Real Salt Lake quiets cocky Columbus in convincing victory

SANDY — Between their first meeting with Real Salt Lake back in April and their second meeting Saturday evening, Columbus' players did plenty of talking about RSL.

After the Crew beat Real back at the start of the season, Columbus goalkeeper William Hesmer basically asserted that RSL's MLS Cup win last season was a fluke and that Columbus "clearly" believed it had been "the class of the league the past two years."

In the build up to Saturday's showdown between two of MLS' three top teams, other Columbus players echoed Hesmer's sentiments and continued to talk.

Real Salt Lake, meanwhile, sat back and soaked everything in.

Then it went and did all its talking on the pitch.

Clearly feeding off what they believed were disrespectful statements about their club, RSL's players produced a convincing performance in front of their home fans to get three points they needed against a team they badly wanted to beat.

Javier Morales scored once in each half and produced an amazing individual performance to galvanize Real Salt Lake, and the club walked away with an incredibly satisfying 2-0 win over Columbus before 16,906 fans inside Rio Tinto Stadium.

"(Our) guys have recognized that there were some things that were a little disrespectful towards us, and I think they handled those things the right way, which was to show it on the field with the right amount of energy and the right amount of attitude," said RSL coach Jason Kreis, whose club walked away from Saturday's game feeling very satisfied after gaining three consecutive positive results over seven grueling days.

With Saturday's victory, Real Salt Lake moved to 39 points on the season and went two points clear of Columbus into second place in the race for this year's MLS Supporters' Shield. RSL remains four points behind first-place L.A., which beat New York earlier in the evening.

To have a chance of staying within touching distance of L.A., RSL knew it had to get three points when it took the field against the Crew on Saturday.

Morales made sure that happened.

He put Real Salt Lake ahead 1-0 with a screamer from the left edge of the 18-yard box in only the 11th minute, and — with his team suddenly struggling after a brilliant first-half performance — he added a crucial second goal in the 60th minute.