Sporting Kansas City wanted all three points, but Real Salt Lake denied them, showing veteran know-how until the end.
Real were up against it for 90 minutes Saturday night versus a Kansas City side that applied pressure all match long. The dam never broke, however, and a composed and lucky defense saw RSL earn a point with a scoreless draw.
RSL head coach Jeff Cassar gave Kansas City credit for their performance but was also very proud of his team’s defensive effort.
“Listen, you have to give Kansas City a little bit of credit there,” Cassar said. “They spread out the field. They make it difficult for you. But we weathered the storm and I thought the effort from the guys tonight was fantastic.”
Kansas City were on the front foot for almost the entire match, forcing 35 clearances from the visitors. RSL defender Tony Beltran spoke about the onslaught after the match.
“They were picking up balls deep and dumping them into our end and when they play direct like that, with guys making dangerous runs and they’re battling for the second ball, we’re under it for a large part of the game,” Beltran said. “That makes it very difficult and especially here at their home."
Then, in the 55th minute, the home side thought that they had finally found pay dirt, but it was not to be.
Kansas City midfielder Benny Feilhaber played a pass through to a streaking Dom Dwyer, who slipped a shot under the outstretched arm of RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando. The confetti canons were fired a bit prematurely, however, as the assistant referee raised his flag and Dwyer was ruled offside.
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RSL continued to battle against the shifty Dwyer and were able to keep him off the scoresheet. When asked after the match how the defense was able to quiet Dwyer, Beltran explained that it was a team effort.
“We tried to keep him in front of us,” Beltran said. “He’s a very, very dynamic player, He’s good in the air. He’s fast. He’s good with the ball. So we’re just trying keep an eye on him at all times and deal with him in numbers and never be isolated 1-v-1 and I thought we did a pretty good job today.”
RSL saw the match through to the very end, denying Kansas City a chance to repeat last week’s performance against the Philadelphia Union, and got a precious road result from a intra-conference match in the increasingly crowded Western Conference.
“I think that’s where you build a championship team, with the right mentality,” Cassar said. “Obviously we have things to work on and we will. But all of these results are shutouts in really difficult places. How we look at it is, each team is a tournament. We play them twice now at home. So, we feel like that’s a point gained for us and now we take care of business at home and we can be the aggressors there.”
