Real Salt Lake ends scoring drought in win

SANDY — Once Real Salt Lake got on the board, they made the lead stick.

Unlike their previous two contests, in which they faced two-goal deficits and ultimately lost by that margin, RSL fashioned its own 2-0 lead.

In the end, Real added to that advantage, and shut out the New York Red Bulls, 3-0, on Saturday night in front of 19,081 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"We knew we had to come out with some energy tonight," defender Nat Borchers said. "The message from (Kreis) was that we really needed to come out with a good response, and we did."

Borchers was part of a stout back line for Real (10-5-6, 36 points) that corralled New York all night, but he was also the owner of his team's first score.

On a corner kick by RSL captain Kyle Beckerman, Andy Williams tried to flip the ball over New York goalkeeper Frank Rost, who barely got a hand on it.

The ensuing corner by Beckerman squarely found the head of Borchers, who put the ball in the net for RSL's first goal in its last 200 minutes of play.

"So many of our players do certain things extremely well, and they need to stay within themselves," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "I think that in the last couple of games we got away from that. So it was nice to see a lot of guys perform well."

Undoubtedly, one of those players Kreis was referring to was 17-year-old midfielder Luis Gil.

Not content with riding out the final minutes of the first half, Real continued to press, and it paid off in the 44th minute. Beckerman made a short pass to Gil, who, after a quick touch, made a speedy turn and blasted it from just outside the 18-yard box for his first Major League Soccer goal.

"I got a good first touch," Gil said, describing the goal. "I was just thinking that I couldn't let this one go. I was thinking, 'get it on target.' "

Halftime came directly after that, and Real's last-second effort proved to deflate the already mostly-punchless Red Bulls (6-6-12, 30 points) side.

The quick start was crucial for RSL, who was able to build on that momentum, and not have to try to come from behind, as they have the last couple of games.

"We didn't want to get ourselves in a really bad spot, a big hole to try to climb out of," Kreis said.

New York ended the game with only a single shot on goal (on seven attempts), compared to seven shots on goal (10 attempts) for RSL. Defender Chris Wingert credited most of that to his team accomplishing what they set out to do.