A win is a win, and Real Salt Lake took its first of the season however it came. Thursday night, RSL did what it hasn’t been able to do in the regular season, defeating the China national team 1-0 in a friendly at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Although the team gains no points in the MLS standings for the victory, RSL head coach Jason Kreis and his club still felt like the weight of a dump truck had been lifted from their shoulders.
“Any time you are going to play against a national team?and come away with the result we had, you have to be happy about what you have done,” Kreis said.
But the dynamic in the stands changed before anything on the scoreboard did.
Shortly after the start of the second half, Zhang Shuai of the Chinese National team refused to play when he noticed a few fans waving Tibetan flags. After the referee stopped the game, the fans put the flags away.
Alecko Eskandarian scored the lone goal of the match in the 81st minute, poking the ball into the right side of the net off of a long cross from Chris Brown. After the goal put China down 1-0, the Tibetan flags reemerged and the fans carrying those flags were escorted out of the stadium. The game-winner was Eskandarian’s first score in an RSL uniform.
“Any ball in the air, I’ve got to finish or else I shouldn’t be on the field,” Eskandarian said.
The goal did more than give the team a win; it gave credibility to RSL’s decision to acquire Eskandarian in exchange for the club’s previous top scorer, Jeff Cunningham.
“Now to (have Eskandarian’s first goal) tucked under his belt is a big thing for us confidence-wise,” Kreis said.
RSL’s defense continued to show improvement. The shutout is the third in a row for RSL. Kreis has been stressing defense and is not afraid to use his forwards to aid his backline.
“(Defense) has been pretty much my priority even though I’m a forward,” Eskandarian said. “If you don’t give up a goal, your team’s got a chance to win.”
Normally at the center of RSL’s defensive success, goalkeeper Nick Rimando took the night off. His replacement, Chris Seitz, withstood a barrage of shots all game long, including several promising tries by Dong Fangzhou, who plays professionally with Manchester United.
“(Chris) was outstanding–another goalkeeper that has come up big for us tonight,” Kreis said. “He made a couple of unbelievable saves.”
Kreis mixed up the lineup for the match. Eskandarian and Freddy Adu, both of whom usually play nearly the entire game, came off the bench in the 63rd minute. Bringing the offensive stars in at that point sparked the club and transitioned them into a more attacking mindset.
It remains to be seen if similar strategies will be utilized in RSL’s next match, when it hosts FC Dallas. The stakes will be higher in MLS play when league points are on the line.
“It is not a league win,” Kreis said of Thursday’s friendly. “We are still after that first three points in the league.”
The two teams’ clubs played to a 2-2 draw back in Salt Lake City on April 7.