RSL refuse to break vs. Revolution
Facing a barrage of offense from the home team, and down a man for the final eight minutes, Real Salt Lake kept a clean sheet with the help of Nick Rimando's 13 saves. The visitors defended stoutly throughout in order to earn its third tie in the past four contests.
"New England created chances," Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis said. "They'll do that against any defense you throw out there. We faced a challenge in losing a player. There were all kinds of hurdles in front our guys tonight and we cleared them all."
Kreis admitted that his team dodged one of those hurdles after nine minutes when Taylor Twellman skimmed the crossbar with his header from six yards out after good work from Khano Smith down the left flank.
"It's important," Kreis said of the let-off. "It would have been an interesting game from there. You like that your guys are organized, but maybe we would have had to come out a bit more. I would have been interested to see how that would have worked out for us."
RSL struggled to maintain any attacking momentum during the contest, with Chris Klein's 45th-minute chance, denied by Revs 'keeper Matt Reis and the left post, the best chance for the visitors.
Because the team struggled to mount an attack, Real Salt Lake was forced to defend in numbers during the second half as its offense stagnated and New England pushed forward looking for the go-ahead goal.
The defense remained resolute and negated New England for most of the second stanza as the RSL back four of Jack Stewart, Nik Besagno, Eddie Pope and Willis Forko forced the Revolution into half chances and long-distance efforts.
All the hard work could have gone for naught when Kotschau slammed through Bryan Byrne after the ball was gone and earned a straight red card just 50 seconds after entering the field of play. The dismissal was the quickest in MLS history for a player just after he came on, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
The dismissal shifted players all over the field for RSL, moving Alecko Eskandarian into midfield, asking Andy Williams to defend more in midfield, and shifting Chris Brown onto the backline.
Rimando said that the work of the defensive corps was instrumental in making sure that Real left Gillette Stadium with a point.
"We have a pretty veteran backline," Rimando said. "Everyone came back and we stayed strong to get a point in the last 10-15 minutes."
Getting bodies into the box frustrated the home side all night. Rimando said the team was familiar with New England's preferred method of attack and how to negate it.
"We knew that we like to get it wide and cross it to the big boys in the middle," Rimando said. "We did a good job to cut off the crosses."
Kreis said that holding on for the point was another step in building the foundation for RSL as the season progresses.
"I'm certainly proud of my guys," Kreis said. "It's another big mental boost for us."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
