Photo: Kari Heistad
Real Salt Lake have fired a warning shot across the bows of any Western Conference opponent daft enough to use the words ‘transition year’.
With their 2-1 win over Conference new boys Sporting KC, they took their 2015 Desert Diamond Cup record to a perfect 3-0-0. Emery Welshman and Devon Sandoval scored for RSL with Dom Dwyer pulling one back for SKC in the 66th minute, five minutes after replacing Jacob Petersen.
Nonetheless RSL had keeper Jeff Attinella to thank for preserving the win, with a 70th minute save from Dwyer the pick of his effort.
Many of the likely SKC starters only emerged after the hour with Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, Benny Feilhaber, Krisztian Nemeth, and Graham Zusi joining Dwyer having watched the first our from the bench.
Jeff Cassar stuck mostly with the men who kicked off although many of the names will be new to non RSL fans with English midfielder Luke Mulholland and Devon Sandoval the only men who saw serious time last season in their starting XI.
The clubs shared seven bookings, three of them for delaying a restart.
Real Salt Lake will face local rivals Colorado Rapids (1-0-2) in the tournament final on Saturday at 6 p.m. PT at Kino North Stadium. A more regular first team squad will face the Rapids having been rested last night, with their first two wins already assuring them of qualification.
Real Salt Lake: Jeff Attinella; Boyd Okwuonu, Elias Vasquez (Delonte Dubose), Aaron Maund, Jordan Allen; Fito Ovalle (Dom Papa), Lucas Baldin, Luke Mulholland; Sebastian Saucedo (Phanuel Kavita), Devon Sandoval, Emery Welshman (Ricardo Velazco 64).
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia (Luis Marin 61); Seth Sinovic (Amadou Dia 61), Jalil Anibaba (Erik Palmer-Brown 61), Kevin Ellis (Matt Besler 61), Saad Abdul-Salaam (Marcel De Jong 61); Servando Carrasco (Mikey Lopez 46, Roger Espinoza 61), Paulo Nagamura (Benny Feilhaber 61), Jimmy Medranda (Krisztian Nemeth 61); Connor Hallisey (Graham Zusi 61), Jacob Peterson (Dom Dwyer 61), James Ansu Rogers (Bernardo Anor 61)
Attendance: 1,768
SCORING SUMMARY:
RSL – Emery Welshman (Luke Mulholland) 12
RSL – Devon Sandoval (unassisted) 47
SKC – Dom Dwyer (Benny Feilhaber) 66
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY:
RSL – Fito Ovalle (caution; reckless foul) 38
SKC – Jimmy Medranda (caution; delaying a restart) 43
SKC – Seth Sinovic (caution; unsporting behavior) 59
RSL – Emery Welshman (caution; unsporting behavior) 59
SKC – Krisztian Nemeth (caution; unsporting behavior) 72
SKC – Bernardo Anor (caution; reckless tackle) 83
RSL – Ricardo Velazco (caution; delaying a restart) 85
