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SANDY — Real Salt Lake finished off its regular season with a 2-1 win over Major League Soccer Western Conference opponent Chivas USA Wednesday night — putting itself in a good position for the playoffs and the race for this season’s Supporters' Shield still in its sights.
“I think if you look at that game, we should have probably scored three at least, maybe four goals,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis told the media. “On a different night we put those away and make the game easy for ourselves. We didn’t do that. We gave away the cheap goal, which I think in the end maybe is a good thing. It may be a good thing that we have to spend the last 15 minutes really struggling and grinding out a result, because that’s exactly what it’s going to take in the playoffs.”
RSL started off its goals in the 49th minute when Chivas USA defender Mario de Luna was called for a handball in the box in the 48th minute, giving RSL a penalty kick. RSL striker Alvaro Saborio put the penalty kick in the back of the net and put Salt Lake up 1-0.
Just minutes later in the 52nd minute, RSL forward Joao Plata hit a shot from distance, putting the Salt Lake club up 2-0 before Chivas forward Julio Morales got one past RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando in the 77th minute.
“We know that we’ve kind of been struggling to score goals lately, and I think it’s one of those situations where if one comes, they're going to be coming in bunches,” Kreis said of Wednesday night’s goals.
The win put the Salt Lake club at 16-10-8 on the season with 56 points, and gave the club the lead in the Western Conference and tied for the Supporters' Shield, at least for the next few days before the rest of the MLS games wrap up this weekend. The win also guaranteed RSL a top-two playoff seed.
It’s a spot Kreis is happy to be in going into the playoffs.
“It leaves me feeling that I’m glad we have a week and a half now before our next game,” he said. “I’m glad that we’re going to have an entire week to know who our opponent is and where we’re going to play that match because we’re going to work pretty hard.”
As for the rest of the MLS games this weekend, Kreis says the Salt Lake club will be watching.
“Every minute of every game,” said Kreis. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
