From Deseret News archives:
Real Salt Lake: Team gets its kicks in record-setting victory
Last week at Chivas USA it played well for stretches, but failed to finish its chances and lost by two goals.
It's only fitting then that on Saturday night against highly regarded D.C. United, RSL played good but not great but still managed to walk away with an impressive 4-0 victory it's most lopsided win in team history.
"That clearly wasn't our prettiest soccer, but we'd been playing pretty nice soccer and not getting results," said Real defender Chris Wingert. "In a lot of ways we did to them what Chivas did to us last week, we scored when we had chances and put them in a position they didn't want to be in and did what we had to do to win."
On three previous occasions in franchise history RSL notched three-goal victories, most recently a 4-1 win over Colorado on Aug. 9, but Saturday's four-goal outburst set a new benchmark in team history.
The victory helped Salt Lake improve to 1-1-1 on the season, with a two-game road trip to Toronto FC and D.C. United looming in the coming weeks.
RSL prevailed by scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes and then twice more in the closing 15 minutes. In between the soccer was quite average, but Kreis had a suggestion as to why.
"Especially in the first half we were a little unsure how to play with the lead, we just dropped off so deep ... we were probably fortunate we didn't give them one before halftime," said Kreis.
D.C. United's sluggish defending could've been the product of fatigue, fresh off its Wednesday night performance at home against Mexican club Pachuca in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Less than 72 hours after that match, D.C. coach Tom Soehn opted to rest his million-dollar midfielder Marcelo Gallardo and starting keeper Zach Wells, and the end result was a humbling loss its third straight at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"They came in thinking it was going to be the old Real Salt Lake and we showed them tonight that this is a different team," said midfielder Kyle Beckerman, who accounted for two goals.
RSL opened the the scoring in the 12th minute with Dema Kovalenko slotting a perfect through ball to Beckerman, who easily buried the shot past D.C. United's back-up rookie keeper Jose Carvallo.
Recent comments
i saw pigs flying so i figured this must have happened
Anonymous | April 15, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.
Like The Wolf said in "Pulp Fiction", "Let's not
start...."
Well,...
Royale with cheese | April 14, 2008 at 4:10 p.m.
To RSL who cares:
Liverpool? I agree with the others, Arsenal and...
Leo Rocks | April 14, 2008 at 12:58 p.m.
- Am.F. teen seeks to honor soldier 10:45 p.m.
- Boundaries for new high school 10:37 p.m.
- Grieving UK mother rips into Brown 10:26 p.m.
- North and South Korea clash at sea 10:25 p.m.
- Robbers see Army ID, return wallet 10:25 p.m.
- Base opens rift in U.S.-Japan ties 10:19 p.m.
- Did Blackwater try to bribe Iraqis? 10:18 p.m.
- World datelines 10:18 p.m.
- Cal RB Best resting at home 10:12 p.m.
- Long days for BYU interns 10:11 p.m.
- Utah group finds homes for orphans
- Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
- Y. tight ends talented tandem
- Jazz blow big lead, hang on
- Utes get extra motivation
- Senators want food tax restored
- Hair-pulling raises more questions
- BYU soccer incident still popular
- Lobo land like home for BYU lineman
- U. hopes to keep clicking
- House passes health care bill
263 - TCU showdown has big implications
188 - Lobo suspended
185 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
155 - Senators want food tax restored
148 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
119 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
105 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
104 - RSL rallies to advance
103
After beating the Knicks in New York on Monday night, Jerry Sloan was...
BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said this morning that placekicker Justin...
The driver is unhurt physically, but lost his wife and unborn child. Who...
Each one of these men is a real hero! God bless the USA!
What COURAGE! For Mr. Gale to speak out in this way is what free speech is...
It may retain heat, but the fact is, ice records etc, show first warming then...
If Utah can keep the score in the 20's they have a real chance to win. ...
Justice.
Jeff- very good and insightful article. I enjoyed it very much. Great read.
What a great country that we have the freedom have this debate. We have the...
Throwing that elbow was hardly a basis for the maniacal string of assaults...
My childhood friends whose ancestry originated south of the border initially...



