Quick recap of Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado
August 30, 2008 by f4denz.
First thing the RSL starting lineup looked very little like what the prematch game guide predicted, but was a very good lineup. Rimando in goal, Joy, Olave, Borchers, and Wingert in the back line, Williams, Beckerman, Johnson, and Javi in the midfield, and Deuchar and Espindola up top. Colorado only had one change from their predicted line up, Cummings was in and Christian Gomez was out of the starting 11, I am not sure why they continue to go with Burpo as their starter he doesn’t appear to be as good as Bouna.
RSL came out playing very aggressive and attacking soccer, very different than the start of the Columbus match a week ago but it could be the comfort of playing at home. Colorado, well let’s just say that their fans had more energy than their team did to start the match. Both sides took a couple early shots, but it was in the 23rd minute that Javi played a long pass to Andy in the box, who made and incredible back heel pass to Espindola, who put the ball past Burpo and into the back of the net and RSL was up 1-0 early in the match.
The first half saw RSL control large chunks of the match, but Colorado had a couple of chances but Rimando was up to each of them and the half ended at 1-0. The second half was a bit more interesting the RSL defense worked much better than the first, the officials blew a couple calls , and the Colorado players looked drained, as did their fans. In the 53rd minute it looked as if Espindola had his second goal of the match as Colorado failed to clear the ball out of their own end, it fell to Will Johnson who fired a shot on goal, Burpo deflected it, and Fabian was there to head it into the goal but the official raised his flag to indicate offside. This is a play I will want to take a much closer look at when I do a more detailed match summary.
Well Fabian would not be denied on this night, and just 6 minutes after having a goal taken off the scoreboard he was able to settle a long pass of Javi and chip it over an onrushing Burpo for goal number 3, I mean 2 of the night, and RSL was up 2-0. There were a couple of shots by Yura in the last twenty minutes of the match that Burpo was able to make saves on, but as Yura finds his scoring touch the RSL offensive machine appears to be back on track to help the team make the playoffs and another clean sheet for Nick Rimando on a decent defensive effort by not only the backline but the whole team. I really like the ability to play Kyle in the D-mid role while Dema is out, I think he did a nice job of slowing down the Rapids offense. RSL still needs to work on their defensive recovery, a couple times Cummings caught Nat flat footed, but the fleet of foot Olave was able to get back and provide coverage. Kenny Deuchar didn’t get as many touches as I would have liked but his effort to support on defense was outstanding.
Here are the match stats, I will do a more complete review of the match later tonight or tomorrow as I watch the replay.
OFF MY SOAPBOX