RSL falls 3-0 to Sporting Kansas City

Real Salt Lake dropped their second straight game as they lost a rain-drenched outing in Kansas City by a score of 3-0.

With captain Kyle Beckerman ruled out as a match day scratch, Sunny stepped into the starting eleven, marking his first MLS minutes since the beginning of April. Matt Van Oekel also started in place of an injured Nick Rimando, who is expected to be out 3-4 weeks with a hamstring strain.

Things got a little scary right off the bat in the fourth minute when Demar Phillips collided with big man Matt Van Oekel and had to come off the field with an apparent cut on his chin. Luckily, the trainers were able to get him bandaged up and back on the pitch in the ninth minute without much trouble.

However, Kansas City opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Roger Espinoza found Graham Zusi at the edge of the 18. Zusi put a ball into space where Benny Feilhaber was able to run up on it and put a great shot on goal. The ball went right past Van Oekel’s outstretched hand, off the far post, and into the back of the net to put Sporting up 1-0.

RSL thought they pulled one back in the 29th minute when Movsisyan let a shot rip from outside the 18. It deflected off Joao Plata, went past Tim Melia and into the net. However, after conversing with his assistant, referee Juan Carlos Rivero called the goal back due to Plata being in an offside position. The replays showed it was an extremely tight call, but that it was ultimately the right one.

While RSL had plenty of attack to be spoken of — outshooting the home side 8-5 in the first half — they were unable to find the back of the net and went into the locker room at the halftime break down by a goal.

Kansas City wasted no time doubling their lead at the start of the second half. In the 52nd minute, a long ball was played from the back all the way to Dom Dwyer who was able to bring it down outside of the penalty area. He turned it past Chris Wingert and Chris Schuler, and slotted a nice shot into the lower corner right past Van Oekel to set the score at 2-0.

Salt Lake’s attack fell flat going into the second half, and it didn’t help much when Mike Petke was forced to sub off Movsisyan in the 60th minute due to an apparent injury. Luis Silva was brought in to take his spot at the point of the attack.

To add insult to injury, Sporting Kansas City added one more to their tally in stoppage time when Gerso chased a ball down in front of net. Van Oekel made a play on the ground for it, but Gerso was able to knock it away from him and into an empty net. In what would be the final play of the game, he put the home side up 3-0, which is where the score would end.

Sporting Kansas City (4-1-3, 15 points) snapped a seven-game regular-season winless streak against RSL and continues to have the best defense in the league, allowing only three goals through eight games this season. They will play host to the New York Red Bulls next weekend.

Real Salt Lake (2-5-2, 8 points) is now winless in two and hosts the only remaining unbeaten team in the league, FC Dallas, next week at Rio Tinto Stadium.

RSL Starting XI: Van Oekel; Acosta (Saucedo 71’), Wingert, Schuler, Phillips; Mulholland (Hernandez 85’), Rusnak, Sunny; Lennon, Movsisyan (Silva 60’), Plata