Colorado Rapids Earn Draw Versus Real Salt Lake

There was a buzz of nervous anticipation among the sellout crowd at Utah's Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night, and it wasn’t just the fact that American Idol runner-up David Archuleta was in the building for a special post-game concert. 

The home club entered this game with a 6-game winless streak and had been on a free-fall in the Western Conference standings.  Real Salt Lake appeared on their way to change that after a second half goal by forward Yura Movsisyan, but Colorado’s Omar Cummings came through with a late equalizer.

First Half

Both teams had to make changes from their normal routine as each team was missing a couple of key components. Colorado was missing midfielder Pablo Mastroeni and forward Conor Casey due to National Team duty.  They came out a little bit tentative.

Salt Lake was also affected by the absences of midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales due to yellow card suspensions.  They countered by coming out in a 4-3-3 and playing an aggressive style.

Real Salt Lake dominated the play in the first half, maintaining the bulk of possession and creating numerous chances.  They outshot Colorado 12 to 2.

Their first chance came in the 21^st minute when defender Robbie Russell whipped an excellent cross into the box that found the head of forward Robbie Findley who had lost his marker.  Findley was able to get a clean, solid header on the ball but it went well right of the goal.  A nearly identical play happened in the 30^th minute when Russell and Findley combined once again with the same result.

The Rapids' best chance of the half came in stoppage time when the speedy striker Omar Cummings found himself one-on-one with defender Nat Borchers.  He easily beat Borchers to the outside and was able to get a shot off, but it hit the outside of the net on the right side. 

Second Half

Colorado came out more aggressive in the second half from the start.  They appeared to try to kick the ball around the midfield in order to get into rhythm, and they also went forward in greater numbers.

Their first good chance in the second half came in the 58^th minute when forward Jacob Peterson delivered a solid ball into the box that went across the goal mouth to the far side.  Kosuke Kimura who replaced midfielder Terry Cooke in the first half found himself alone, but his shot sailed well over the goal.  Despite the missed opportunity, Colorado had started to look very dangerous.

Real Salt Lake nearly opened the scoring in the 63^rd minute off of a corner kick.  Mathis put the ball into the center of the box, where forward Fabian Espindola was able to get his head over the ball but he ended up too far over it and the ball went straight down and bounced up over the bar.

As the pressure on both ends began to mount, and the game started to open up it was easy to sense that the scoring was about to open.  That came true in the 79^th minute when Espindola put a nice cross into the box.  Movsisyan pulled the ball down on the far side of the box.  He settled, and paused for a moment as he appeared to measure up the two defenders in front of him.  Suddenly he took a big step to the left and punched the ball with a sliding left-footed shot past Pickens and into the upper, left side of the goal. 

The entire second half was full of strong fouls, and four yellow cards.  The most noteworthy of these came in the 82^nd minute when Russell attempted a sliding tackle and was given a yellow card for his efforts, his second of the night.  The ejection would turn costly for the home team, as the remaining players were unable to hold its lead over the final ten minutes.

The equalizer came in the 88^th minute, when midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy sent the ball to Omar Cummings on the right side at the top of the box.  He was marked by Borchers, with Beltran in support.  Beltran appeared to hesitate and then took the high side to eliminate a turn inside or a pass into the center of the field.  Cummings took advantage of the opening and made a quick turn toward the near post and took a quick blast at the ball.  The ball went just under the bar and into the net with power, leaving Rimando with no chance to react. 

Cummings explained the determination behind his efforts, “I just looked to get some space.  Once I looked up, I just wanted to turn and shoot, that was all that was in my mind.”

RSL Coach Jason Kreis was content with what his team tried to do on the night, despite conceding the equalizer, “I’m pleased with the effort, but obviously not pleased with the result.”

The result left RSL with just their 12^th point in 12 matches on the season, settling among the bottom three in their division.  They face the Galaxy on the road next Saturday.  Colorado continues their torrid pace with their 6^th consecutive result (3 wins, 3 draws) moving them to 17 points on the season.  They next face DC United at home next week.

Randy Davis covers Real Salt Lake for Goal.com

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