Real Salt Lake received goals from Yura Movsisyan and Nat Borchers, and put an end to the Los Angeles Galaxy's 10-game unbeaten streak, winning 2-0 on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center.
The victory was a long time coming for RSL, who hadn't won since their record-setting 6-0 win over New England on April 25. Real moved into a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference standings with the Galaxy (2-2-9), who hadn't been beaten in more than two months (April 4).
For the second consecutive game, RSL coach Jason Kreis opted to employ a 4-3-3 formation, giving Clint Mathis his first start of the season as a forward. It proved to be effective, as did the return of starting midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales who were back from suspension.
The Galaxy were without Landon Donovan, who's currently on U.S. national team duty in South Africa for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
The Galaxy came out aggressively to start the game and had two opportunities in the first 10 minutes. It was their second chance in the seventh minute that almost gave them an early lead, with Dema Kovalenko floating a pass into the danger zone that Alan Gordon headed strong at the net. It was blocked, though, by RSL 'keeper Nick Rimando.
Movsisyan opened the scoring for RSL in the 13th minute, starting with Mathis sending a long pass from beyond midfield that caught Movsisyan in stride.
From there, Movsisyan made his way into the box and showed some fancy footwork, putting a one-on-one juke move on Galaxy midfielder Eddie Lewis and firing a rocket from 12 yards out past LA goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to put RSL on the board first.
In the 15th minute, LA had its best chance of the first half to tie the game when Kovalenko slammed a hard shot from inside the box that was blocked by Rimando, sending the 'keeper to the ground.
The ball bounced off Rimando's hands, and Lewis was there to rebound and take an off-balance shot from within 5 feet as he fell, but Rimando -- from his backside -- made the save and held on to the ball.
RSL's 4-3-3 system worked well, to the tune that they outshot LA 7-4 in the first half.
RSL kept it up in the second half and scored again in the 51st minute. Mathis received a long corner kick that sailed across the field, dribbled toward the box, and fired back into the danger area.
The ball deflected off of Lewis' head past a crowd and directly to Borchers, who grounded the ball inside the far post to give RSL a 2-0 advantage, all it would need. It was Borchers' first goal since Sept. 4, 2004.
The Galaxy will be without Lewis next week, after he was hit with a straight red card by referee Jason Anno in the 65th minute after tossing the ball at RSL midfielder Morales while he was on the ground after a hard tackle.
Simon Jude Samano is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
