MLS Real Salt Lake

RSL at Colorado Rapids Game Preview

Published on October 19, 2007 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


COLORADO RAPIDS v REAL SALT LAKE

DICK'S SPORTING GOODS PARK, Commerce City, Colo.

7 p.m. MT (Altitude; FSN-Utah)

Oct. 20, 2007 (WEEK 29) MLS Game #193

The Colorado Rapids head into the final match of the season with a chance to reach the MLS Cup Playoffs. Still in ninth place overall, they need a win on Saturday night - and for the results to go the right way in Frisco on Saturday or Bridgeview on Sunday. However, for the Rapids to clinch a spot in the postseason, they will also have to overcome arch-rivals Real Salt Lake - who would love nothing more than a victory in their season finale that would give them the Rocky Mountain Cup, emblematic of bragging rights between the two regional rivals.

REFEREE: Jair Marrufo. SAR (bench): Paul Scott; JAR (opposite): Peter Balciunas; 4th: Jorge Gonzalez

MLS Career: 65 games; FC/gm: 28.9; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 15; pens: 25

Games involving Rapids: P12 W2 L5 T5; FC/gm: 25.7; Y/gm: 2.6; R: 2; pens: 5

Games involving Real: P9 W2 L4 T3; FC/gm: 26.0; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 0; pens: 2

INJURY REPORT:

COLORADO RAPIDS - OUT: DF Dan Gargan (R knee ACL tear); FW Herculez Gomez (R ACL and meniscus tears); PROBABLE: MF Tony Sanneh (R hamstring strain); DF Ugo Ihemelu (R ankle sprain) ... REAL SALT LAKE - OUT: DF Nik Besagno (R meniscus surgery), MF Javier Morales (L labrum surgery); PROBABLE: DF Willis Forko (lower back), DF Eddie Pope (R knee pain); MF Carey Talley (lower back strain)

SUSPENDED: COL: Brandon Prideaux (through Oct. 21) ... RSL: Yura Movsisyan (through Oct. 21)

WARNINGS:

FINED NEXT YELLOW CARD: COL: Mehdi Ballouchy, Facundo Erpen, Pablo Mastroeni ... RSL: Kyle Beckerman, Atiba Harris, Carey Talley

INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none

HEAD-TO-HEAD

ALL-TIME (11 meetings): Rapids 6 wins, 13 goals ... Real Salt Lake 3 wins, 10 goals ... Draws 2

IN COLORADO: (5 meetings): Rapids 3 wins, 7 goals ... Real Salt Lake 1 wins, 6 goals ... Draws 0

- This is the fourth and final meeting between the teams as the Rocky Mountain Cup is again on offer to the winner of the season series. It's even poised for the season finale - each team has won once (splitting the two games in Utah), while they drew in their first Colorado meeting.

- A year ago, the Rapids claimed the Rocky Mountain Cup for the second successive season, getting a pair of 1-0 victories (the only goal coming from Nicolas Hernandez in each) with Real winning once after the teams opened with a draw.

- Colorado also claimed a victory when the teams met in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the lone goal coming from Jacob Peterson (61).

- In Real's inaugural season, the then-expansion club won for the first time ever, in their home debut, defeating Colorado 1-0 in the first meetings between the border state rivals, before the Rapids took the final three encounters that season.

- Coaches record: Fernando Clavijo vs. RSL: P11 W6 L3 D2 ... Jason Kreis vs. COL: P2 W1 L0 D1

2007 (MLS):

4/30: RSL 0, COL 2 (Brown 71, Beckerman 75)

5/10: COL 1, RSL 1 (Stewart 4 og - Mastroeni 15 og)

9/22: RSL 1, COL 0 (Beckerman 30)

- The Rapids claimed a 2-0 victory at Real Salt Lake on April 30 in the first Rocky Mountain Cup. After last season, the Rocky Mountain Cup has truly turned into a bitterly contested affair between the regional rivals, and there was no shortage of energy from the start of the contest.

- But the goals didn't come until late. In the 71st minute, a long ball down the right flank bounced past RSL defender Danny Torres, and Rapids striker Roberto Brown was able to corral it in the Real penalty area. As he cut inside to the heart of the box, Torres fell down and Brown blasted a shot high past goalkeeper Chris Seitz.

- Then four minutes later, defender Jack Stewart sent a back pass to Seitz - who was the second-youngest goalkeeper to start a game in MLS history - and when he handled the ball, referee Abbey Okulaja called for an indirect free kick in the penalty area.

- Colorado's Herculez Gomez sent the ball under the wall and into the back of the net on the first attempt, but Okulaja had not whistled for play to restart. So on the second chance, Gomez's shot banged into the wall - but the rebound went back to Kyle Beckerman, and he lashed home a low shot through the goalmouth scrum.

- The teams played to a 1-1 draw at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on May 10. The game got off to a strange start, as four minutes in, Herculez Gomez got free down the right flank. He whipped in a low cross and Nick Rimando dove out to get a hand onto it, only for it bounce off the thigh of a retreating Jack Stewart and into the RSL goal.

- But the Rapids returned the favor 11 minutes later. Freddy Adu - very active and dangerous all night long on the left flank, drove in a rolling cross from the left side of the penalty area that Pablo Mastroeni stuck out his foot to stop, only to see slip inside the near post as Rapids 'keeper Bouna Coundoul went the other way.

- It was the ninth time in MLS history there had been two own goals in the same game, and the sixth that each team had scored from an own goal in a game. But it was the first time that all the scoring in a 1-1 game came from own goals.

- On Sept. 22 in a driving rain on the Wasatch Front, Real took the lead at the half-hour mark as one of the players who made the Rocky Mountain competition a true rivalry played his part.

- Kyle Beckerman, reviled by the RSL fans in his days with the Rapids before his trade to the Utah club earlier this year, found Chris Brown free on the left. Brown took a shot that Colorado 'keeper Bouna Coundoul was able to get down and parry, but the rebound came straight out to Kyle Brown, and he knocked it back home for the eventual winner.

- Here's Kreis's team (4-2-3-1): Nick Rimando - Chris Lancos, Matias Mantilla, Ritchie Kotschau, Chris Wingert - Kyle Beckerman, Atiba Harris - Chris Brown, Andy Williams (Carey Talley 46), Kyle Brown (Javier Morales 62) - Yura Movsisyan (Fabian Espindola 73). Substitutes Not Used: Robbie Findley, Willis Forko, Eddie Pope, Chris Seitz

- Here's Clavijo's team (4-3-1-2): Bouna Coundoul - Kosuke Kimura, Ugo Ihemelu, Stephen Keel, Brandon Prideaux - Terry Cooke (Omar Cummings 66), Tony Sanneh, Colin Clark - Mehdi Ballouchy (Jose Cancela 63) - Jacob Peterson (Daniel Osorno 74), Jovan Kirovski. Substitutes Not Used: Nicolas Hernandez, Nick LaBrocca, Mike Petke, Zach Thornton

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Major League Soccer Stories from October 19, 2007


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