Real Salt Lake: Late goal lifts RSL to wild win over Chivas USA

CARSON, Calif. — As quickly as Justin Braun spoiled the heroics of Chris Wingert, Fabian Espindola did the same to Braun on Saturday night on a wild night at the Home Depot Center.

After RSL had given away the lead in the 80th minute against Chivas USA, second-half substitute Espindola reclaimed it in the 89th minute with a dramatic breakaway goal to lead Real Salt Lake to a 2-1 victory.

"That's what it's all about coming in off the bench, credit to Fabian," said Wingert. "His pace, he was cool, calm and collected to knock that in."

The win was RSL's fourth straight, equaling the franchise record set back in 2006 and helping the club improve to 5-3-1 on the season to remain in a tie for second place in the Western Conference.

Espindola said he was itching to get into the game after missing three straight with an ankle injury, and he made a pretty immediate impact after replacing Pablo Campos in the 78th minute. One-touch passing from Alvaro Saborio and Andy Williams helped spring the Argentine toward his second goal of the season.

Until Espindola's heroics, it looked as if a hometown boy had burned RSL.

Braun, a Salt Lake City native, scored an 80th-minute equalizer on a wonderful strike to tie the game at 1-1. The Skyline High graduate found the slightest bit of space in between RSL's Jean Alexandre and Nat Borchers and didn't hesitate sending a waist-high volley on goal, with the shot skipping off Nick Rimando's fingertips and into the back of the next.

Even though RSL managed to salvage the win in spite of Braun's goal, it was nonetheless extremely frustrating for coach Jason Kreis.

"We put a huge emphasis on trying to get a shutout here," said Kreis, whose team only has two shutouts this season.

Despite his bold statement that his team failed in its objective Saturday night, Kreis was pleased with the positive reaction afterward.

"The way we won it today may not have been so pleasing to my eye ... but it's also character building," he said. "We did give that goal away and it would've been easy for our guys to put their heads down because I made it really clear what the objective was, and we failed in that objective."

RSL, which was outshot 13-9 by Chivas, will try and extend its winning streak to five straight next week with at home against Kansas City.

Until Braun's late heroics for Chivas, it looked like Wingert would be the unlikeliest of heroes for RSL.