(by James Edwards deseretnews.com 8-19-10)
SANDY — Real Salt Lake found out Wednesday night that nothing comes easy in international competition — especially when your opponent isn't interested in playing soccer.
After the match, RSL coach Jason Kreis didn't hesitate criticizing Arabe Unido for feigning injuries throughout the game and embarrassing the sport.
In the end though, Real Salt Lake got the result it desperately needed with a 2-1 victory over Arabe Unido in the opening game of the CONCACAF Champions League, but boy was it stressful.
After a red card reduced Arabe Unido to 10 men in the first half at Rio Tinto Stadium, the Panamanian club tried every ploy and tactic in the books to stall its way to a tie. The stretcher was called onto the field nearly a dozen times in the second half as players did their best Hollywood impersonations.
"I think tonight was in a microcosm everything that's wrong with our game. It was a game that wasn't managed properly from the very beginning, and it was always going to lead to what it led to," said Kreis. "I can't fault them for their tactics to sit back, especially after they scored a goal and they get an ejection, but then we've got to come up with a solution in our game where we're not having players laying on the ground every three minutes and letting them go off the field and letting them come right back on."
As frustrating as the ploy was, it had Arabe Unido on the doorstep of an unlikely draw with the game level at 1-1 heading into eight minutes of stoppage time.
In the end, referee Paul Ward might've been more frustrated.
He was a busy, busy man all night calling fouls (32), handing out yellow cards (10), red cards (2) and calling for the trainer and stretcher ridiculously too many times.
To say Ward awarded Real Salt Lake a 90th-minute penalty kick out of spite for Arabe's flailing tactics might be an overstatement, but it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.
With Nelson Gonzalez going down in the box on a soft challenge, the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Alvaro Saborio calmly buried the penalty to lift RSL to the 2-1 lead as it moved atop the Group A standings, level with Toronto FC at three points.
"I hope the penalty decision was made because he thought it was the right one," said Kreis when it was suggested the call might've been made out of frustration.
Regardless of why it was awarded, RSL walked away with the victory.
"I've seen some wasting time, but not like that. It was kind of entertaining, but also frustrating," said Rimando. "It was kind of sad to see, but we got the three points at the end of the day so we're happy."
Real Salt Lake jumps back into CONCACAF Champions League play next Wednesday when it faces Cruz Azul in Mexico City.
A better start will be needed in Mexico if it hopes to pull out a result.
Arabe Unido opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Armando Cooper buried a deflected shot past Nick Rimando. It was a dream start for the visitors, who weren't intimated at all by RSL's league dominance at Rio Tinto Stadium.
"For whatever reason we didn't handle the beginning of the game right, I think we thought it was going to be a little easier than it was," said Kreis.
An unnecessary challenge by Jamison Olave led to the goal. The defender stepped high into the midfield to dispossess a midfielder, but instead Victor Mendieta slipped the ball past him and into the vacated space. That left Cooper all alone with only Nat Borchers to beat, and the Arabe Unido captain easily side-stepped him and buried the shot for the 1-0 lead.
Arabe Unido looked comfortable defending the lead over the next quarter hour, but that all changed in the 29th minute. Nahil Carroll was shown a straight red card for what the referee deemed violent conduct on what seemed like a 50-50 challenge with Kyle Beckerman.
After that it was a hunker down and pray mentality for Arabe Unido.
Its first objective was to protect the lead until halftime, but it came up one minute short. In the 45th minute Alvaro Saborio slipped in behind Arabe defender Andres Santamaria and headed home a wonderful cross from defender Chris Wingert.
With the man advantage, Real Salt Lake spent virtually the entire second half in its offensive half but it could never settle into a rhythm.
"For us it was tough to get a rhythm out there because how many times the ball stopped and how many times they were on the floor, but that's CONCACAF," said Rimando. "Teams come up, they're going to try to stall. If we're up in a game in Mexico city I'm sure we're going to try to stall to, probably not like that. It's part of the game, but I've never seen it that so enhanced."
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