Real Salt Lake shows off defense in shutout win

SANDY — Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy entered Wednesday night's game at Rio Tinto Stadium as the two highest scoring teams in Major League soccer, so of course it was expected to be a game full of scoring, offensive explosiveness and fireworks.

That is not how it turned out. Well, outside of the pyrotechnics blasted into the sky in the pregame, that is. The two premium offenses in the league showed they can play a little defense as well, as RSL defeated the Galaxy 1-0.

"We're ecstatic to come out of the game with a shutout against a good team in L.A.," said central back Nat Borchers.

Even the one goal that was scored by RSL was a little "scrappy," as Borchers described it. Javier Morales scored in the 80th minute when he got the ball well behind the defense in an obvious offside position. The ball, however, had deflected off Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens to Morales, preventing him from being ruled offsides, and the Real playmaker easily slotted it past goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.

"I just think they are a really mature, composed, compact, organized team defensively that make things extremely difficult to break down," said coach Jason Kreis on why it took such a play to eventually score only the fourth goal conceded by the Galaxy this season — and second of the four by RSL.

Another problem in creating offensive fluidity for Real was the fact L.A. seemed fairly content to sit back in a compact form and hope to attack strictly on counters.

"They had eight guys back there, and they are all very tough back there," said midfielder Andy Williams. "They hold their shape well and make it hard for you to get anything going forward. They pressure you the minute you get the ball and then are so tough moving together that it is tough to find any openings."

While the Los Angeles defense was tough, Real was equally resilient in the back.

"Our communication was terrific, and I thought the guys were really trying to help each other out in any way they could," said left back Tony Beltran. "It just seems like lately that all the work we have been putting in and focusing on our defense that it is starting to pay off."

Kreis echoed Beltran's thoughts after the team has now posted back-to-back shutouts on the heels of last Saturday's 0-0 draw at D.C. United.

"We have harped on it for a long time, for a lot of weeks now, and for us to get some results from all that work is very rewarding," said Kreis. "I think it is interesting that you don't always see the results from what you work on right away; sometimes it takes a little time to sink in."

There will be more time for it to sink in as the team now has more than two weeks off while the league takes a break for the World Cup.

e-mail: mblack@desnews.com