RSL Defeats San Jose 2-0 in Season Opener
Real Salt Lake defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 Sunday night, giving Nick Rimando his 100th career clean sheet.
The win is the first for Salt Lake over San Jose in over a year. The side lost all three of its matches against the Bay Area side in 2012.
Rimando is just the second keeper in MLS to reach this landmark. He now sits 12 clean sheets behind, currently out-of-contract, Kevin Hartman for the MLS record.
Chris Wondolowski had numerous chances to score but was unable to convert. In contrast, Alvaro Saborio put away his two best chances to earn a brace in Salt Lake’s victory.
Salt Lake’s defense started out shaky, yielding a couple solid opportunities for Wondolowski to score in the first 45 minutes. The visitors were able to prevent any goals, thanks to an impressive 15th minute reflex save from Rimando that pushed the ball off the woodwork and a few misses from last season’s golden boot winner.
The visitors would take over in the second half, doing especially well following the insertion of offseason pickup Joao Plata in the 65th minute.
The young Ecuadorian created Salt Lake’s first goal in the 71st minute, when he collected a long pass from Kenny Mansally at midfield and put it over the top of the back line to a running Saborio. The Costa Rican international beat Jon Busch at the near post to give Salt Lake a lead they would not relinquish.
Saborio found the net again in the 85th minute when Kyle Beckerman sent a no-look pass into the box. Salt Lake’s first designated player took his first touch going wide of goal and then fired past a diving Busch to seal the victory.
Salt Lake will travel to DC United next Saturday while San Jose will host the New York Red Bulls on Sunday.
Tags: nations, Saborio, wondolowski
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Luis Gil’s shot in the first half was almost an exact replica of his goal he scored in the under 20′s match that he scored in Mexico.
Other observations
Khari Stephenson completely underwhelmed me. granted it was his first match, but really did not do anything that made me take notice.
Loved Gil’s and Velasquez’s work rate and the fact we had decent shot attempts coming from the mid field.
Granted it was the first match of the season, but it seemed like we had wayyy to many bad passes in the midfield. I expect this will get better as the season progresses.
Our back line played well enough for their first match, but if it wasn’t for Wando miffing some excellent chances, the scoreline would have been vastly different.
Thanks guys, cant wait till next game!
Yep, there were some struggles connecting through the midfield and the D was shaky at times, BUT…think about it…there were 7 new starters. Only Sabo, Beltran, Becks and Rimando were typical starters last year. With that sort of turn-over, you expect a little ugliness, and then take the win and run, run, run.
I think my first comment didn’t show how happy I was that they won, especially beating the Goonies in their home. Why we didn’t even get anyone sent off
I might be over analyzing at the “less effective things” but it was an amazing win!