SANDY, Utah – The odds were definitely stacked against Real Salt Lake on Sunday night.
The team was fielding an 18-year old in the center of defense, star striker Alvaro Saborio was a late scratch from the starting lineup due to a personal matter and a motivated and dangerous Sporting Kansas City side was in town, eager to extend their unbeaten streak to eight against a longtime rival.
Despite it all, RSL managed to nab all three points, with Sebastian Jaime scoring his first MLS goal and Olmes Garcia notching the winner in second half stoppage time to beat Sporting 2-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium on Sunday night.
RSL hadn’t beaten SKC since a 1-0 victory four years ago in 2011. Entering Sunday’s match, the team was on a three-game winless skid, forced to reiterate the same “work hard, and the results will come” mantra they’ve been repeating for much of their underwhelming season.
No longer, with the team admitting that Sunday’s victory against their bitter rival meant a little bit more than a normal win.
“I mean, I don’t want to say yes but I think so,” defender Tony Beltran said after the match. “We wanted to win that game. We wanted to win that game just because we needed three points here.
“It is a testament to our character to keep fighting there at the end and keep pushing forward for those three points. Sometimes it does feel that much better.”
Jaime recorded his first MLS goal in the 15th minute, getting on the end of Javier Morales free kick and directing his header off the crossbar and in. The Argentine Designated Player, who signed with RSL last August, showed palpable relief in his celebration, with Morales speaking after the game about the importance of his countryman’s first Claret-and-Cobalt goal.
“It’s huge for the team because we need forwards scoring goals,” Morales said. “I think today, Jaime played a good game, Garcia coming in, Devon [Sandoval] had a couple chances that he almost scored. It’s important for us to have everyone in shape.”
RSL kept the pressure on after Jaime’s opener, creating a number of chances to open up the lead even further later in the first half. They couldn’t find the back of the net, however, and when SKC forward Dom Dwyer tallied the equalizer in the 30th minute, it looked like RSL were again going to have to settle for a draw, or worse.
Those fears were finally allayed deep into second half stoppage time, when Garcia laced a shot that bounced off of Kansas City defender Kevin Ellis and looped over goalkeeper Tim Melia to give RSL the 2-1 lead. It was the exclamation point on a much-needed tough performance from the Utah side, who improved to 5-5-6 on the year with the win.
“At times, the mentality of the team can be fragile because we haven’t been getting the results that we wanted," head coach Jeff Cassar said after the match. “[But tonight], the guys responded.”
