Real Wins on PKs Over Quakes in Lamar Hunt Open Cup

Win was not good for my Blood Pressure

Currently I am on vacation with my two sons at Zion National Park in southern Utah. (Highly recommended, by the way). But, regardless of my personal schedule, soccer continues. Sadly, yesterday’s game between RSL and the San Jose Earthquakes was not on TV, but it was broadcast on KALL-700 radio. After a day of hiking in Zion, my sons and I decided to drive over to St. George to check on movies. Going to a movie got scrubbed in favor of dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

The cool thing about the drive was that we listened to the RSL v SJE game on KALL-700 AM radio as we drove. We heard the 1st half driving over, ate, and as we were driving back listened to the last 10 minutes of the game. When we turned the radio on after dinner, RSL was up 2-1, then, just before regulation ends SJE scores. Here comes thirty minutes of overtime with no Golden Goal. We listen to overtime as we are driving back. Then, SJE scores and so it is 3-2 but just as we are getting back to Springdale, Nat Borchers scores on a head from a Robbie Russell cross. (Now that is an offensive combination I’d not thought of).

My son, Adam yells loudly, and it’s going to PKs! We drove up and down Springdale’s main street to listen to the rest of the game, hoping the Springdale cops wouldn’t think we were casing the joint. As for the PKs, Nick Rimando had to sit and watch this time. Kyle Reynish had been keeper for RSL all night because they were resting Rimando for the Galaxy game on Saturday. Jon Bush was keeper for SJE with Cannon on the bench. The very first Quake up, Arturo Alvarez, missed his kick wide and that was enough to get the win for RSL as all of the other four Quakes and the five RSL players all made their PKs. It took 120 minutes, but RSL won the game and will move on in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup. Now, on to LA today for the Saturday night game at The Home Depot Center.

So in the end there are two things I take away from last night’s game: Number one, it sucked that RSL had a 2-0 lead and took its foot off the gas and let the Quakes get back in the game; and number two, unlike early last season, RSL fought back and never stopped playing for a win. No, it wasn’t good for my blood pressure, but it was good to get the win. Unfortunately, the team expended a lot of energy and now heads down to LA to play the Galaxy on Saturday night. That will not be an easy match as LA looks as good as I have ever seen them this early in the season. That said, RSL has definitely applied some lessons from last year to this year. But will it be enough in LA on two days rest?

Category: LA Galaxy, MLS, RSL, Real Salt Lake, Scores