Real Salt Lake registers home victory

SANDY — Real Salt Lake played like a desperate team Saturday night.

Not so much in the first half, when it was surprisingly lethargic again, but after halftime RSL played like a team realizing just how vital the full three points were to its playoff cause.

The result was a spirited defensive effort and a 1-0 victory over a suddenly struggling Seattle team at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"Another second half here at Rio Tinto Stadium where we figured out how to play," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "It's gonna drive myself crazy trying to figure out how we can get our team to play in the first half as well. It would be really nice to see our team play 90 minutes."

Two weeks ago, RSL scored four goals in the second half to rally from a 2-0 deficit against FC Dallas. Saturday against the expansion Sounders — a team that sat in second place in the Western Conference heading into the match — it turned up the urgency again after halftime.

In reality, there wasn't much wrong from a defensive standpoint with RSL's first half performance. It wanted to make things difficult on Seattle and did with numerous hard challenges in the opening 45 minutes.

"It was 100 percent one of our focuses," said Will Johnson. "We want to be hard to play against at home, we don't want to give away anything easy, we don't want to be soft. We want to be a hard team to play against and tonight we did that."

Kyle Beckerman said the team went in with the mindset to fight, believing once frustration set in for Seattle things would start to go RSL's way.

Still, it took a mental lapse by Seattle, a clever play from Nick Rimando and an excellent finish from Robbie Findley for everything to come together.

In the 62nd minute a dangerous build-up by Seattle was thwarted when Jhon Kennedy Hurtado headed a cross over the bar shortly after a set piece. Rimando quickly readied himself for a goal kick and immediately liked what he saw upfield.

"I'm always looking to spring Robbie (Findley) through, Fabian (Espindola) through," he said. "This was an opportunity where I looked up and I saw (Peter) Vagenas and (Osvaldo) Alonso's backs, and Robbie looked at me and we just connected."

The veteran Rimando immediately sent a goal kick in Findley's direction, and the speedy striker did the rest. After Rimando's goal kick bounced at midfield, Findley still had to hold off Seattle midfielder Vagenas, which he did, and then beat Seattle keeper Kasey Keller, which he did with a wonderful strike from the top of the box.

It was Rimando's third career assist, and for Findley it moved him atop RSL's all-time scoring list with 20 goals.

For Findley it was sweet redemption after he wasted a great opportunity in the 47th minute by hammering a close-range shot at Keller.