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SANDY — The sell-out crowd at Rio Tinto Wednesday night saw two new faces in the starting lineup as Real Salt Lake posted a 0-0 draw against Western Conference opponent the Seattle Sounders.
Those debuts were RSL defenders Kenny Mansally, who was acquired by the team a few weeks ago, and Kwame Watson-Siriboe, who’s only been with the club for one week.
Despite the draw, RSL head coach Jason Kreis couldn’t have been happier with the performance of the two he chose to put in the starting lineup Wednesday night.
“I’m really pleased, I’m really pleased,” said Kreis.
Mansally saw 79 minutes and received a standing ovation for his performance from the 20,363 fans in attendance as he exited the pitch.
“Kenny’s been with us now a couple weeks and we’ve had a couple of times to really work with him individually, so I felt like he was really ready for his opportunity,” said Kries. “In the past couple days he’s been very, very sharp in training so I was excited to see his result tonight, and I think he proved us right a little bit. He was good, very good.”
Watson-Siriboe saw the full 90 minutes against the Sounders, a performance that Kreis was also pleased with.
“Kwame is a guy that’s only been with us a week, and because we’ve had so many games he really hasn’t had a full training session. So we rolled the dice a little bit on that one, and I think he came clean as well.”
Watson-Siriboe was grateful for his 90-minute debut and the experience overall, saying he felt pretty comfortable on the pitch.
“Training with such a great team, we have a lot of great players on the team. And in training the past week, all the coaches have helped me to come together and be comfortable on the ball,” said Watson-Siriboe.
Watson-Siriboe also said, “The thing that I’ve been missing most in my career, I think, is confidence, and here they’ve given me a lot of confidence to go out and play.”
The club hasn’t seen a double debut in the starting lineup for nearly two years. The last time was Aug. 11, 2010, when RSL was playing at the Philadelphia Union and RSL goalkeeper Kyle Reynish and former RSL defender Rauwshan McKenzie debuted together in the starting lineup.
Wednesday night’s debut for Mansally was his 90th regular season Major League Soccer match, while it was Watson-Siriboe’s 11th.
The Claret and Cobalt now sit with 33 points on the season and with a record of 10-6-3.
RSL will return to Rio Tinto Saturday as it hosts yet another Western Conference opponent, the Portland Timbers.
Saturday’s match won’t see striker Fabian Espindola due to a yellow card he received Wednesday night in the 87th minute and an accumulation that will suspend him for one match.
Following RSL’s weekend match, the club will hit the road the following weekend, July 14, to play the lone away game for the month at San Jose.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for ksl.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
