As the Man of the Match trotted off the pitch past his substitute Saturday night, Rice-Eccles Stadium erupted.
Oddly enough, that man did not wear a Real Salt Lake jersey.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored a stellar goal and added an assist for the Chicago Fire in a 2-0 victory over RSL, extending the Fire’s unbeaten streak to three games.
Blanco, a heralded Mexican national player, opened the scoring in the 43rd minute with a laser shot sent from outside the left side of the penalty area. The shot dashed from left to right, grazed the underside of the crossbar and zipped past the oustretched hands of diving RSL keeper Nick Rimandointo the upper corner of the goal.
Ivan Guerrero assisted Blanco on his first-ever MLS goal.. Blanco began MLS play with the Fire on July 22 against Toronto.
The score from the wildly popular Mexican striker sent many fans into a frenzy.
“I don’t think that it would come as any surprise that there are a lot of fans here that adore Cuauhtemoc Blanco,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis.
Blanco further induced cheers from the crowd in the 78th minute by assisting Paulo Wanchope on his first career goal.
Blanco left the match in the 81st minute, replaced by Calen Carr, to a standing display of appreciation from thousands of fans.
Blanco received this tremendous support from fans each time he touched the ball as his Mexican national team jersey dotted the stands.
“This is the first time with our own crowd booing us,” RSL forward Alecko Eskandarian said.
Eskandarian, donning jersey number 11 after Freddy Adu’s departure, was back from injury and suspension that had left him out since being ejected from a match with the Columbus Crew on July 7.
Real finally had its striker duo of Eskandarian and Robbie Findley back in action together.
Findley nearly capitalized on a Kyle Beckerman cross in the 17th minute. Findley deflected the pass just outside the goal area past goalkeeper Matt Pickens. The ball banged the inside of the left post and crossed the face of the goal before the ball was cleared.
This wasn’t the only time RSL missed out on a near-scoring opportunity.
Andy Williams blasted a bullet from 25 yards out in the 65th minute. A diving Pickens just got enough of the shot to divert it wide-left of the net.
Moments later, Beckerman tried a shot that sailed just high of the crossbar from nearly the same spot,.
Newly signed Argentine Fabian Espindola debuted for RSL by replacing Eskandarian in the 58th minute. The striker nearly began his MLS career with a bang.
Espindola had two chances to level the score at 1-1 in the 76th minute when Jean-Martial Kipre sent a dangerous cross into the box.The cross went uncleared and traveled all the way through the defense before Espindola tracked it down. His first shot was blocked by Chicago defender Bakary Soumare. Espindola collected the rebound and fired again, but the shot was saved and cleared.
“I thought (Espindola) did well,” Kries said. “He showed up in a lot of good spots.”
The next match for RSL will be a road match against Chivas USA on Sunday, Aug. 26.
Lennie MahlerChicago’s Dasan Robinson beats Alecko Eskandarian for a header in RSL’s 2-0 loss Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.