Real Monarchs win late, Amankona scores stoppage-time winner

Amass Amankona, Real Salt Lake's third-round draft pick, has been steadily impressing with Real Monarchs — but his best moment came tonight when he scored his first professional goal.

That goal? A game-winner against Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in the 5th minute of stoppage time. Let's be clear about this: Nobody really thinks about marking the kid that's just scratching above 5 feet tall. But his run is excellent all the same, and Eti Tavares does extremely well to place the ball just past the back post.

It's worth watching. And then it's worth watching again.

Amankona's goal prompted a fair bit of celebration on everyone's part — the final whistle was sounded immediately after, so a certain excess was involved when the substitutes entered the pitch to join the celebrations.

That's probably justified for more than just the magnitude of the goal: The Whitecaps hadn't been defeated until Monarchs stuck that dagger in,

Other items of note from the match include:

• Chris Schuler played 90 minutes and was his usual defensively staunch self — it's not his only 90-minute appearance this season, either.
• Omar Holness continues to impress; he played in the most attack-minded of the midfield roles and was decidedly competent
• Rounding out the RSL players list, Phanuel Kavita, Boyd Okwuonu and Lalo Fernandez all played 90 minutes.