Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOS ANGELES — At least it wasn’t 5-1 Wednesday night.
But it's still a loss.
Christian Ramirez scored two goals in his first home start for Los Angeles FC to lead the MLS expansion club to a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake at Banc of California Stadium.
Ramirez nearly gave the host LAFC a goal less than 10 minutes into the match, but his header from Carlos Vela was waived offside in the eighth minute.
Instead, the recent transfer from Minnesota United made it count just four minutes later, chipping a through-ball from Carlos Vela over RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando to give the expansion team a 1-0 lead.
Ramirez doubled the advantage at the half-hour mark, slotting home a goal past Rimando for the 2-0 advantage that LAFC (11-7-6, 39 points) would take into halftime.
"We had one or two opportunities early on, but we were chasing shadows out there," a visibly frustrated RSL coach Mike Petke told ESPN at halftime. "The pressure had to be better … but we weren’t able to do that very much."Backup goalkeeper Andrew Putna made his MLS debut for Real Salt Lake (10-10-5, 35 points) at halftime, entering as a precautionary sub for Rimando after the Southern California native went to the bench with a left hamstring injury.
It was the first time Rimando has come off as a substitute in his 462-game MLS career, according to RSL stats and information.
Putna made four saves to keep LAFC from adding to the margin.
LAFC handed Salt Lake a humbling 5-1 loss in RSL’s home opener back in March. Since then, the Sandy-based club has gone 9-0-3 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
New-look RSL
Real Salt Lake opened with a unique formation as Mike Petke’s side tried to earn a result on the road for just the fourth time in 2018.
Petke deployed a 3-5-2 formation in the first half, with defenders Justen Glad and Nick Besler joined by Shawn Barry in front of Rimando, and defenders Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera deployed as wingbacks. Kyle Beckerman and Stephen Sunday held possession in the midfield, while Albert Rusnak, Sebastian Saucedo and Corey Baird were pushed forward.
Next up
Real Salt Lake plays at the Houston Dynamo at 8 p.m. MT Saturday. The match will be streamed live on KSL.com and the KSL TV app.
