Real Salt Lake rallies to beat Galaxy

CARSON, Calif. — Nick Rimando has been far and away Real Salt Lake's best player this season, and he reiterated why Saturday night at the Home Depot Center.

The RSL keeper made several high-quality saves throughout the match against the L.A. Galaxy, including turning away a penalty kick by Landon Donovan in the second half. That save just a few minutes after halftime was a game-changer.

The unlikely save revitalized RSL's attack, and it paid off as the club rallied for the 2-1 victory in front of a sold-out crowd at the Home Depot Center.

"Unbelievably good, unbelievably good," said Real coach Jason Kreis. "You talk about players being difference makers, and most of the time you're talking about the Beckhams, the Blancos, the Angels on teams. We're talking about Nick Rimando on ours."

Rimando finished with four saves, which set the stage for RSL's comeback after trailing 1-0 at the half.

Rookie Robbie Findley equalized 10 minutes after entering the match on a fantastic breakaway finish in which he held off defender Mike Randolph, who was persistently trying to foul him. It was his fourth goal for RSL, and meant that three and a half months after trading away Jeff Cunningham — who left the team on May 22 with three goals — RSL finally has a new leading goal scorer.

"Even though we went down, we didn't drop our heads," said Findley, who was traded to RSL from the Galaxy in June. "To get the goal against them felt real good. I didn't really need to prove anything. I just wanted to show people I'm fully capable of doing it if given the chance."

Eddie Pope made it 2-1 in the 71st minute after knocking in his own rebound near the left post following a free kick save by Galaxy keeper Steve Cronin.

RSL dodged several bullets the rest of the way, even after the Galaxy started playing a man down following Troy Roberts' second yellow card in the 77th minute.

One of the scary moments came in the 80th minute when Galaxy defender Abel Xavier headed a shot off the crossbar. Earlier in the half, one minute in fact before Findley tied it at 1-1, substitute Cobi Jones cracked a shot off the crossbar that would've definitely iced the L.A. win by putting it ahead 2-0.

No moment was bigger than Rimando's save against Donovan, who missed a penalty in Wednesday's SuperLiga final.

"I knew if he made it game's over," said Rimando. "I just tried to stay on my line as much as I can, and read him, and I guessed the right way."