photo by Russ Isabella/USA Today Sports
By COLE KELLOGG
Real Salt Lake recorded a much-needed victory against a red-hot Sporting Kansas City at Rio Tinto Stadium on Sunday night thanks to a deflected goal in stoppage time.
Olmes Garcia scored in the final minutes to push RSL past Western Conference foe Sporting KC, 2-1. Garcia found the winner when he took a shot that deflected off of Kansas City defender Kevin Ellis before skying over the head of goalkeeper Tim Melia.
The result ended two streaks simultaneously, putting a halt to a three-game winless skid for RSL and seven-match unbeaten run for Sporting KC.
The first RSL tally came in the 15th minute off of brilliant service from Javier Morales. On a free kick from deep, the Argentine playmaker whipped in a high ball that Sebastian Jaime headed for his first MLS goal.
Dom Dwyer found the equalizer for Kansas City in the 30th minute. Benny Feilhaber, slid a clever ball through to Dwyer, and the striker put a one-touch curled shot to the left side of Nick Rimando for the tying goal.
Morales was again at the heart of the buildup for RSL’s match-winner. Morales fought hard to maintain the ball at the top of the box before dishing it out to the lefthand side of the field to Garcia, whose ensuing shot took a kind and game-winning deflection.
Real Salt Lake will now have to travel to the east coast for a Wednesday night match-up against the New York Red Bulls.
Sporting Kansas City’s next game is against the Colorado Rapids at home on Saturday.
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What did you think of RSL’s 2-1 win over Sporting KC? Impressed with Real Salt Lake’s performance? What went wrong for Kansas City?
Share your thoughts below.
RSL definitely deserved this win. They were the better side most of the game. This was a very entertaining match and by far the most chances that RSL has created all season. The SKC keeper stood on his head multiple times. That combined with some poor finishing kept it from being 4 or 5 goals.
Additionally, not only did the SKC goal come completely against the run of play, but Dwyer was definitely off side. However, after all the smack that the Wiz talked coming in, it was nice to see them get what they had coming. RSL has been playing with little urgency and sleep walking through games. SKC definitely lit a fire under them, especially Feilflopper.
However, as a fan, that was one of the most entertaining games of the year in MLS. Tons of scoring opportunities, high intensity, some bad blood and aggressive challenges and great skill all over the park. More MLS matches need to be played at this pace.
Even as a SKC fan, I agree with most of this. Dwyer was definitely offside, RSL dominated the run of play in the first half for sure, though I thought it was fairly even in the second half (I think SKC had the edge until around the 80th minute or so). Very entertaining throughout. July 24th…too bad both teams will be missing key components due to the Gold Cup, but it should still be fun.
How was this not an own goal?
Seriously. I do not see that on frame without the deflection, but the end result is the same. SKC had serious difficulty marking on set pieces all night, but they had the better of the run of play in the second half. If not for Melia, it would have easily been a far worse scoreline. We get a chance to give it back to RSL in July and that should be enough time to counter the “creative” t-shirts RSL supporters wore.
You do realize that the “creative” t-shirts were made prior to MLS Cup 2013, mostly in response to the sparse availability of tickets for RSL fans. Any outrage you may feel is almost 2 years out of date.
Nope, I had no idea of the history of the shirt. I actually thought it was amusing. Not ‘outraged’ by it at all.