Real Salt Lake heeded coach's direction

SANDY — It took all of 16 seconds for Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis to get his wish.

He stressed with his players all week the importance of making things difficult on Seattle. Call it the hack-a-Sounder game plan. He believed some early aggressive tackles would keep the Sounders from getting comfortable.

So in the opening minute Tony Beltran went in hard to win the ball from Nate Jaqua surrendering a harmless throw-in.

Clint Mathis in particular took the game plan to heart. He was borderline reckless on a few challenges, earning a yellow card in the 11th minute for a hard foul on Gonzalez right in front of Seattle's bench.

Such a game plan doesn't always lend itself to attractive soccer, but Saturday night was all about the result for Real Salt Lake. It committed 18 fouls on the evening, and each one seemed to gradually wear down Seattle.

"The whole team it was a focus for us this week and I thought the whole team did well with that," said Kreis.

RSL's three central midfielders took the message to heart and were throwing their bodies all over the field. In speaking with reporters after the game Will Johnson even admitted feeling a bit lightheaded. He said it was worth it though to get the victory.

Johnson, Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales covered a ton of ground Saturday, but it wasn't a slow 5K pace they were setting.

They were going after it and winning a lot of balls in the process. They were also getting whistled for their fare share of fouls, which was fine assuming they didn't occur around the edge of the penalty area.

"From our midfielders fighting and winning balls and pressuring them, they didn't have time to look up, and when they don't have time to look up our defense can step up and close their space down," said RSL keeper Nick Rimando.

Johnson and Beckerman were a big part of that, refusing to play soft, which Johnson said has been a problem at times this year.

Another player who worked hard in the midfield against Seattle was Morales, which hasn't always been the case this year.

"Javier in particular I thought paid really close attention to his defending tonight, and that for me in a lot of instances can be the difference maker for us. It's something that I absolutely love about Javier Morales," said Kreis. "He's not only gifted and can be the difference maker with the ball, but he works hard. So few players that have that kind of ability are willing and able to put in the work defensively, and when he does that he can be the difference maker for our team."

A similar effort this weekend against an even better Houston club will be necessary to earn another critical win.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com