By Ambrosia Tonkovich @heyambrosia
Saturday, April 15: 1-2 Win
Holy cow.
I can’t believe it. We won. The last ten minutes of the game, and not only did we score a point, we scored two to win the game for the first time in 19 home games at Colorado Rapids.
Let’s discuss what happened, because although we won, this was not a pretty game.
First of all, a big shoutout to Jared Watts. Honestly, without you this probably wasn’t possible. In the 85th minute of play, when pretty much all hope was lost, you got a handball right on the line and a red card sent you off the field. This awarded Real Salt Lake with not only a PK, but the game equalizer right there in the 85th minute. Jared, I salute you. I saw your frustration, and I understand, but you have probably made some friends of RSL fans!
Also, if you happened to hear of the news, Tim Howard is suspended for three games due to foul language/actions against some Sporting KC supporters after his game against them. In addition to that, he apparently had some pretty strong words with Dom Dwyer, so I mean, we’ll take what we can get. You helped us with a big W, Tim.
Alright, so, our first half was… dismal. We were uncoordinated, we couldn’t move the ball fast enough, and our passes failed repeatedly. We weren’t expecting Colorado to play well, and that isn’t an excuse. We should be going into every game expecting to play against a good team, and make sure that we are always better. Our defensive positioning was lackluster, and when Kevin Doyle landed a goal in the 29th minute, I deflated completely. Mike Petke said before the game that we were going to need to focus on winning versus keeping the Rocky Mountain Cup in Utah, and that goal (albeit early) made that goal of his seem like a faraway wish.
We jumped up the standings from the very bottom of the Western Conference this week (and sorry to be negative but man, I really hope we’re on the upswing now), and we are now just above the line, and hopefully on the road to glory.
Our two saving graces were Jared Watts for being sent off, handing us a PK that Yura Movsisyan was able to sink in the 85th minute, and then that glorious long shot from Brooks Lennon that had the bar that I was sitting in yelling and clapping loudly. I couldn’t believe it, I almost spit out my chicken wing (almost).
So what now? Well… we can’t rely on Brooks Lennon to be our game changer every time. Last game, he and Danny Acosta worked incredibly well together, but I want to be able to rely on our whole team. Any substitutions that we have shouldn’t make me afraid of what’s going to happen.
Mike Petke? Well, he’s 2 for 2 for RSL after making his way back to head coach. Although he’s as critical (probably more) as I am about the team right now, man he is gaining fans’ trust more and more. The original outrage over Jeff Cassar being let go hardly graces my facebook feed anymore as he keeps playing more academy players (we had 5 see the match tonight), and keeps playing to our strengths. He even mentioned almost pulling Brooks Lennon off the field and Brooks saying “I got this, guy.” Sure enough, Petke made it known how much he appreciated Lennon’s game-winning goal.
This could be us but you playin’ pic.twitter.com/kEsQl6SXIa
— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) April 16, 2017
Good job to our boys for playing up until the end. I’ll admit, I gave up. A 1-0 is hard to come back from in the second half, but they did it, and they were so close to the final whistle.
Cards given:
- Chris Wingert – Yellow card (52’ – RSL)
- Mekeil Williams – Yellow card (84’ – COL)
- Jared Watts – Red card (85’ – COL)
Substitutions:
- Mohammed Saeid in for Bismark Boateng (32’ – COL)
- Luis Silva in for Luke Mulholland (64’ – RSL)
- Ricardo Velazco in for Sebastian Saucedo (71’ – RSL)
- Joshua Gatt in for Marlon Hairston (80’ – COL)
- Bobby Burling in for Dominique Badji (86’ – COL)
- Omar Holness in for Albert Rusnak (90’ + 3’ – RSL)
Featured image courtesy: @MLS
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