hero has to be Will Johnson. He’s such a workhorse and his long run to block Montero’s blast was awesome. Then Montero trips Rimando. What a match!
If RSL has at least one of Borchers or Olave back for the next match they’ll advance with a tie or a 1-0 loss. If both are back RSL will frustrate the Seattle attack again and win next leg. RSL’s experience and the form of Javi is too much for SSFC.
Also who would have thought that shoving your opponent in the face is only a yellow card in the playoffs? Sounders dodged a bullet.
RSL will advance now thanks to Grabavoy’s insurance goal. Great win RSL.
Seattle didn’t win last year either (-__-)
Terrible performance by the sounders, one of the worst we’ve had all year. congrats RSL you will be going through, at least you are a team i enjoy watching so it makes this loss somewhat more tolerable. please wipe the floor with LA/NY in the next round
That’s what they said last year
One word to describe this game: OWNED, no chance for the Sounders, the champs will either be RSL or LA this year.(-________-)
When Morales and Saborio are in form watch the f out.
had to work tknight, but this made my night. RSLFL!!!!!!!
Ask Daniel Woolard. And Zemansky.
What the hell happened to Seattle?