In surprising fashion, Real Salt Lake came from behind 2-0 in this game to upset the reigning champs, Columbus Crew by a 3-2 margin to win the series and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Crew opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a bizarre goal. Schelotto took a long free kick, and appeared to pick out a teammate in the box, but it went over his head and bounced inside the box. Rimando was left flat-footed and the ball bounded by him as he made a late dive to his left.
In the 35th minute, the Crew appeared set to pull away from the visitors as they scored off of a second mistake. A poor clearance from defender Robbie Russell led to Schelotto having the ball in a dangerous area, just outside of the box. He teed it up, and whipped a curling ball past Rimando into the right side of the goal. With RSL's poor road record this year, it was easy to assume that it was lights out for them.
RSL proved this theory wrong as they made a beautiful team play in the 37th minute. They made several quick passes around the final third. The final pass came with a short chip from Beckerman that found Morales alone behind the defense. He kept it low, and was able to put it away past Hesmer.
In the waning minutes of the half, Real Salt Lake received a penalty kick as Hejduk clearly took Espindola down in the box. Findley stepped up and easily put the ball past Hesmer.
In the second half, Columbus was pressing to score the series equalizer. However, it was RSL who put the game away with a goal by Andy Williams. The play came off of a short corner that Williams appeared to just be putting into the area. Eerily similar to the opening goal by Schelotto it bounded past everyone, catching the keeper by surprise and sneaking into the far corner of the goal.
Despite frantic pressure from that point on, Columbus couldn't find the net, and ended up on the wrong side of the upset.
RSL will play the winner of New England/Chicago this weekend in the Eastern Conference Finals. Either will be a road game, and RSL would need to accomplish something they've done only once before: win back-to-back road games.
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6 comments:
Amazing resilience with a little help from the referees! Great game!! Go RSL!
Incredible! Great match RSL! Williams was all over the field, and although it was lucky he deserved the goal. Great effort all around. Javi's goal was pure class.
You ought to identify that Yura hustle led to that corner when Andy scored. Dude has been big for us.
I'm still basking in the game. It was the best i've ever seen our midfield play. Just a great game.
Ok - a couple points
- Warzycha is such a douche and I'm so glad he's not our skipper... Did ya'll hear his post game comments?? The most unbelievable poor sport Coach, Players & Fans.... Warzycha said,"Sometimes the better team doesn't win - the team that plays attractive soccer, the team that plays good soccer doesn't win."
Sounds like someone's covering up for getting out-managed by Kreis & a coach who's players have no heart like there shitty city!
Will Hesmer said Andy's goal was fluky... well what the hell was Schelotto's first goal? It was a shitty call where Olave was pulled down by the flopper Moreno and Schelotto bounced a lucky, fluky one through...
Everyone complains about the PK that Fabi drew.. Hejduk put himself in terrible position and basically wrestled down Fabi. How's that not a PK? Hejduk shows why he shouldn't be called up for the NATS. Can't handle Yura in game 1 or Javi & Fabi in game 2.
Also, they complained about handball's at length but never mentioned Hejduk's handball in which he was trying to go "Hand Of God" on us. I agree we had one handball at the top of the box that shoulda been called, but Andy's in front of goal was so lame.. it wouldn't have changed the situation at all if the ball wouldn't have played his fingernail.
I'm so amped that we're going through!!! MLS Cup here we come!
LOVE RSL
The stupid ESPN article made it sound like RSL was outplayed the entire match and got lucky.
Warzycha's comments should come across as pathetic to anyone who watched the match. The Crew were more lucky in that game than RSL.
The article called Javi's goal "opportunistic." Okay. I guess that makes sense if opportunistic means perfectly executed passing and running off the ball to dissect a compact defense followed by a deadly finish under pressure. Spin it any way you want, RSL dominated the entire series 4-2 doesn't lie.
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