Real Salt Lake Gets A Triple On Toronto

 Real Salt Lake reasserts dominance at home. After a loss and a pair of draws at home, they manage to come up with a full three points against Toronto FC with a 3-0 win off of goals by forward Yura Movsisyan, and midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Clint Mathis. 

First Half

Toronto seemed interested in putting their talented midfield into action early as they spread the field and moved the ball around. However, the only danger they created was off the four first half corner kicks.  On two separate corner kicks defender Jim Brennan was alone outside the box when he collected a deflected ball. 

On the first chance he hit a hard line-drive shot towards the net but it went around the wrong side of the near post just hitting the outside of the netting. The second chance was right on target, with the low shot easily stopped by RSL keeper Nick Rimando. 

Real Salt Lake began to show danger primarily off of counterattack opportunities around the 15th minute. The first chance came at the 18th minute when Mathis deflected a ball forward into space, ran it down and delivered a low ball into the box. Movsisyan sidestepped his defender, and gathered the pass but his shot attempt was blocked. A few minutes later, Movsisyan capitalized on his chance this time stealing a poor backward pass by Toronto midfielder Amado Guevara in the Toronto end. He was able to outrun defender Nick Garcia and then walked into the area unimpeded. His nifty chip shot easily beat the on-rushing keeper Stefan Frei to the right.

Real Salt Lake continued to create chances throughout the half and was able to notch another score just before the break. Morales had the ball on the right edge of the box. He hesitated and then with a burst of speed beat defender Carl Robinson. He cut back a pass back towards the penalty spot to Beckerman who one-timed the shot past Frei. 

Second Half

Toronto came out in a more aggressive fashion after the break, substituting forward Danny Dichio for Guevara who struggled in the first half. They pushed numbers forward and managed to spend more time with the ball in the Real Salt Lake end.

However, they managed few serious threats to score and Rimando was never seriously tested making only one save in each half.  Real Salt Lake played calmly defending their own end, and their defense seemed to propel their attack through the midfield. They created several counter-attacking chances in the half and were able to capitalize in the 78th minute.

Movsisyan flicked a pass over his shoulder to midfielder Ned Grabavoy who laid-off a perfectly weighted pass to a wide open Mathis, who easily blasted the ball past Frei’s outstretched right hand into the side of the net. Mathis then promptly celebrated the goal with a moonwalk, and a finger pointed heaven-ward in honor of singer Michael Jackson, who passed away on Saturday.

Toronto had two straight wins over New York but they have struggled on the road this season. Real Salt Lake had a victory at LA and a road draw against Houston. Both teams were also missing key players, midfielder Will Johnson (Canada-Gold Cup) and defender Jamison Olave (Red Card suspension), while Toronto was missing Marvell Wynne (US - Confederations Cup).  The win takes Real Salt Lake to 19 points with a 5-6-4 record.  They face San Jose at home next week.  Toronto stays at 22 points with a 6-6-4 record.  They are off next week before visiting San Jose.

Randy Davis covers Real Salt Lake for Goal.com  


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