Olave says NO. (Getty Images)
Say what you like about Real Salt Lake, but they've certainly liked to make things interesting this year. Manager Jason Kreis said after last night's match that just once this year he'd like to have a match at home where he could just sit back and relax. The New England Revolution certainly didn't give him that chance last night.
It did look like it was possible for awhile. RSL came out clearly confident after getting some rest without a midweek game this last week. They passed the ball around really well and slipped some nice balls in behind the Revs defense. Fabian Espindola took a ball from Javier Morales in the 5th minute and ended up 1v1 with Rev's 'keeper Matt Reis, but Reis made a great play on the ball and totally stoned him to keep the match scoreless.
Despite the best efforts of the Claret and Cobalt, the first goal didn't go their way. The Revs were looking to poach a goal on the counter and they got their chance in the 22nd minute. Forward Blake Brettschneider broke away on the counter and managed to put a bullet shot past Nick Rimando to make it 0-1 and silence the crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Luckily for the nerves of the home crowd, it didn't take RSL that long to respond, and they managed to even up the score before halftime. Captain Kyle Beckerman sent in a cross in the 33rd minute that was deflected, but fell right to Alvaro Saborio. Sabo brought it down and smacked the ball into the back of the Revs net to make it 1-1 heading to the interval.
Real came out well again in the second half, and managed to take the lead fairly early on. Morales set up a free kick in the 55th minute, and somehow the Revs lost track of Sabo. He got free and easily headed the ball into goal to give RSL the 2-1 lead,
Just when the home fans thought they might get to relax a little, the Revs got the break they needed. In the 59th minute Will Johnson went in on Clyde Simms with his studs up around the midfield area. He was hit with the red card and RSL would be down to ten men for the rest of the match.
They decided to sit back and defend, and ended up doing it pretty well. The Revs accepted the challenge and went on the the attack, putting pressure on the RSL penalty box. However the Claret and Cobalt stood strong, and both Jamison Olave and Nat Borchers were able to deal with the situation, clearing a lot of the Revs attempts to pass into the area. They did get a couple of really great looks though, but once again Nick Rimando was up to the task, including tipping a shot off of a corner kick over the bar late in the match.
New England's hopes faded late when they received a red card of their own. In the 81st minute Fernando Cardenas was shown the red for a tackle on Jamison Olave. This wasn't as clear cut as the Johnson red, and honestly it looked like the referee was just looking to even things up, still it stood, and the sides were 10 apiece for the last nine minutes and stoppage.
The Revs continued the attack, but were never really able to produce a huge threat in the final minutes. RSL dominated through much of the 5+ minutes of stoppage and they held on to win 2-1.
The win draws RSL back level with San Jose at the top of the west. Johnson apologized to the team and twitter after the match. The referee correctly gave the red card, so it will be interesting to see if the league has anything else to say about it later in the week. The Revs lost for the 4th time in 5 games and now trail Sporting KC by 12 points in the East.
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