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| The stretcher crew deserves Man of the Match honors. (Photo by Ryan Beatse) |
Real Salt Lake came out of their first CONCACAF Champions League contest with a well-deserved 2-1 victory Wednesday night, led by Alvaro Saborio. What transpired during the match made it one of the most memorable, if not downright sickening, displays from any squad ever to grace Rio Tinto Stadium. And it all got going no less than 15 minutes in.
Despite having all of the early possession and flow, RSL fell behind early on a nicely orchestrated counter-attack from the visiting side. In the 13th minute, Arabe Unido captain, Armando Cooper, received a pass just outside the area, deked Nat Borchers and snapped off a shot. Just as Cooper mad the strike, Borchers slid in to block it. Unfortunately, the ball deflected off Borchers, only changing the shot's direction, leaving Nick Rimando helpless to watch the ball flutter past him. 1-0 Ababe Unido, and then the nonsense began.
The Panamanian champs started to become chippy and started to waste time right after the opening goal. Goal kicks that took a minute or two to set-up, embellished fouls and late tackles. The latter finally got Arabe in trouble in the 29th minute, when defender Nahil Carroll came in studs-up on a late tackle on Kyle Beckerman. Match Official, Paul Ward of Canada, quickly whistled the foul and rushed over toward Carroll. After fumbling through his pocket for about 20 or 30 seconds Ward finally produced an extraordinarily bright red card, much to the surprise of most of the pretty modest size, but boisterous, crowd at Rio Tinto.
Real Salt Lake turned up the heat on Arabe after the dismissal, pushing forward for the equalizer which came in the 45th minute off of the head of Alvaro Saborio.
Because of the opening goal, Arabe Unido had packed seven and eight men behind the ball and dare RSL to make long crosses and shots toward goal, and Chris Wingert provided the perfect cross to a streaking Saborio just before half time.
Though there were strange occurrences in the first 45, nothing I have ever seen could have prepared me for the second half. Here is the line for the second half: 10 cards shown, a half dozen players taken off on a stretcher (only to return moments later), nine or 10 Arabe Unido players going to the ground like they were shot at close range, 8 minutes of injury time and one ball blasted into the south parking lot of Rio Tinto by a frustrated Arabe player (who was ejected for the action).
It was the most frustrating, bizarre and, to be honest, entertaining 53 minutes of soccer I have ever seen. The message from Arabe's coaches at the break was obvious, lay on the ground and roll around like you are on fire. FORCE THE STRETCHER. And they executed that plan to embarrassing perfection. Every time a whistle was blown, or a tackle was made, or, in some cases, the wind blew a little bit, an Arabe player was on the ground and their coaches and the busy stretcher crew were on their way out to the field. It was beyond ridiculous. At one point a shot deflected off of an Arabe player's hip and the guy grabbed and his face and threw himself to the ground. It was comical, and very sad at the same time. Miraculously, in every case, the players were able to come right back on after being carried of by the stretcher.
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| (Photo by Ryan Beatse) |
Irony reared its ironic head moments later. Wingert went in on a 50/50 ball with an Arabe player who was racked in the challenge. The guy was really hurt, but the coach just kept yelling for him to get up. Time was ticking, and Arabe no longer had the point. The stretcher crew stood ready but Arabe didn't want it anymore. Sweet sweet Karma.
2-1 Win...GOOD GUYS
