Real Salt Lake Lets Points Slip In Draw Against Colorado Rapids

SALT LAKE CITY – Real Salt Lake drew 2-2 with the Colorado Rapids to regain the Rocky Mountain Cup for the 13th time in the previous 17 seasons. However, the draw came following a late Rapids goal that frustrated the home crowd.

Manager Pablo Mastroeni opted to make a handful of changes to the starting XI when he played Jasper Löffelsend in the center of the park and Anderson Julio started at the point of the attack replacing Rubio Rubin.

😠😠😠😠😠😃
😠😠😠😠🙂 pic.twitter.com/SiZmGIBIW9

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) July 10, 2022

Sadly, Julio looked to injure his quadriceps 15 minutes into the contest and was replaced by Justin Meram.

Real Salt Lake began the fixture on the front foot, peppering the Colorado goal as they looked to bounce back from consecutive poor performances against Colombus and Minnesota United.

Against the run of play, Colorado came within inches of gaining the lead in the 22nd minute when a low cross just missed the boot of Sam Nicholson and fell into the hands of Zac MacMath.

love pic.twitter.com/LHxglKsCtw

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) July 10, 2022

With the final kick of the opening half, Jefferson Savarino cut onto his right foot from 25 yards out and found the bottom right corner of the net. It was Savarino’s third goal of the year after rejoining the club early in May.

Sava doing Sava things pic.twitter.com/n81dj5AfpR

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) July 10, 2022

Shortly after the main stoppage, Real Salt Lake scored their second goal in the 51st minute when Pablo Ruiz’s free-kick ricocheted off the crossbar and Justin Meram easily headered the ball into the back of the net.

“We need to get a third goal, we were up 2-0, it turned into a transition game…we need to manage the game better and we controlled the majority of the game but we let it slip. We did not lose but it feels like a loss as we let it slip,” Meram said immediately following the conclusion of the game.

Real Salt Lake looked comfortable at home until Colorado was awarded a penalty in the 67th minute after the referee determined Marcelo Silva made a foul in the penalty box. Diego Rubio sent MacMath the wrong way and easily cut the lead in half.

Deigo Luna came off the bench in the 85th minute for Jefferson Savarino making his Rio Tinto Stadium debut. Rubio Rubin and Nick Besler had previously replaced Pablo Ruiz and Sergio Córdova.

As the minutes went by, Colorado continued to mount pressure on Real Salt Lake and the visitors were rewarded in the 89th minute when center back Lalas Abubakar found space in the area and beat MacMath with a diving right foot to equalize in the dying minutes.

Lalas Abubakar stretches out to draw us even!

89'| 2-2 | #RSLvCOL#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/wmGdvmfoyl

— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) July 10, 2022

Abubakar was the same player that equalized on April 2nd when the two teams drew 1-1 in Colorado. It was the second consecutive week that Abubakar scored and the third goal of his 2022 season.

Despite the 2-2 draw and the disappointing result, Real Salt Lake remained undefeated at home in 2022 and is yet to lose in the 10 fixtures at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Next Match

Real Salt Lake will travel to Atlanta United for a road fixture on Wednesday evening. The kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on July 13.

The match will be available to stream for free via the KSL Sports and KSL 5 TV apps or on KSL Sports dot com.