Player of the Match: Rubio Rubin earns brace, Andrew Brody shines against Sporting Kansas City

Not much feels better on a Saturday afternoon than a win over Sporting Kansas City at home. The only thing I can think of that maybe makes that better is your brand new forward getting a brace and first goal in his first home appearance.

Oh wait.

That also happened this weekend. Rubio Rubin, while his parents watched him play live for the first time, scored two for Real Salt Lake and helped them to a 3-1 win over our foes from Kansas City.

The first goal couldn’t have been at a better time, RSL was tied going into the half and just seven minutes into the second, got the goal to take the lead once again. Not bad for your first goal for a club, either.

Then, just in case one wasn’t enough, he got the second.

What was special about this game from Rubin, though, isn’t just the fact he scored two goals. It was the way he scored them. His first goal came from a perfectly timed assist from Damir Kreilach, who just placed a dime right at his feet and Rubin had the skillset to just nail it in the back of the net.

On the second goal, that’s where you truly see what Rubin brings to Real Salt Lake. He fights and presses onward for this goal. Past RSL goal scorers you more than likely see them pass that ball, or turn it over. Not Rubin. Similar to the assist he got against Minnesota, he fought, recognized the opportunity he created and capitalized on it.

With only 39.6% of the possession in this one, Rubin and the rest of the RSL attack managed to put three goals on a Kansas City side that had given up just a goal in each of its two games prior.

Additionally, Rubin had an 88% passing accuracy. Though he didn’t get any assists on the score sheet tonight, his passing and playmaking abilities were key in getting the team into dangerous positions. In his time with RSL so far, Rubin is creating a scoring chance every 12 minutes. That type of offensive threat is something RSL hasn’t seen in a while. It’s only game two, but it’s hard not to be excited about Rubin.

I don’t think it’s fair to write a player of the match report without giving a shout to Andrew Brody, though. Brody hasn’t exactly had the easiest route to first team soccer but when he came on unexpectedly for an injured Aaron Herrera, he took it in stride.

Brody notched an assist and held 92% passing accuracy on the defense which was a key in the brick wall RSL had keeping Sporting Kansas City scoreless in the second half.

Overall, RSL rebounded from conceding a goal and put together a whole team performance to take three points over Sporting Kansas City and showed a lot of promise for next week against San Jose.