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SANDY — Real Salt Lake midfielder and playmaker Javier Morales got his first home start and goal of the 2013 season Saturday night, giving the Salt Lake club a 1-0 win over Major League Soccer Western Conference opponent Chivas USA.
“I’m really pleased for him to come back after so many difficult injuries over the past couple of years, and for his first start at home tonight to get the goal that wins the game for us is huge,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. “He also played quite a few nice passes — on another night we score three or four and he hands us an assist as he typically does.”
The win bumped the Salt Lake club’s record to 3-3-2 on the season with 11 points in eight games played and pushed its home record to 2-0-1 on the season.
Real Salt Lake newcomer, midfielder Olmes Garcia, made his MLS starting debut Saturday night starting up top along side forward Alvaro Saborio. Garcia played 63 minutes and tallied his first RSL assist to Morales in the 53rd minute goal. Saborio also earned an assist on Morales’ goal.
“They both played well, in my opinion,” said Kreis. “And both were unfortunate not to score — Garcia hit the crossbar twice and Sabo had diving, lunging efforts, from (Chivas) defenders and goalkeeper, to make saves on his attempts. So I like what we see out of that combination."
With RSL forward Robbie Findley recovered from injury, a strain to his left adductor, Kreis’ choice to start Garcia came off his performance last week at Vancouver and his first MLS goal in the match.
“(Findley) is fully fit, he’s ready to go, but we’ve tried to be fair and make decisions that say ‘okay, the forwards that are in form, those are the ones that are going to start,’ ” said Kreis. “We literally made that decision after training Friday. They both have looked really, really sharp this week, and Garcia scored last week, so he gets the nod.”
RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando added to his all-time penalty kick saves in the 36th minute as Chivas midfielder Edgar Mejia fired a penalty kick attempt after a handball on RSL midfielder Ned Grabavoy in the box. Rimando went right to the ball, making his 18th career penalty kick save.
“That’s four weeks in a row, four weeks in a row I feel we’ve had penalty decisions go against us. It’s questionable,” said Kreis. “Incredible moment from (Rimando). Everybody that’s been around us knows that he’s quite capable of doing that and that was a huge, huge moment for us because we gained so much momentum.”
RSL will return to Rio Tinto Stadium in just two days as its reserve squad hosts the USL Pro side Phoenix FC Monday in a reserve match.
The Claret and Cobalt will return to MLS play next week, April 27, to host the Los Angeles Galaxy for the first time this season. The Salt Lake club will then finish off its three-game home stint the following week, May 4, hosting the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
