The last time Real Salt Lake took the field at Rio Tinto Stadium nearly six months ago, it suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of Sporting Kansas City. But on Saturday afternoon, in front of a 50% capacity home crowd, RSL avenged the home defeat with a 3-1 victory.
Following a conceded goal to Kansas City’s Alan Pulido just over 15 minutes into the game, Damir Kreilach got the equalizer 20 minutes later with his head. Then early in the second half, Rubio Rubin scored his first goal for the club to give RSL the one-goal advantage.
Rubin then netted his second goal of the game with an impressive, unassisted, bottom corner finish in the 77th minute to give RSL a 3-1 lead that it would eventually carry until the final whistle.
Real Salt Lake improved to 2-0-0 on the season and claimed its sixth point in what has been an ideal start to the season for head coach Freddy Juarez and his squad, who many pundits didn’t expect to be in the position the team is now in.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Welcome to your new home, Rubio
In his first game at Rio Tinto Stadium, offseason addition Rubio Rubin netted his first two goals of the season.
Rubin’s second goal was one for the highlight reels. Despite being surrounded by a bunch of light blue shirts and having few of his teammates available for support, Rubin was able to get the shot off to goal, which he perfectly placed in the bottom left corner.
The goal gave RSL the two-score lead and essentially iced the game.
The brace for Rubin came on the heels of fellow offseason acquisition Anderson Julio’s brace in the season opener against Minnesota last week.
Rubin’s family was in attendance to watch him play professionally for the first time and cameras caught his father in tears after Rubin scored the second goal.
“It’s just a special moment to be able to have them there and share that with them,” Rubin said. “I saw the picture on the internet of my dad in tears and I had to get off because it was very emotional for me to see that.”
Brody shines after coming on for injured Herrera
Thirty minutes into the game, starting right back Aaron Herrera was forced off the pitch after suffering an injury to his left quad, which opened the door for fellow fullback Andrew Brody to come on.
Brody was stellar as he filled in for Herrera, making multiple positive runs with the ball up the sideline that stretched the Kansas City defense and opened up space for RSL’s attack to go, along with his solid tackling on the defensive end of the field.
Brody recorded an assist on the first goal for RSL with a cross from the right side of the pitch that first connected with the head of Damir Kreilach — who also recorded an assist to go along with his goal — and then the back of the net after that.
“My biggest thought was to get out wide, settle my first touch and put it in a dangerous area,” Brody said when asked to break down what he saw as he helped orchestrate the opening goal. “I saw Damir peel towards the back and I know he’s a great target in there so I tried to put it as close to him as possible and he was unreal with the finish.”
Home crowd provides refreshing fuel
The last time RSL took the field at Rio Tinto was Nov. 8, but on Saturday the atmosphere was much different from that November game, as nearly 10,000 fans were in attendance to cheer on their side for the first time in what probably felt like forever for the team’s biggest supporters.
The players and staff noticed and said they benefited heavily from the energy that they had since come to miss from a populated Rio Tinto.
“I loved it and I’m sure the players appreciated and loved it as well,” Juarez said. “That was a big motivation for us today. The fans are why we do it. The fans are what get us going, and I thought that was the extra boost that we needed today.”
Rubin affirmed what his coach said about the fans making their return.
“It’s just really awesome to be able to have fans again,” Rubin said. “It’s something that we’ve all missed and we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. We’re just happy to be able to share special moments like today.”
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3xHj6Qs
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