Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Real Salt Lake's first home game at Rice-Eccles Stadium turns 20 years old.
- Players and fans recall the excitement and atmosphere of the 2005 match.
- Brian Dunseth scored the winning goal, marking a historic moment for Utah soccer.
SALT LAKE CITY — April 16, 2005.
"Hitch" was the biggest movie of the year at the time, the first-ever YouTube video was still a week away from being uploaded, and Real Salt Lake was playing its first home game ever at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of 25,287 fans.
Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark event in Utah professional soccer, so we decided to get the full story of what that day was like from the people who were actually there.
"It was a day game and ESPN was in town," RSL vice president of communications Trey Fitz-Gerald said. "It felt like a big event — perfect weather."
RSL kicked off its inaugural campaign with two road games: a 0-0 draw against the MetroStars and a 3-1 loss to the LA Galaxy, when Jason Kreis scored the club's first-ever goal after being the first player signed in club history the previous year.
"I remember the emotions going into it, the fans," Kreis said of the home opener. "There was an incredible crowd there, being the first game, so it was exciting to be a part of it."
Kreis — who would later go on to be the head coach of RSL and currently works in the club's front office — captained the team in 2005, with U.S. men's national team standouts Clint Mathis and Eddie Pope also on the roster.
RSL had a surprise starter in its home opener, however, with Southern California native Brian Dunseth joining the fray.
"I just remember running out on the field and seeing the fans," Dunseth said. "Because we'd been training there, but obviously different when it's, you know, 25,000 people inside the stadium. It just felt like there was this great momentum all of a sudden."
Who does Dunseth remember seeing across the field from him on the rival Colorado Rapids? None other than current RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni.
"I just remember the fan base just being crazy, and it felt like a derby match — it felt like it was real," Mastroeni said. "That's really the first time — having played in Colorado for so many years — that it felt like something was brewing. Difficult place to play, but, yeah, I just remember the environment was crazy."
Speaking of the "crazy fan base," here's how some remember that time.
"It was sunny and warm, and I was excited to see Major League Soccer in Salt Lake City," RSL supporter Chris Nagle said. "I remember the crowd not being a 'soccer crowd.' There were groups of people in the stands with drums and a megaphone doing their best to inject a chant or two into the crowd."
Kreis remembers the soccer knowledge of the crowd a little differently, however, especially in comparison to his first MLS club, the Dallas Burn.
"They were cheering at the right times and cheering the right occasions, and not cheering the silly things," Kreis said. "I remember I was confused as to why this fan base had more soccer knowledge than I felt the fan base in Dallas would even have."
Kreis said that over his years in Utah, he learned that because many people served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "the people that were in this stadium had been in real soccer cultures for extended periods of time and had become real soccer fans."
As for the match itself, there was only one goal scored, and it took a while to get to it.
"The match seemed tense, and with each passing minute the anticipation to see that historic first home goal was growing," RSL supporter Michael Mella said.
Fitz-Gerald remembers the football lines on the makeshift soccer pitch at the University of Utah stadium, and not wanting to "send people home disappointed" with a 0-0 draw in the club's first game in front of a new fan base.
RSL drew a free kick in the attacking third in the 80th minute, and Mathis stood over it, ready to give the stadium a chance at relief. The ball sailed into the box toward a diving Kreis, but bounced just out of his reach and across the face of the goal.
"I just always knew that I had to get back post," Dunseth said of the play. "And I just remember as the ball's coming over my right shoulder, I knew Joe Cannon, the goalkeeper, was going to come off his line a little bit, and I was just like, 'eff it.'
"I jumped, and I got a hold of it, and I was waiting for the collision, but it didn't happen. He kind of, like, went over me, and I just remember when I landed, I saw the ball hit the back of the net."
Dunseth ran straight to the corner and — in a moment of celebration he said was not planned — picked up the flag and planted it while raising a finger into the air as if to say, in his words, "This is us. This is the place."
"I remember an explosion of euphoric joy after the ball went into the net," Mella said. "Everyone was so happy, strangers were high-fiving and giving hugs. It is almost beyond description."
Nagle also recalled the "planting the flag" celebration from Dunseth, which Fitz-Gerald called "kind of an iconic moment."
"After I picked up the flag, I kind of misplaced it, and the referee was like, 'You know, I could give you a yellow card for that.' And I just remember saying, 'You ain't giving me a yellow card,' and just jogging back."
RSL managed to win four more games at home that season, including a revenge win over the Galaxy, before ending the inaugural season on a 12-game winless streak. Still, the home opener stood as a launching point and sign of what professional soccer could be in the state of Utah.
"It just felt like the culmination of a lot of very hard work," Fitz-Gerald said. "And a small group of people working long hours to put that thing together."
For Dunseth, who played with RSL for just one season but has planted roots here as a Utah resident, he said he simply hoped his goal and that win 20 years ago could be "the start of something special here in Salt Lake."
