Real Salt Lake won a tight match last Friday, edging Vancouver 2–1 at Rio Tinto Stadium. Now RSL will look to take their modest 2-game win streak abroad as they face 2012 Costa Rican champions C.S. Herediano in their opening contest of this year’s CONCACAF Champions League tournament.
The claret and cobalt were happy to take all 3 points against a Vancouver team that missed multiple chances to go ahead or tie the game. Salt Lake scored first after Jay Demerit was judged to have fouled All-Star teammate Kyle Beckerman (or was it a handball?) in the box and Álvaro Saborío converted the penalty kick in the 34th minute—his 11th in as many tries for RSL.
Vancouver struck back in the 52nd minute as Camilo bounced a clever chip over RSL’s Nat Borchers for Darren Mattocks, who sidestepped GK Nick Rimando and pushed his shot into an open goal from a narrow angle. Mattocks was troublesome all night for Rimando and the back four but he only capitalized once, scuffing an equally enticing chance harmlessly wide in the first half.
The winner came from Saborío just 6 minutes later, almost out of nowhere. Ned Grabavoy backed his run out of the corner with a pass up the touchline to Javi Morales who one-timed a looping cross into Vancouver’s box. Saborío rose above a sea of white jerseys to head the ball home from 12 yards. “Javier probably doesn’t play that ball to anyone else,” Grabavoy conceded afterwards, “because he’s completely marked by another really big guy.” It was Sabo’s team-leading 13th goal this year and his 6th in 5 games.
Vancouver hit the post and watched three sequential chances go begging in the second half. GK Joe Cannon was sent off in the 76th minute for handling the ball outside the box after a bad back-pass let RSL’s Fábian Espíndola in on goal, but the Whitecaps threatened until the final whistle was blown in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Recently acquired defenders Kenny Mansally and Kwame Watson-Siriboe started in place of Jamison Olave and Chris Wingert. Solid individual play compensated for some of the chemistry they lack with their new teammates, but the team is very positive about their play and looks forward to the depth they add as RSL begins their CONCACAF run.
Real hope to transcend their historic second-place finish in the 2010-11 CCL tournament, the furthest an MLS team has advanced by two rounds, but their attention hasn’t strayed beyond this first group stage match at Herediano. The Central American club competed in CCL in ’09–’10 and last year. They’ll host RSL on the grass of Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional (where Saborío scored the stadium’s first goal with the national team) rather than their regular home field’s artificial turf. Local fans have made Costa Rica a difficult place to play, though RSL got the result they needed in 2010, defeating Saprissa 3–2 on aggregate.
RSL will play four games in the group stage—home and away against Herediano and Panama’s Tauro FC. Only the winners of each of the 8 groups will advance and coach Jason Kreis said he knows how important it is to get results in their road games. “That’s the mentality we are going to go into this with is that at the very, very least we need to draw in this first game. I’m not saying we are going to play for a draw because that is not our style, but we believe there isn’t any room for error.”
Kickoff is Tuesday, July 31, at 10 p.m. EDT and will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel and streamed live at CONCACAF.com.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
