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Frisco, Texas • Emiliano Bonfigli has been in the United States a mere three months. In that time, he had been on the field for Real Salt Lake's first team for an even more miniscule time period — one minute in the club's first eight games.

But it didn't take the rookie much more time than that to make his first big impact for RSL in Wednesday night's 1-1 tie at FC Dallas.

Two minutes after he entered the match in place of tiring Paulo Junior, Bonfigli slipped through the Dallas defense, got onto the end of a Will Johnson pass and fired a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Chris Seitz for the tying goal, the first score of Bonfligli's MLS career.

"I just turned, saw Emi making a run through and just tried to put it in his path," Johnson said. "He did the hard part — putting it in the net."

"Will looked up and got me the ball and I was able to stop it," Bonfigli said in Spanish through a translator. "Then I looked forward and saw the goal wide open."

Not a bad start for the 23-year-old from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, whose entire previous body of work consisted of a single minute against Colorado on April 7.

He has been a regular on RSL's reserve team, scoring one goal — at Dallas, coincidentally — in five games.

Bonfigli seemed due to get his chance with the first team, which was short-handed up top Wednesday after leading Fabian Espindola was suspended for a red card in RSL's Saturday loss at San Jose.

When that chance came, Bonfigli was ready.

"We know how hard a worker he is," coach Jason Kreis said. "We know how fast he is. Potential-wise, he can be a very interesting player. I've been wanting to get him an opportunity, but it hasn't really presented itself until tonight. This was his first real opportunity and he took full advantage of it."

The chance was all Bonfigli has been waiting for.

"I'm working as hard as I can to get as many minutes as I can," he said. "It's tough watching the games at times, but when I get in, all I can do is work as hard as I can, and luckily I was able to get the goal."

And that might be just a beginning.

"He's been working really hard in the reserve games," Johnson said. "This game is all about taking your opportunities. He certainly did that tonight and it's put him in position to get more extended playing time in the future."