Real Salt Lake Plays To A Scoreless Draw...
Real Salt Lake rebounded from Wednesday’s “epic” CONCACAF battle in Mexico City with a stellar effort tonight nearly 3,000 miles north, earning its 11th road point of the season and remaining undefeated in 16 of its last 17 MLS contests with a scoreless draw Saturday against Toronto FC at BMO Field. The road point earned equals the organization’s highest-ever point total with eight games remaining, while RSL GK Nick Rimando and the defense led by Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave equaled a team record with the team’s 10th clean sheet of the season, Rimando posting the 70th of his career, the 4th highest total in MLS annals.
RSL was unlucky not to have left Canada with three points, as both DF Chris Wingert and MF Will Johnson hit the same left post in the final 10 minutes of the game, just after FW Fabian Espindola had rounded Toronto netminder Stefan Frei and shot wide right earlier in the 2nd half.
Head Coach Jason Kreis made four changes to the starting XI that played in swamp-like conditions at Estadio Azul in Mexico City on Wednesday, falling 5-4 to “La Maquina.” In addition to Olave’s return to his imposing place in central defense, DF Tony Beltran replaced Robbie Russell on the right side of the back line, while MF Ned Grabavoy and Toronto native Andy Williams replaced Nelson Gonzalez and Will Johnson on the outside of RSL’s traditional 4-4-2 diamond formation. Borchers, with tonight’s 90 minute effort, remains the only RSL player to have appeared in all 26 competitive RSL games this season, missing just 27 minutes total out of 22 MLS, two U.S. Open Cup and two CONCACAF contests in 2010.
Real Salt Lake remained winless at Toronto’s BMO Field, with a pair of 0-0 draws in 2007 and 2010 sandwiching 0-1 losses in 2008 and 2009. Exactly one month from tonight, RSL returns to Ontario for Matchday #5 of the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League in a Group A tilt for the teams’ 3rd meeting in 30 days. Toronto FC visits Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium home on Wednesday, Sept. 15 in CONCACAF play.
Before the Toronto game, RSL returns home to host Thierry Henry and the New York Red Bulls on Sat., Sept. 4 at 7:00 p.m. MT, in an effort to match the MLS-record 22-game unbeaten streak set last season by the Columbus Crew. Johnson and RSL’s leading scorer Alvaro Saborío will each miss that game, as Johnson (Canada) and Saborío (Costa Rica) will each represent their national teams in friendlies next weekend. Both players will re-join RSL for the Thursday, Sept. 9 return to Qwest Field in Seattle, as Sounders FC hosts RSL in its first trip back to the site of its greatest achievement, winning MLS Cup 2009 last November.
