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SANDY — Real Salt Lake secured its spot in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final Wednesday night with a 2-1 win over Major League Soccer opponent the Portland Timbers, putting the club one game away from hoisting a trophy.
“We were in another big game and we did get a win,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. “Credit to the guys. We’ve got one step forward; the biggest game is still in front of us. Portland is a very, very good team. I think that they cost us lots of problems in and around our penalty box lots of times — if a bounce goes a foot wide or a foot left for them or a bounce breaks their way, they probably score multiple goals on us.”
The Salt Lake club put itself ahead early with a goal in the seventh minute of play off forward Alvaro Saborio, just his second ever U.S. Open Cup goal.
“I think scoring early was big for us,” said Kreis. “Reward ourselves for the momentum that we created at the beginning of the match is always important, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that lately.”
RSL secured the win with a 78th minute goal off forward Joao Plata, who entered the match off the bench in the 61st minute for forward Robbie Findley.
“The insertion of Plata to get the second goal and obviously, as we saw, the game winner — was huge for us,” said Kreis.
The Timbers put one in the back of the net in the 90th minute off midfielder Diego Valeri, but it wasn’t enough to change the game.
The match saw the return of RSL defenders Chris Wingert, Tony Beltran and Carlos Salcedo to the backline, which Kreis said was a difference maker in the match.
“I really thought that all three of those guys and Borchers had really strong performances tonight,” said Kreis. “It shows how important Beltran and Wingert are for us in particular.
“And I also think that Carlos is starting to show how important he can be because we didn’t have him for a few weeks and we struggled. Now he comes back in along with the other guys and we walk out of here with another win. He's a young player, but he's showing to be pretty important right now.”
A former RSL midfielder who now captains the Portland-based club made his return to Rio Tinto for the first time since the 2012 season and finished the night off with 62 minutes and two shots at RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
“He’s done great there,” Rimando said of his former teammate. “He’s really turned that club around, and it’s good to see him. When we cross those lines it’s no friends really, but a lot of respect for him and what he’s done there and obviously for his game. Happy to see him, but happy they are not going to the finals.”
The Salt Lake club will host MLS opponent D.C. United Oct. 1 in its first-ever Open Cup final. D.C. United secured its spot in the final with a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire, also Wednesday night.
“I think looking back and thinking about this a lot today, we’ve had a lot of really momentous occasions in this building over the past several years, a lot of big games that we’ve looked forward to, done a lot of talking about and oftentimes all we needed to do is show up and win, and this will be the same type of match.”
The Salt Lake club also continued its history-making season with Wednesday night’s fan attendance of 14,742 — a new record for a U.S. Open Cup semi final match.
The Claret and Cobalt will be back inside its fortress Rio Tinto Stadium in three days as it returns to MLS play, hosting the Houston Dynamo Saturday night. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
