Real Salt Lake beat the Chicago Fire 2-1 Saturday. In the win RSL ended its month-long scoreless drought, and Nick Rimando got his hundredth win as a member of RSL.
RSL’s first goal was set up early on by Jordan Allen, who crossed the ball to Alvaro Saborio, and Saborio calmly slot the ball inside the left post.
Chicago outshot RSL most of the first half, but Rimando made key saves that kept RSL in the lead.
Allen assisted again by playing a ball through to Devon Sandoval behind the Chicago defense. Sandoval drew the defense and passed to Luke Mulholland. Mullholland’s goal gave Real a 2-0 lead.
Chicago scored on a penalty kick in minute 87 but was unable to tie the game.
“It was such a positive result for us, a positive way we play, that we wanted to keep that continuity going forward,” head coach Jeff Cassar said about its unchanged formation. Allen was a positive for RSL — “A young man who plays like a seasoned veteran,” Cassar said. “He’s really impressing us, not just with the ball, but without the ball.”
Despite the win there is still a lot of work for RSL. “Definitely whenever you see one of your forwards scoring, you hope it’s more to come after,” said captain Kyle Beckerman. “We were more efficient than last week. Something to build off of for sure,” Beckerman said.
Real Salt Lake continues its upward momentum against Montreal Impact in Montreal on Saturday, May 16.
