SUNRISE, Fla. — In Real Salt Lake's third game of the preseason, it's tough to tell what general manager Garth Lagerwey was more impressed by: Assistant coach Robin Fraser playing 30 minutes, or RSL's 3-1 victory over Florida International.

"Robin's still got it. He's unbelievable at 42 years old, and he's still holding his own. Athletically that's unbelievable," said Lagerwey.

Fraser played the opening half-hour of the 90-minute scrimmage out of necessity with rookie David Horst excused to attend his brother's wedding, in addition to several injuries (Nik Besagno and Nat Borchers) and another excused absence (Ritchie Kotschau).

In reality, RSL's other coaches could've also played and it probably wouldn't have mattered against the inferior opponent — which was still better than its two California opponents according to Lagerwey.

"We went into the game with a couple objectives. Sometimes it's quite difficult cause you're not quite sure how the other team's going to play," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

"So some of the focuses we had on that game we couldn't quite get to because FIU played a little more defensive than we would've expected."

Real dominated possession as a result, putting away several chances and coming close on a half a dozen others.

Outside of a few players who only played 30 minutes, and Dustin Kirby who played 60 minutes, most of RSL's players suited up in either the first or the second half. The first-half squad prevailed 2-0, while the second-half team played to a 1-1 draw.

"The second half we did a little better job. Some of it is there's still a lot of coaching and learning going on," said Kreis. "We're still sort of in that first phase where you're getting them out there, getting them playing, so you use it for fitness, getting there touch back. It isn't about a lot of tactics offensively."

Real Salt Lake opened the scoring in the 16th minute on an own goal by Florida International. Kyle Brown's shot from the top of the box appeared to be going inches wide, but the FIU defender wasn't sure and in his panicked effort to clear the ball he knocked it in the back of the net.

Rookie Tino Nunez upped the margin to 2-0 with a fantastic header in the 37th minute on a cross from Brown, who did well to keep the ball from rolling over the endline despite the harassment of a diving FIU defender.

Eight minutes into the second half, Singapore trialist Indra Sahdan Daud increased the lead to 3-0 by knocking in a rebounded shot from Nunez. RSL keepers Chris Seitz and Kyle Reynish split time in FIU's goal, with Reynish playing the first half and Seitz the second.

Seitz did very well to save a powerful, low-driven shot by Matias Cordoba in the 52nd minute, and made a very similar save on Nunez's shot a minute later, but Indra was right there to clean up the mess.

Florida International's lone goal came in the 81st minute.

RSL's Fabian Espindola narrowly missed upping the lead to 4-1 in the 87th minute when his long-range shot rattled off the crossbar.

ENDLINE: Striker Robbie Findley was feeling ill and didn't play. ... David Horst was away at his brother's wedding.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com