Real Salt Lake came on the MLS scene in 2005 with much fanfare, but their first three seasons were marred by poor results. In 2008, they finally qualified for the playoffs and they rode a wave of good play all the way to the semifinals before falling to NYRB. They have still never won a major trophy, but I don’t think it will be too much longer now.
As they have only been around for four years, they do not have many legends. Freddy Adu plied his trade in Utah before moving across the ocean to Benfica. Eddie Pope also played for RSL, as did Chris Klein, Jeff Cunningham, Alecko Eskandarian and Jason Kreis, the squad’s current coach. He’s done a remarkably good job so far too.
Recap: RSL finished an evenly balanced 10-10-10 in 2008 and were above .500 for the first time in their history. Though they fell in the conference final to the non-conference Red Bulls, they had a very successful season and will look to continue their momentum in 2009. Overall, I’d give them a B- for their year.
Offense: RSL’s offensive woes continued in 2008 as they only managed 40 goals for the duration of the season to finish 11th in goals overall. Their playoff production looked better, but they still need more weapons. Movsisyan heated up as the season went on, but he and Morales can’t carry the whole load so they get a C+ for offense.
Dave van den Bergh got the goal midway through the first half that earned the Red Bulls their first-ever appearance in the MLS Cup but the story of this game was the missed opportunities for Real Salt Lake.
Cheered on by a crowd of 20,008 RS: attacked all game outshooting New York 24-11. Four of those shots hit the woodwork and and Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero made several brillant saves to deny RSL again and again,
The magical season of Real Salt Lake continued Saturday with a thrilling 2-2 tie against second-seeded Chivas USA and a 3-2 aggregate score victory. Salt Lake will take on either the top-seeded Houston Dynamo or fourth-seeded New York Red Bulls, who play the second leg of their matchup on Sunday.
After going down a goal in the first half, RSL battled back to tie and then take the lead against Chivas USA before hanging on to a tie that saw them through to the conference final.
A goal in the second minute of stoppage time by substitute Steven Lenhart earned the top-seeded Columbus Crew a 1-1 draw with the Kansas CityWizards in the first leg of their Western Conference semifinal series.
Kansas City had taken the lead via Davy Arnaud in the 53rd minute but the Wizards were forced to play with 10 men for the final 15 minutes after Herculez Gomez was sent off for hard foul.
Columbus pressured late and finally broke through when Lenhart controlled a bouncing ball at the top of the 18-yard box and fired a right-footed shot into the lower left corner to even the score.
It did not look like it was going to come, but finally Real Salk Lake broke through the Chivas USA rearguard in the 89th minute Saturday night to take a 1-0 lead in this Western Conference semifinal series
Real Salt Lake was the aggressor all night, holding a 21-3 shots advantage – but the team failed to capitalize until Yura Movsisyan finally delivered by directing in a cross from midfielder Javier Morales .
“(Yura) made things extremely difficult for (Chivas’) two center backs all night,” Real head coach Jason Kreis said. “It was good to see he was rewarded for all his hard work.”
The surprising late season surge of Salt Lake has captured the attention of MLS fans throughout the nation. With three weeks left, Salt Lake is currently poised to capture the third seed in the West and qualify for their first ever postseason appearance.
RSL starts its bid for MLS Cup glory by playing its first ever home game at Rio Tinto Stadium this Thursday night against the Red Bulls on ESPN2. Surely, Salt Lake cannot be lacking for motivation as this all-important game approaches. Then, RSL will have nine days to prepare for Dallas at home before finishing the season on the road against the Rapids.
Forbes.com recently released a report that looked at the economic side of MLS and also put a value on each of the Major League Soccer franchises.
At a macro level, things are looking up for MLS. Seven of the league’s 14 teams play in soccer-specific stadiums, five of which have been built since 2002. Expansion franchises in Seattle and Philadelphia recently agreed to pay $30 million each to join the league, three times what Toronto FC paid to join MLS three years ago. Commissioner Don Garber says the next two expansion teams, to be announced in 2009, will cost $40 million. Some team owners are even floating a $50 million price tag.
Fabian Espindola likes to celebrate goals. At some point, he decided he would make it his custom to celebrate a goal with a back flip. Apparently, no one associated with his club, Real Salt Lake, told him this was not a good idea.
Six minutes into RSL’s game with the Gals last weekend, Espindola thought he had netted one and proceeded to perform his customary back flip. There were just two problems: (1) the goal had been called back as Espindola was offsides and (2) Espindola’s flip flopped and he came down awkwardly on his ankle.
A look at the scores and match reports from this weekend’s games in Major League Soccer.
Columbus 2 FC Dallas 1
Jeff Cunningham became the fourth player in MLS history to reach 100 goals when he scored in his first game for FC Dallas, but midfielders Brian Carroll and Brad Evans netted second-half goals to give the Crew a 2-1 win Saturday night.
Cunningham’s 35th-minute tally was his first for Dallas since being acquired from Toronto FC Aug. 8. It also was his first goal against the team for which he played eight seasons.
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