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SANDY — Real Salt Lake fell to Major League Soccer opponent Sporting Kansas City 2-1 in the last seconds Saturday night at home after a physical 90-plus minute battle.
It was a battle the Salt Lake club knew would take place inside Rio Tinto Stadium with Kansas in town.
“It was exactly what we expected, exactly what we prepared for and talked to the guys about and a situation we’ve got to try to keep focused,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. “Move on from the decisions that are tough, move on from getting fouled a lot, try to maintain your focus in the game.”
RSL was the first to hit the back of the net in the 56th minute, but Sporting Kansas City leveled the score in the 67th minute just after RSL defender Chris Wingert was ejected from the match off a second yellow card.
It was a decision Kreis disagreed largely with, even after watching a replay following the match.
“I just re-watched the replay because I wanted to come here with facts rather than just opinions about what I think I saw or what I thought I saw and to watch it again. It’s a poor decision, it’s an incredibly poor decision against us,” said Kreis.
The very physical play began just moments in when Wingert collided with Kansas forward Kei Kamara and was handed a yellow card in the third minute for the foul. Two more yellow cards were issued before halftime, both to RSL. Kansas escaped yellow cards until the 55th minute when midfielder Oriol Rosell was handed a yellow for a foul.
It was exactly what we expected, exactly what we prepared for and talked to the guys about and a situation we've got to try to keep focused.
–Jason Kreis
Kansas took the match in the 97th minute, two minutes past the five minutes of stoppage time the official indicated after the clock ran 90 minutes.
The loss snapped the Salt Lake club’s lengthy unbeaten streak at 11, and Kreis says the club will need to move forward quickly.
“We’ve had a really good run of games, and again tonight they battled extremely and put everything out there that they could,” said Kreis. “So we have to move on quickly and expect that hopefully the majority of the games the referee will get decisions right and hopefully referees will know that we shouldn’t play seven minutes extra time when he puts five on the board — these are difficult things to keep track of, I guess.”
The match saw the first MLS start for RSL goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, who saw his first minutes of the year last weekend in Dallas after goalkeeper Josh Saunders injured his left ACL.
Despite the result, Kreis was happy with what he saw from Attinella.
“Really pleased with Jeff,” said Kreis. “Made a couple of really good saves, especially the shot that (Claudio) Bieler hit in the second half down to his left. He looked calm, like he was ready for it.”
The Claret and Cobalt will return to the road for two straight weeks as RSL faces the New York Red Bulls July 27 and then the Colorado Rapids Aug. 3. RSL will return to Rio Tinto Aug. 7 as it returns to U.S. Open Cup play and hosts MLS opponent the Portland Timers. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
