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SANDY — Almost half of the Real Salt Lake squad was on a yellow card by the end of an intense match against the Seattle Sounders on Saturday at America First Field that ended in a 0-0 stalemate.
Seattle was looking for its first win in Utah since 2011, while RSL looked to maintain its strong play at home in recent history.
It was an intense, back-and-forth affair to start, with the teams trading blows and sharing possession 50-50 in the opening 30 minutes. The cards came early as the head referee looked to establish order between the rivals with João Paulo and Jefferson Savarino receiving yellows in the opening 10 minutes.
"There's some history there," Justen Glad said of the match's intensity. "But I think there's just two teams that wanted to win, and the intensity was the result of that."
Seattle took an advantage in possession going into halftime but RSL still led in shots, with Rubio Rubin coming close on a pair of chances — he's still looking for his first goal of the season.
The cards started flowing freely in the second half when Glad, Pablo Ruiz and substitute Braian Ojeda all received yellows in the span of 16 minutes leading up to the 69th minute. Ruiz was eventually sent off late in the match when he received a second yellow.
"I was definitely frustrated," Glad said. "I felt like there were a couple of soft yellows for sure. But at the end of the day, I mean, what can you do, you know? We take them on the chin and then we move forward."
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RSL brought on captain Damir Kreilach in the 81st minute to try and make one last push at a go-ahead goal, but the defenses held taut, splitting the points on the night. The silver lining was RSL's defense achieving its first clean sheet of the season, with Seattle managing just one shot on goal and zero goals scored.
"The past couple games we've put together maybe 85 minutes of focus, then we get scored on," Glad said. "So today, it was the complete 90, and hopefully, next time we can get a goal in there and take 3 points."
The Claret and Cobalt hit the road next week to take on the Houston Dynamo at 6:30 p.m. MDT on MLS Season Pass.
