Real Salt Lake overcomes defensive lapse

COLUMBUS, Ohio — RSL's Robbie Russell looked like a rusty player.

In his first league match in more than a month, he didn't seem comfortable throughout most of the first half and ended up making a huge mistake that nearly cost his team the series.

That's why nobody was more pleased to see Javier Morales score his goal in the 37th minute to tie the series on aggregate 2-2.

Two minutes prior Russell made a huge mistake. He failed to clear the ball past Columbus midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who blocked it and quickly turned it into a goal after teammate Emmanuel Ekpo won a 50-50 header.

"Real bad error by Robbie Russell, allowing that second one. Obviously it felt like we were in a big hole," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

RSL eventually dug themselves out, but Russell admits nerves got the better of him early.

"I felt like I started a little jittery but then I settled down in the second half," he said.

Perhaps Russell's slow start was predictable. His last start came back on Sept. 26 in RSL's 3-0 loss at FC Dallas. Tony Beltran has started all four games since, including in Game 1 against Columbus last Saturday.

Beltran has been dealing with a quadriceps strain the past couple of weeks though, and Kreis opted not to take a chance with him in the starting line-up in Game 2.

"I felt like it effected his performance (last week) and wasn't wanting to do that again and I thought rest would be the best thing for them," said Beltran.

With Russell's early gaffe's it seemed like a bad move.

"Instead of opening up my body, I kept myself tight which limited my options and I made the wrong option," Russell said. "And Schelotto did well to read my pass, stepped in, picked it off, ball goes up, 50-50 ball and then he does a really good job to score that goal."

Russell settled down in the second half and played much better. Midway through the half he anticipated a Schelotto through ball to Robbie Rogers and narrowly intercepted it before the Crew midfielder had a one-on-one opportunity with RSL keeper Nick Rimando.

During the regular season Russell appeared in 19 games including 18 starts. He made a brief 10-minute appearance in Game 1 last weekend against the Crew.

Beltran appeared in 23 games this year, and now Kreis might have a tough decision about who to start heading into the Eastern Conference final if Beltran heals up and Russell has a solid week of training.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com