RSL eliminated from MLS Playoffs, lose 3-1

Both Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy trotted out less than their preferred starting lineups which would make for an interesting match up. The Galaxy struck first with none other than Landon Donovan getting deep into the right side and finding Dos Santos who headed it to an unmarked Alan Gordon in the box and he easily kicked it in to put L.A. up in the 14th. About seven minutes later Javier Morales was able to draw a penalty with Boateng fouling him in the box. Plata stepped up and evened the match in the 21st. The Galaxy didn’t take long to strike back and Emmanuel Boateng, who has caused RSL all sorts of headaches this year, got through four defenders all on his own and put the ball in far post to regain the lead for his club. Things didn’t slow down for L.A. and Boateng used his speed again in the 35th minute to get past Phillips and Rimando to put the home side up 3-1 making things very difficult for RSL. Salt Lake didn’t give up, but their defense was leaking like a a siv and were lucky to only be down a couple goals at the half.

The second half saw some controversial substitutions from RSL with Cassar opting to bring off Burrito and Morales. The Galaxy were not able to create nearly the amount of chances in the second half as they did in the first, but RSL weren’t able to create many solid chances either and the body language from about half of the team seemed like they threw in the towel. In the 85th, Beckerman headed the ball off the crossbar and Yura attempted a bicycle kick but neither resulted in a goal. The game came to a close with the same score at the half and RSL found themselves out of the MLS Playoffs as awkwardly as they found themselves in it.