RSL blanks Sporting KC
Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers, battling a sinus infection, scored a crucial 54th-minute goal to give RSL a huge 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City Saturday night.
In a dogfight to get an automatic playoff bid, and despite the game being slowed by cards and fouls, RSL came up big once again to pick up all three points and their fourth consecutive win.
“It sends a message to the rest of the league that if a brawl is going to break out and it’s going to be a wrestling match, we can win it that way too,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis said.
It was Borchers — who’s just now starting to overcome a month-long sinus infection — and midfielder Kyle Beckerman who combined for the lone goal in the 54th minute.
“It was a pretty easy goal,” Borchers said. “It was almost like Kyle and I drew it up. I just made sure I curled my run, and Kyle hit the perfect ball.”
It was a deserved goal for RSL after they’d opened up the second half so brightly. They were starting to string passes together and take control of the midfield, when Sporting KC fouled RSL 34 yards away from goal, nine minutes into the second half.
Beckerman stepped up and hit an inch-perfect ball to Borchers, who had been left unmarked and calmly headed it home past Sporting KC keeper Jimmy Nielsen.
Aside from the goal, it was anything but an easy game.
“What were there, 100 fouls? I felt bad for the fans,” Beckerman said.
With so many fouls and stoppages, it was hard for either team to really get any sort of rhythm going.
In the first half, Sporting KC was able to take a slight upper hand and had some opportunities, but was unable to capitalize.
RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando was forced to make some very good saves. The first save came in the 6th minute off a header, and then a great reaction save in the 23rd minute, after the ball had been bobbling around the box, when a KC player hit a strike toward the goal.
The second half was a different story, as RSL came out fast and never looked back, except for a brief period after the goal, when Sporting had a couple close opportunities. Rimando, however, came up big again to preserve the shutout.
“It seems like this time of season is Nick’s time,” Kreis said of Rimando.
It’s another win to savor for RSL, who has finally started to find the groove that it lost earlier in the season. With four wins in a row, RSL is now in third place in the Western Conference standings, and it seems to be hitting on all cylinders at the best time.
“It’s the fourth game in a row, we really battled,” Kreis said. “The guys have stuck together and worked extremely hard and now the results come.”
RSL will look to keep the four-game win streak and its playoff hopes alive when it travels to play Theirry Henry and the New York Red Bulls Wednesday.
– seliason3@gmail.com