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Man of the Match: Jamison Olave and Chris Schuler's goalline clearances save the day

Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

It was a mad, mad finish as Real Salt Lake managed a draw despite the hairiest of times in the final minute of play — and two players (of a few choices) that they probably owe that to are Jamison Olave and Chris Schuler, who are forced to share our oh-so-prestigious 'man of the match' award.

Olave and Schuler equally had a hand in most of the great things that happened for RSL, which is to say, they had some key clearances and did excellent work keeping the ball out of the net when it probably would have gone in — you know, goalline clearances and the like.

Both men divide the spoils of war because they were a well-functioning unit — their positioning was good, and their set-piece marking was better. They were every bit the defensive pairing we hoped they would be on their first true day on the job together.

The only negative was perhaps that Jamison Olave had to tie his shoes once or twice, but I guess we can live with that.

Olave's best non-playing moment might have been after a petty (and reasonably stupid) push by Liam Ridgewell, Olave just sort of put his fist into the Englishman's chest. Not a drawn punch — not even a real punch, if we're honest. Just enough to make Ridgewell complain to the referee a bit.

Schuler's best non-playing moment is harder to define, so let's just go with that clearance at the end. It's not, like, the best shot ever, and it's not the most spectacular looking clearance. In fact, it looks sort of like Schuler's falling over, even though we know he's not.

And no, we didn't give it to the two because we're jealous of Portland Timbers and their having Nat Borchers. But I didn't say we weren't that. We miss the big guy.