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SANDY — Real Salt Lake moved to the top of Major League Soccer's Western Conference table Saturday night after a 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders inside Rio Tinto Stadium.
The win extended the club’s record to 9-5-3, giving RSL 30 points — the first MLS club to do so this season. And with the major changes the roster underwent prior to the season, it wasn’t a spot RSL head coach Jason Kreis expected his club to see at this point in the season.
“I think realistically I looked at us as being a team that was going to be learning the whole season — as a team that was going to be hopefully improving the whole season — and have been fairly unconcerned with our placement with the standings.” Kreis said. “We’re still looking at the individual performances. When I say individual performances I mean week in and week out, individual games and looking for places to improve.”
RSL captain and midfielder Kyle Beckerman put the Salt Lake club on the board in the 41st minute while forward Robbie Findley secured the win in the 46th minute of play.
“It was a captains effort tonight,” Kreis said. “(Kyle) led by example the number of times when he broke up plays, intercepted passes and got into critical tackles. It was off the charts — a really, really strong performance by him.”
Findley’s goal extended the Salt Lake club’s two or more goals per game to five straight games across all competitions, in three MLS matches and two Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play, totaling 16.
Pleased to have (Saborio) back. I thought he was pretty sharp on the ball. I think that he was a major contributor to the success the team had and a major contributor to the three points tonight.
–Jason Kreis
“A month ago, I think I told you that we were giving away too many clear cut chances, and even though we weren’t getting scored on a bunch, I felt like we were living on the edge and we were living on a line of a lot of fantastic saves,” Kreis said. “To limit (Seattle) with the number of chances that we did, I think we showed a very strong defensive effort from everybody involved.”
The match saw the return of Costa Rican striker Alvaro Saborio, who hasn’t made an appearance in the Claret and Cobalt colors for nearly a month and hadn’t started for RSL in over two months.
“Pleased to have (Saborio) back. I thought he was pretty sharp on the ball,” Kreis said. “I think that he was a major contributor to the success the team had and a major contributor to the three points tonight.”
RSL will return to its home pitch for one final time in its current lengthy home streak as it hosts the Carolina RailHawks Wednesday in a quarterfinal U.S. Open Cup match. A win Wednesday would put the Salt Lake club into the semifinal round for the first time, where it would either face MLS opponent FC Dallas or the Portland Timbers.
Following Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup action, the Salt Lake club will return to MLS play and head out on the road to face Toronto FC June 29. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
