By Nathan Nef
Real Salt Lake got their first win of the season Thursday night. Unfortunately it had no effect on MLS standings.
Real Salt Lake beat the Chinese National Team 1-0 in a friendly match at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of a crowd of 11,119.
The lone goal of the game came in the 80th minute when Chris Lancos crossed the ball in from the right side to Chris Brown, who brought it down, and Alecko Eskandarian beat Chinese goalkeeper Yang Jun to the ball and put it in the back of the net.
After a slow first half which saw the Chinese outshoot Real Salt Lake 10-2, Real came out strong in the second half and made the Chinese goalkeeper work more. Salt Lake goalkeeper Chris Seitz was also tested. He had seven saves on the night.
A key save for Seitz came in the 30th minute when he came 12 yards off his line and slid to block Chinese midfielder Wang Dong?s shot. Seitz wasn?t done though. In the 59th minute Hao Junmin was one on one with Seitz in the left corner of the box and made a move beating Seitz and attempted to cross the ball into the middle but Seitz recovered quickly, diving to deflect the cross out of bounds.
The game was not without political undertones, however. In the 70th minute play was halted for a brief moment when a Chinese player became upset when he saw a fan waving a Tibetan flag. Eventually play resumed and the flag was put away.
This was the second of three games for China in their trip to the western United States. The trip began with a 4-1 defeat to the U.S. National Team last Saturday evening in San Jose, Calif., and will conclude with an exhibition match against the Colorado Rapids this Sunday in Commerce City, Colo.
This match was the sixth for Real Salt Lake against international competition in two-plus seasons of play, in which RSL has compiled a 3-2-1 record against Real Madrid, Monarcas Morelia, Universidad Catolica, Harbour View FC, the Fijian National Team and now the Chinese National Team.
League play for Real Salt Lake (0-3-6) resumes Thursday when it takes on FC Dallas (5-5-1) at home. The game kicks off at 7 p.m.
