SANDY — For the better part of an hour, Real Salt Lake pounded on the door of a Colorado squad playing with just 10 men Saturday night.

Then, suddenly, the goals poured in.

Albert Rusnak tallied a goal and an assist to propel Real Salt Lake to a 3-0 win Saturday night over rival Colorado at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Joao Plata and Damir Kreilach also scored for Real Salt Lake (3-3-1), which won its third-straight home match.

“We had a great week of training … and I think we came out a little overexcited. But then when things settled down, confidence grew a little bit,” RSL coach Mike Petke said. “We made a few adjustments, and the guys went out and executed it. We were close to throwing on another attacking player, but then the first goal came—and then the second and third goal came.”

Plata scored his team-high third goal of the season with a penalty kick in the 82nd minute, and the floodgates opened from there for RSL, which rallied from a 4-0 loss at New York City FC 10 days prior.

Kreilach scored his first goal since joining the Major League Soccer side during preseason with an 88th minute tally. The German midfielder took a well-placed cross from Albert Rusnak and buried the ball inside the far post to give RSL a 2-0 advantage it would never relinquish.

“First of all, I’m happy for the three points,” Kreilach said. “In this situation, that was the most important thing for us. Normally I’m very happy about my first goal. But we needed to keep fighting and get ready for the next game against Vancouver.”

RSL’s brand-new back line of Brooks Lennon, Justen Glad, Danny Acosta and newcomer Nick Besler didn’t allow a single shot on target from the Rapids.

“Nick (Rimando) didn’t have to make a save tonight? We should take that out of his salary for this week,” Petke joked. “I thought Nick (Besler) did very well, and he had a good showing for himself. He’s confident; he’s somebody I had at the Monarchs, and he was my captain from the second day. I never thought that the moment would faze him.”

Rusnak’s goal at the beginning of second-half stoppage time gave RSL its highest scoring tally in the young MLS season. The Slovakian curled his free kick inside the near post, past the outstretched arms of Colorado backup goalkeeper Zac MacMath and into the side netting that sent the crowd of 17,461 fans into a frenzy.

“It was amazing,” Kreilach said of Rusnak’s goal. “It was a good shot, a good free kick from Albert, and very well done.”

Real Salt Lake out-shot Colorado 28-12, including an 8-0 margin in shots on goal against a Rapids side that played with 10 players for all but the first 20 minutes of the match.

With each passing minute and no score on the board for the better part of an hour, head coach Mike Petke stressed a little more.

“When you’re playing against a team that is a man-down and sitting deep, you have to move the ball quick—side to side,” RSL coach Mike Petke said. “Eventually that gap will create. Eventually we saw a lot of 2-v-1s.

“Yeah, it was a bit stressful. But the penalty kick started it off, and then two other fantastic goals. Three points. Three goals. We’ll take it.”

Tim Howard was sent off just 20 minutes into the match after sprinting outside of the box to deny Jefferson Savarino of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity with his forearm. The 39-year-old goalkeeper was replaced by reserve MacMath, and Colorado played with 10 men for the remaining 70 minutes.

MacMath made three first-half saves after subbing on midway through the period, keeping RSL off the scoresheet despite putting up 11 shots.

But the second half was a different story. RSL started the half out-shooting the visitors 6-1, but the dam wouldn’t budge.

“After the New York City loss, we wanted to make today something special,” Kreilach said. “We did it.

“Colorado opened itself, and we created a lot of chances in the end. It was good that we could score a couple of goals.”

Next up:

Real Salt Lake travels to Western Conference foe Vancouver at 8:30 p.m. MT Friday, April 27. The match will be streamed live on KSL.com and the KSL TV app.

Related topics