Player Ratings: Real Salt Lake 1-2 San Jose Earthquakes

Nick Rimando - 7 Nick made a couple gasp inducing saves that kept RSL's hopes alive to get some sort of result out of this overall poor performance by the team. One of those saves is likely of the MLS Save of the Week caliber. I would much rather that Rimando have a quiet night, however, as that means the defense was doing their job.

Nat Borchers - 4 Borchers, from my estimation and his, missed Lenhart on both of his goals. One goal, fine. But virtually the same goal twice within a minute and a half by the same player? You know what they say. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, are you serious?" At least that's what I said from the stands. Very disappointing. The only thing I can come up with is that Borchers was making sure to keep an eye on/lead Salcedo or that there was too much focus on Wondolowski. Either way, no excuse will be good enough as Borchers is a well-experienced veteran.

Carlos Salcedo - 6 Salcedo must take some of the blame for Lenhart going unmarked as well. It looked as if he had Lenhart marked on the first goal then for whatever reason Borchers stepped in but at that point there was too much space given. The question going forward is if Salcedo will maintain his starting spot or if Schuler will step in.

Chris Wingert - 5 I have never seen Wingert look so frustrated. His body language was clear. It also showed in his play, particularly in his passing.

Tony Beltran - 6.5 Beltran put in a nice day's work and seemed to be the most dialed in of the defenders. He held up the ball very well in some extremely tough situations.

Kyle Beckerman - 7 Beckerman had a nice assist off the corner kick and tried to lead his team through sheer effort. I thought he had one of the better performances of the night although he was uncharacteristically giving up the ball in bad spots a few times.

Ned Grabavoy - 6.5 Ned was not as involved in the game as he typically has been over the 2013 season. He had a couple of nice looks but was unable to do much with them as there was a wall of blue in front of goal.

Khari Stephenson - 5.5 I did not see much of anything from Stephenson that makes me believe he was comfortable playing his old teammates. He was unable to assert himself in the game. It's a strange thing because there are games when he has two or three good chances from distance and others when he is nowhere to be found.

Javier Morales - 6.5 Javi is quietly having one of the best seasons of his career, notching another goal against San Jose. He did well to create a few chances with little to no breathing room. Unfortunately, RSL was behind the curve after letting two goals in the net within minutes of each other. That left Morales with little space to channel his creativity. When he had a few spaces to work with, he didn't place them as well as he normally does. The ball got away from him and that is not characteristic of him this year.

Joao Plata - 6 Plata made some good passes and was energetic as per usual, but his biggest downfall of the night was that he was not in the right places on the field to receive goal scoring opportunities that were being created, albeit few of them. Garcia got the ball into dangerous spots but nobody, Plata in particular, was there to put them past San Jose's keepr.

Devon Sandoval - 6 He hustled all night long, but hustling will only get you so far. Sandoval is young in the league and it shows. He will eventually figure out how to get the best of the defenders on a more consistent basis.

Substitutions

Robbie Findley - 5.5 Findley took a nice shot that was only a foot or two off from tying the game up. It seems to me that when he is not thinking so much about his next decision that he does better with the ball. He didn't have much time to have a huge effect, but he showed a threat or two.

Olmes Garcia - 7 Olmes looked like one of the few determined RSL players on the field. He put the ball in dangerous spots but nobody was home to answer. He repeatedly beat his defender, but it's a team sport.

Luis Gil - 6 Gil didn't have any big highlights on the night but he did just come back from hospitalization for some sort of stomach issue. My guess is his energy level wasn't where he would have liked it to be. That said, he didn't have any glaring errors either.