Real Salt Lake routs Revolution

SANDY — The New England Revolution must hate Rio Tinto Stadium.

As far as they're concerned, Dave Checketts should've never meddled around with soccer and stayed in the NBA. Perhaps then David Beckham would've never broke ground with a golden shovel, Rio Tinto Stadium would've never been built, and the Revs would've been spared from humiliating nights in suburban Utah.

New England needs to look on the bright side: Friday night could've been worse — at least it didn't lose 6-0.

A year after handing the Revolution their worst loss in franchise history, Real Salt Lake laid another beating on an Eastern Conference bottom-feeder with a 5-0 win in front of 19,101 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium.

With the tongue-lashing coach Jason Kreis gave his team following last week's effort in a draw with San Jose, a win against a bad New England team was perhaps predictable. Nobody could've foreseen an almost identical score line as New England's previous visit, though.

"We talked about it all week about a reaction and a response to last weekend; you couldn't ask for much more," said Kreis.

The win extended RSL's unbeaten streak to nine straight, and its home unbeaten streak now stands at 18 dating back to last May.

After years of toiling in mediocrity — excluding last year's playoff run — RSL has clearly evolved into an elite MLS team and never expects to lose — ever.

"That 0-0 tie last week, that literally felt like one of the worse feelings this locker room has had since I've been here. And that was only 0-0," said midfielder Ned Grabavoy. "I think that's where this team is at right now."

As far as the Revolution go, they'd be happy never coming to Utah again.

Real Salt Lake flexed its home muscles with two goals in the first half and three more in the second. Fabian Espindola and Jamison Olave scored in the first half, Alvaro Saborio ended his month-long scoring drought with a pair of second-half goals, and even RSL's World Cup hero Robbie Findley got in on the action.

It took him a while, though.

Findley entered the game as a halftime substitute, and midway through the half he sprayed a clear-cut scoring opportunity over the crossbar. It wasn't until the 85th minute that he finally solved the scoring hex that plagued him prior to the World Cup and even during the World Cup.