Real Salt Lake 0-0 SJ Earthquakes

Wednesday June 18th, 2008
MLS - Match 12

Rice-Eccles Stadium

Attendance: 10,333

Thursday June 19th, 2008

The Earthquakes still don't like the turf at Rice-Eccles Stadium and it would be an exaggeration to say that they played much better yesterday than the first two times they played there against the Real Salt Lake (losses 0-4 in US open Cup on April 30 and 1-3 in MLS on May 31), but this time they obtained a better result which is even more valuable knowing that they played the whole second life one man down after Jason Hernandez received a second yellow card in the 44th minute.

The game started with 30 boring minutes in which the Quakes had the best opportunity: on a corner kick by O'Brien, Ryan Johnson deflected the ball to John Cunliffe in the 6-yard box. Nick Rimando (RSL's goalkeeper) blocked the angle and Cunliffe's shot went above the target.

In the last 15 minutes of the first half, Real Salt Lake started to show they were the home team and took possession of the ball without being very dangerous except on corner kicks. San Jose was defending well, waiting for a hypothetical better period or a counter attack.

The pressure of the locals had a major consequence right before the end of the first half: Jason Hernandez, for a late tackle on Robbie Findley, was shown his second yellow card (44th)*

Rice-Eccles Stadium was decidedly not a successful place for the Earthquakes. However, they came back for the second half with the firm intention to hold on and take one point. That's what they did. We won't describe all the RSL chances here, the stat will speak for itself: 24 shots for RSL, 7 shots for San Jose.

The quality of the game was poor and the constant free kicks called by the referee at every single contact did not help.

However, San Jose showed a nice fighting spirit and the Real has been really close to score only a few times.

San Jose was even close to score after a long ball by Kelly Gray to O'Brien who found Cunliffe in the box with only Rimando to beat. His shot went too high again.

In the 72nd minute, Salt Lake thought they had made it but Beckerman, who pushed the ball into the net, was called offside after one minute of celebration. Grabavoy seemed to cover his position. This was questionable, but even more questionable was the way the assistant referee called the offside, at least 30 seconds later after he did not raise his flag!

For the first time of the night, the Quakes were lucky. They were going to be lucky again one minute later when Kenny Cutler (who came in earlier in the second half for Matias Cordoba) hit the post (73rd).

Real Salt Lake had a couple of other chances in the last 15 minutes, but Joe Cannon remained solid and saved the few attempts that his defenders couldn't clear.

The Earthquakes played ugly but won 1 point in more than difficult circumstances and this is a very good result to start a series of 3 away games!

Thierry Heumann (email)

*Right before the counter attack which lead to the red card, an incident occurred on the other side of the field. Ronnie O'Brien took a free kick from the left and, after he kicked the ball, Mr. Anno whistled, apparently calling a Quakes' foul in the box. Everyone stopped playing and the ball arrived in Rimando's hands. The goalkeeper looked at the referee to know where to play the free kick but the man in yellow made a sign saying "play the ball" and Rimando could pass the ball to one of his defenders with his hands. No one knows what the referee called.

Attendance: 10,333

Yellow Cards:

SJ: Jason Hernandez (professional foul, 25th), Jason Hernandez (Reckless foul, 44th), Ned Grabavoy (Reckless Foul, 78th), Kelly Gray (Reckless Foul, 81st)

RSL: Nick Rimando (Reckless Foul, 83rd)

Red Card:

SJ: Jason Hernandez (Second yellow card, 44th)

Lineups:

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