Real Salt Lake Can’t Recover From Horrid Start In Loss To FC Dallas
Mar 30, 2019, 9:04 PM
Real Salt Lake forward Brooks Lennon (12) protests the call against him in Sandy on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Jeff Allred, Deseret News)
(Jeff Allred, Deseret News)
SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake fell 4-2 to FC Dallas in a game that they made much tougher for themselves right from the start.
The loss moves RSL to a 1-3-1 record to begin the 2019 season.
Terrible Start For RSL
Early on, the match couldn’t have started any worse for RSL. FC Dallas’ Carlos Gruezo scored in the first minute of the game to put the visitors up early.
Things went from bad to worse just minutes later as starting center back Erik Holt suffered an ankle injury and was forced to sub out of the game at the 11th minute. He was replaced by Marcelo Silva, who made an impact in the game later on, but the loss was still felt by the defensive unit.
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 31, 2019
As bad as things were then, they got even worse for RSL in the 17th minute when striker Damir Kreilach was given a red card for an apparent red card on Gruezo. It looked like Gruezo may have provided a bit of theatrics on the incident, but regardless, Kreilach was sent to the showers by the referee. This forced RSL to play the rest of the game down a man.
FC Dallas Pulls Away
RSL faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. They had moments where they came close to changing the game’s outcome, but each time they scored or had a big moment, FC Dallas was able to keep them at bay.
Jefferson Savarino fired a hard shot into the goal at the 31st minute to tie it up, but FC Dallas responded a minute later with another goal of their own. Unbelievable.
Trailing 3-1 later on, RSL again cut the deficit in half with a header goal by Silva, his first career goal. But once again, FC Dallas almost immediately responded with a goal to deflate whatever hopes RSL had of stealing the game away from the visitors.
Marcelo's first MLS goal! pic.twitter.com/PMOZOEzcCs
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 31, 2019
It was a gutsy performance by RSL, but FC Dallas was too impressive all night. The home team put themselves in a tough position early on and were never able to recover. Things just got too hard.
Next Up
RSL will next travel to the Pacific Northwest to face the Seattle Sounders on April 6. The game will begin at 8 p.m. and be streamed on sports.ksl.com and the KSL TV app.
