But really, is any competitive soccer match ever really friendly?

That's the question that begged to be answered in the moments after Saprissa came away with a 2-1 victory that included a near fight, two red cards and more than a little testiness.

"It did get a little heated out there," RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "And that's something that you never really want to see in the friendly."

All red cards aside, RSL played a better first half than second half, when Saprissa employed a few tactical formations that gave RSL fits and led to a pair of goals in quick succession. But this was a match where RSL made a conscious effort to play a few guys that haven't seen big minutes. They also wanted to stay competitive, all the while escaping injury-free.

All of those factors led to a few lineups that RSL doesn't often employ. But even though the win wasn't here on this night, RSL head coach Jason Kreis was happy after the match was over.

"I thought that we defended in the first half the way we've been defending over the past few weeks," Kreis said. "I thought we were a compact unit out there. In the second half, Saprissa changed tactics and that hurt us a little bit."

The change in formation, for Saprissa, led to scores from Ronald Gomez and Armando Alonso, both of which were surprisingly easy looks at the net, considering how scarce chances were to come by in the first half.

Those two goals pretty much ended the match, although Chris Wingert scored late to cut the deficit to 2-1. The real chances, for RSL, came much earlier in the match, but they failed to capitalize on their opportunities. The red cards, for a late match scuffle, were handed to RSL's Yura Movsisyan and Saprissa's Gabriel Badilla.

"Overall, I thought we played a better match than we did in our last friendly against Santos Laguna," Kreis said. "It was better offensively because we created a lot more chances than we did in that match."

tjones@sltrib.com

Storylines

* Real Salt Lake surrenders two second-half goals to Saprissa.

* Chris Wingert scores a late goal, to no avail.

* RSL loses its second consecutive exhibition.