RSL mounts massive come back over New England, wins 3-2

Real Salt Lake was on the verger of dropping all three points to New England on the road — a result that’s easy to understand, if we’re being honest — but the fates had other ideas, with Sergio Cordova and Tate Schmitt both scoring their first RSL goals.

RSL went down 2-0 to New England in the first 60 minutes, but the final 15 saw RSL notch three in what was a supermassive comeback.

Key moments

• Pre-match: The orange ball made it out early, unlike RSL’s game against Seattle a week ago. The plan from the beginning? Orange ball. The snow really dominated this one, and it’ll definitely dominate our memories.
• Injury Substitution | 15’: Maikel Chang off, Sergio Cordova on. Chang was taken off under concussion protocol after taking a knee to the head.
• 30’: New England striker Adam Buksa hit the post with a header with what proved the most dangerous moment of the match inside the first third of the game.
• 35’, maybe: Pablo Ruiz is shown a yellow card for tripping Buksa after the ball had gone. Advantage was played, then he made an extremely good tackle to break up play. Glad he got that one right, because anything else could realistically have seen him sent off.
• New England 1-0 RSL | 45+3’: Emmanuel Boateng — yes, that one, if you remember RSL vs. LA Galaxy through the years — scored on a corner kick, sending a shot from close distance through Zac MacMath’s legs.
• 53’ Pablo Ruiz has a free shot in the penalty area, but he skies his shot. Again.
• New England 2-0 RSL | 61’: Jozy Altidore — yeah, that one — comes on and scores just a couple minutes later, making Erik Holt look foolish in the process of heading home a smart cross.
• 72’: Jonathan Menendez comes on for Justin Meram, and Everton Luiz comes on for Scott Caldwell.
• New England 2-1 RSL | 75’: Sergio Cordova scores a simple tap-in after Bobby Wood gets free in the box, is taken down, and the ball is left free for Cordova running onto it. It was lovely, if not spectacular. Wood getting free of the defense in a counterattack is a massive development, too.
• 85’ Jasper Loeffelsend enters for Real Salt Lake, replacing Erik Holt and putting RSL in a pretty reasonable 4-3-3. (Maybe?)
• New England 2-2 RSL | 87’: Justen Glad, take a bow! Glad got on the end of a very nice Pablo Ruiz free kick, sending the equalizer in
• New England 2-3 RSL | 90+2’: Tate Schmitt scores an absolutely phenomenal goal, sending a curling shot into the back of the net. What a goal. Wow.

Lineup

• The lineup was the same as the match a week ago, with Zac MacMath returning in goal despite a “questionable” status in the latest injury report. Tomas Gomez was on the bench.

(3-4-3) MacMath; Holt, Glad, Silva; Brody, Ruiz, Caldwell, Schmitt; Chang, Wood, Meram