Espindola made his first start since a May 31 game against San Jose. He missed nine full games due to a left MCL sprain and only recently returned to the lineup — he played the second half against Houston in a 4-3 loss and 26 minutes against Columbus in a 3-0 loss. He made the 15,257 in attendance take notice of his presence almost immediately.
Andy Williams (8) – His assist was special, really special, and on-the-ball, nobody is better than Williams. This game, he also tracked back well and showed a lot of effort.
Kenny Deuchar (6) – This was close to a 5 because of a close-range miss that Deuchar should have collected and finished rather than heading wide, but his target play up top was strong enough to forgive him.
Fabian Espindola (9) – Besides his two goals, he was the most dangerous player on the field by a long way. He had a third goal called back from an offsides that would have netted him the hat trick.
"Espindola was a step ahead of the Rapids all night and had four shots, getting three on goal. Two went in, including a chip shot over Colorado goalkeeper Preston Burpo in the 59th minute."
For anyone who caught the game tonight, Real Salt Lake put on a rather dominating performance at home to take out the Colorado Rapids 2-0 and move up to 30 points for the season. The Rapids could have moved into a tie with Salt Lake at 27 points with a win, but will instead stay in the fourth spot.
"The Rocky Mountain Cup was played for the second time on Friday night as Real Salt Lake fought to a 2-0 victory over their bitter rivals, the Colorado Rapids, with much credit going to their star striker, Fabian Espindola."
Quote Sheet (Provided by RSL Communications)
REAL SALT LAKE 2 : 0 COLORADO cRAPIDS FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2008 RICE-ECCLES STADIUM – SALT LAKE CITY, UT
RSL HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the play of FW Fabian Espíndola:
“He was spectacular. It’s been a long time coming. I know he’s been so very, very frustrated with his injury situation because it’s lasted a lot longer than he anticipated, or any of us anticipated. To get him back to full fitness and for him to have a game like that tonight going into this stretch before the end of the season should mean great things for us and great things for Fabian.”
On the defensive effort tonight:
“Everybody always wants to talk about the back four and the defenders. For me it was a team effort. I believe in a lot of guys. I believe that we should be able to put players in and do better than we have in our last two matches.”
On offense being RSL’s best defense:
“I have always been a huge, huge believer in that. I believe that if you can stamp your authority on the game early on with an offensive presence, and make them start to have to think more defensively than they do offensively I think it’s always going to mean good things.”
On the rivalry with Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Cup:
“The rivalry never even came up this week… it wasn’t ever used as motivation. I think our guys were motivated by a few things. I think they were motivated by the fact they knew they needed to respond from last week. I think they were motivated by the fact that the last time we played Colorado they handed it to us a little. And I think they’re motivated because they believe in themselves, and they think that they could go on a very good run here.”
RSL GK NICK RIMANDO
On RSL’s defense:
“We weren’t the sharpest in the first half defensively. Those goals helped us correct ourselves, do what we needed to do and gave us a little cushion. In the second half we were able to correct those. When you guys like [Jamison] Olave, [Nat] Borchers and [Chris] Wingert in front of you and Fabian [Espindola] doing the job up top, it feels good.”
On Espindola’s deflected shot on RSL’s goal in the first half and the striker’s performance:
“He was shooting on both sides, that’s how good he was tonight! He’s been hurt and has had a rough year, so for him to get two goals was good for his head and it’s good for us heading into L.A. next week.”
RSL FW FABIAN ESPÍNDOLA
On returning fully from his knee injury:
“I’m very happy to get so much time out on the field. I’m just excited to get out there and play again and help this team towards a title… it’s what I’ve wanted the most.”
On his two goals this evening:
“[On the first goal] I was in the middle of everyone and wanted to get inside. I got the pass from Andy [Williams] and on the second touch I was able to put it in. On the second goal, Javier [Morales] gave me a great pass at the top of the arc and I was able to loft it in.”
RSL MF WILL JOHNSON
On his cohesiveness in the RSL midfield in his return to MLS:
“The other three [midfielders], I’ve watched them play a lot, and they’re all good, smart soccer players. I thought the four of us played really well together. I thought we held our own and knocked it around pretty good.”
On RSL’s team chemistry:
“It’s a good group. Everybody’s willing to work for each other. When you have 11 guys that are all willing to work for each other it makes it much easier to get three points.”
RAPIDS HEAD COACH GARY SMITH
Overall thoughts on the match:
“I felt the opportunities we had we just didn’t make the most of. There were three or four occasions where we started to get a little bit of pressure and maybe a couple of openings, and we squandered them. It was one of those games where it was tight and there weren’t going to be a lot of chances either way, and we certainly didn’t make the most of it. Certainly disappointing not to get on the scoresheet, so there’s plenty to think about.”
On Colorado’s struggles on the Rice-Eccles Stadium surface:
“A number of our players found the surface difficult to deal with. Certainly the home side played the pitch well, they understand the pitch and that’s why they have such a great home record, so full credit to them.”
On whether it is time to press the panic button:
“Not at all. I have a lot of faith in our players and their judgment. We’ve had some extremely difficult games on the road. Circumstances last week saw us lose four players in the game and tonight, on a surface that’s probably one of the most difficult in the League, we found it hard to re-adjust.
On looking ahead to next week:
“We play against Dallas next week and we don’t have an awful lot of time to recover and regroup, and we’ve got to find out what kind of character this side has. I have faith in them and they have faith. They’re disappointed and they’re very frustrated, and I think we’ll see a side that gives everything they can in Dallas.”
RAPIDS DF MIKE PETKE
On the Rapids’ effort:
“Tonight from the opening whistle to the end, everybody from myself through the forwards, everybody to a man did not show up to play, and that’s extremely disturbing in a game that was so important, not only for us to win but to take away points from Salt Lake. The players we brought in are capable players, they’re hungry. But tonight it looked like a preseason game, like it meant nothing, and that’s very disturbing.
On the team’s response to Smith:
“Our new coach Gary Smith has done everything right since he’s been here. He’s put a game plan out, told us how he wants to play, position by position, so there’s no excuses. All of us are extremely disappointed, I’m embarrassed. It’s over now, we have to look forward Thursday to Dallas, but it’s going to be a tough night tonight.”
RAPIDS DF CORY GIBBS
On the role of injuries in tonight’s match:
“We just didn’t perform as a team, I don’t think the fault comes in with who stepped in for who was injured. As a team we just didn’t go out with a purpose like we wanted to win, and I think the spirit wasn’t there throughout the whole team, including myself. I don’t know what the reason is behind it, but we just didn’t look like a team tonight.”
On where the team goes from here:
“We’re building as a team, I guess. The personnel is starting to come together, though we’re struggling with a couple of injuries right now, but I don’t think tonight’s performance shows what our team can do. But we’re building it, and I think things will pick up in the long run.”
Boz Art...
("the alter-kreis")
Boz's RSL Stadium Slideshow: 7/18/08
Boz Note...
If anyone out there fancies a specific photo that I've posted in the past, or perhaps a specific player, just drop me a line and I will email you the raw shot--for Free-Fifty-Free.
Just tryin' to spread that RSL love one photo at a time.
