Real Salt Lake snapped an eight-game road winless skid on Saturday, finally breaking out of their three-month funk with a total team effort.
The Claret-and-Cobalt rolled to a 3-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium as goals from Javier Morales, Devon Sandoval and the team’s newest member, Juan Manuel “Burrito” Martinez, gave the visitors the full three points and finally removed the monkey from the team’s collective back.
When Brad Davis blasted home a penalty kick in the 65th minute after a handball call in the RSL penalty box, the visitors' lead dwindled to just one goal and it looked like RSL would again fall under heavy attack down the stretch.
But it didn't work out that way. Just three minutes later, Martinez scored his debut goal for RSL and put the game out of reach.
“It’s always key moments in games where you seize the opportunity when you get it,” RSL head coach Jeff Cassar said after the match. “It was great build-up from our team, nice movement off the ball and Juan finished a great goal.
“We talked about game management and I thought the guys really managed the game well: sped it up when we needed to, slowed it down when we needed to. It was a good performance.”
The game started out decidedly sloppy. Neither team was very efficient in the first half, but Salt Lake snatched a late goal right before the break to jump-start their momentum, Morales cleaning up after Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric was able to save a Martinez effort.
Six minutes into the second half, Sandoval netted his second goal of the season after Deric parried another strike from Martinez into the air. Sandoval was on hand to volley it into the goal, marking the second time a shot from Martinez cracked open the door for an RSL strike on the rebound.
“[Martinez is] a good player,” Sandoval said. “He’s got a lot of quality. It’s really easy playing with him, Javi and [Joao] Plata underneath me. They make my job really easy. They create so much. Juan is a great addition to this team.”
With four amazing saves from Nick Rimando, three goals from three different players and only a PK call denying them a clean sheet on the road, Real move on to their midweek CONCACAF Champions League match in El Salvador with the wind in their sails.
“Really proud of the defensive effort,” Cassar said. “Obviously we scored three goals tonight, but I thought our defensive effort was very good. Nicky was big in key moments for us. We talked about 11 people defending and 11 people attacking and for the most part, I thought we did a very good job of that.”
RSL will now seek to capitalize on this momentum and grab another win on the road when they travel down to Central America to take on Santa Tecla in CONCACAF Champions League play just 72 hours after their win in Houston.
“It was a big win for us,” Sandoval said. “Especially going to El Salvador on Tuesday for Champions League. We have LA at home on Saturday, so it’s a big week for us. It’s a good way to start this trip off.”
Tyler Gray covers Real Salt Lake for MLSsoccer.com.
