Real Salt Lake's friendly turns out to be no contest

SANDY — Winning in the CONCACAF Champions League later this year is very important to Real Salt Lake.

It's a big reason why the club scheduled Saturday night's friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium against Costa Rican club Puntarenas. Facing a decent Latin American team was seen as a tuneup to prepare for the real thing in a few months when RSL faces teams from Mexico and Panama.

In the end, Saturday's match served as more of a glorified practice.

Real Salt Lake dominated Puntarenas throughout, outshooting the visitors 22-1 and ultimately prevailing 2-0 in front of 9,420 fans.

Asked if playing Puntarenas would help prepare for the CCL, Robbie Russell smirked and said, "It's always hard to go against your GM."

Realistically, the match was only beneficial from the standpoint of staying sharp. RSL went into its two-week World Cup hiatus on a seven-game unbeaten streak, which it hopes to extend to eight this Friday against visiting San Jose.

"We got match experience in our stadium, which I think we needed. We've had big, big breaks in the past and struggled when we come back from them," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "Our biggest goal was to get the guys prepared for next weekend."

All 19 players who suited up ended up playing for RSL, which extended its home unbeaten streak at Rio Tinto Stadium in all competitions to 20 games.

Though the final score didn't necessarily reflect the dominance, it was obvious rather quickly that a Punterenas team in the midst of its preseason was in over its head. Despite some decent technical ability, fitness was a major issue for most of the Costa Rican players, who were noticeably fatigued by the 30th minute.

Their home field is just 13 feet above sea level, so the journey to the altitude of the Rocky Mountains had Puntarenas sucking air early on.

"It seemed as if they were sitting back and letting us have the ball. Especially early on, we'd get a little frustrated and try and force things and lose the ball in really silly situations," said Russell. "Honestly, if we had not lost the ball and kept passing, they would've let us have the ball all day long."

Despite dominating early and outshooting Puntarenas 8-0 in the first half, Real Salt Lake's first breakthrough didn't come until the 41st minute as Javier Morales curled a 28-yard free kick into the upper right-hand corner of the goal.

Until Morales' strike, Puntarenas keeper Brayan Zamora had denied RSL with several excellent saves.