RSL grabs tie from Boca

Xango Cup 2007 was all about building confidence.

For Real Salt Lake, the international friendlies against England's Everton and Argentina's Boca Juniors coincided with the midpoint of the MLS season, and the club was hoping to use the matches to generate momentum heading into the second half of the season.

Mission accomplished.

On the heals of a shutout victory over English Premier League club Everton on Saturday, RSL hung on for a 1-1 draw with Boca Juniors in front of an energetic crowd of 16,378 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"To be honest we're all a little disappointed with the draw, which kind of speaks for where we're at right now," said defender Chris Lancos, one of just four Real players to play the full 90 minutes. "We're looking forward to our new season starting on Saturday."

That new season begins Saturday against the New England Revolution, and based on its past two exhibition results, RSL is arguably more confident right now than it's been all season.

"It's been two tough games, big clubs, so for us to do some really positive things against them is encouraging," said Real newcomer Kyle Beckerman.

Tuesday's match was realistically two separate games. In the first half, Real coach Jason Kreis played most of his first-choice players who more than held their own against one of the best clubs in the world.

"I think it was very positive for us the first 30 minutes of the game because they weren't breaking through the middle of us," said Real midfielder Carey Talley. "They weren't finding passes in our seems or anything like that. The ball was going out of bounds when they were passing it outside. I felt we did some very good things."

In the second half, Kreis gradually subbed in his reserve players, and that's when Boca Juniors really started to dictate the flow of the game.

Lancos admitted it was like they were putting on a clinic, stringing what seemed like 20 to 30 passes together. Not surprisingly then, Boca Juniors outshot RSL 10-2 in the second half to finish with a 14-8 advantage for the game.

RSL, however, took advantage of its impressive first half to take a 1-0 lead after Freddy Adu buried a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time.

Adu really thrived playing at second forward in his first match back with Real Salt Lake since leaving the team in mid-June to participate in the Under-20 World Cup.