Real Salt Lake fought to maintain possession in an 11-10 man game against Seattle, ending the game 0-0.
The game finally slowed down when Seattle defender Zach Scott received his second yellow card and was kicked out of the game.
“I think it was a straight red card,” RSL Coach Jason Kreis said. “I don’t think there was any questions about it. It was a very, very dangerous tackle that stopped an attacking chance, so for me, no decision necessary there.”
Despite RSL playing 11 men to 10, the team struggled to keep possession of the ball throughout the game.
In the last 15 minutes, several attempts were made to score, but each shot was blocked by Seattle goalkeeper Michael Gspurning.
Gspurning’s great defense against RSL’s offensive attacks ended the game 0-0.
Kreis was impressed with Seattle’s determination.
“A result is a result,” Kreis said. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist, looking at it and say being up a man for sixty some-odd minutes, we probably should have scored a goal. Credit to Seattle, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to break a team down that is that committed to making sure that they get the point that they so desperately needed.”
RSL defender Tony Beltran knew coming into the game Seattle would put up a fight.
“Seattle’s a team that’s never going to give up, especially with this crowd behind them,” Beltran said. “We’ve got a history of pretty good games between us, so I’m sure they have that in the back of their mind. They never went to sleep. They never made it easy for us.”
Seattle’s persistence kept RSL from a much-needed win.
“We came here to try to win the game,” Javier Morales, midfielder for RSL, said. “We tried to do it. Like I said, we tried to find the space. We worked hard to try to score a goal, but we couldn’t do it.”
RSL will have only a few days to rest as the team prepares for the CONCACAF Champions League game against the Costa Rica Champs Herediano on Tuesday, Oct.23, at Rio Tinto Stadium.
