This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sandy • To hear Jason Kreis throughout the week, Real Salt Lake's game Saturday against the New York Red Bulls would be where it either turned the corner or smacked straight into a wall of mediocre play and broken confidence.
With tires screeching, tipped on two wheels, RSL (10-5-7) overwhelmed the star-laden Red Bulls and left a week of bad memories, however temporarily, in its dust. Behind the steady play of veterans and one speedy, Titleist-legged teen, Real Salt Lake earned a 3-0 decision and everyone could just breathe evenly again.
RSL, in some ways, salvaged a season dinged by 2-0 losses to both the Columbus Crew at Sporting Kansas since July 30.
"This isn't a team that is used to losing," defender Nat Borchers said, "and when we do lose games, two in a row, we do take it very seriously."
Borchers started the scoring with his second goal of the season in the 13th minute, on a corner kick served by Kyle Beckerman. He deflected the ball downward, at close range, past Red Bulls' goalkeeper Frank Rost. It was the first time Real led in a game since its 4-0 drubbing of San Jose on July 23.
The breath of relief that came with that goal was shortly taken away by Luis Gil, the 17-year-old midfielder, who, moments before halftime, took two short dribbles and blasted a 24-yard shot into the corner of the net for his first career goal.
"Luis is a kid that has worked extremely hard for us now for a year and a half," Kreis said. "He's done a great job of keeping his head down and not listening to other people around him telling him he should be playing all the time."
Alvaro Saborio continued his remarkable scoring pace for RSL, slipping a penalty kick into the net in the 77th minute. It was Saborio's sixth goal in his past six games with the team.
It was a night of comfort, things clicking back into place for a team that has been very much out of whack.
Beckerman, recently called up for national team duty, assisted on both Borchers' and Gil's goals.
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando was never unnerved, a credit to the Salt Lake defense that allowed New York just one shot on goal — no insignificant feat considering the presence of league scoring co-leader Thierry Henry.
And it came at a critical juncture against a team that was on an upswing.
"I felt like if we took another poor performance," Kreis said, "and put it on top of the two we had this week — again, I'm not talk about results, I'm talking about performance — then we were going to get ourselves in a really bad spot and it would be very, very difficult to dig ourselves out of that hole."
It wasn't just a performance Kreis witnessed, it was a production — right down to the fresh-faced hero. Were there a girl, Gil would have gotten her.
"We knew that we really had to come out with some energy tonight," Borchers said. "We really just wanted to improve from how we've been playing which, wasn't hard to do with the way we played against Kansas City."
Twitter: @oramb —
Highlights
R Real Salt Lake breaks its two-game losing streak with an emphatic win over the star-studded Red Bulls.
• RSL 17-year-old Luis Gil scores his first career goal at the end of the first half.
• Alvaro Saborio scores his sixth goal in six games for RSL.