Xango Cup 2007 was all about building confidence.
For Real Salt Lake, the international friendlies against England's Everton and Argentina's Boca Juniors coincided with the midpoint of the MLS season, and the club was hoping to use the matches to generate momentum heading into the second half of the season.
Mission accomplished.
On the heals of a shutout victory over English Premier League club Everton on Saturday, RSL hung on for a 1-1 draw with Boca Juniors in front of an energetic crowd of 16,378 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"To be honest we're all a little disappointed with the draw, which kind of speaks for where we're at right now," said defender Chris Lancos, one of just four Real players to play the full 90 minutes. "We're looking forward to our new season starting on Saturday."
That new season begins Saturday against the New England Revolution, and based on its past two exhibition results, RSL is arguably more confident right now than it's been all season.
"It's been two tough games, big clubs, so for us to do some really positive things against them is encouraging," said Real newcomer Kyle Beckerman.
Tuesday's match was realistically two separate games. In the first half, Real coach Jason Kreis played most of his first-choice players who more than held their own against one of the best clubs in the world.
"I think it was very positive for us the first 30 minutes of the game because they weren't breaking through the middle of us," said Real midfielder Carey Talley. "They weren't finding passes in our seems or anything like that. The ball was going out of bounds when they were passing it outside. I felt we did some very good things."
In the second half, Kreis gradually subbed in his reserve players, and that's when Boca Juniors really started to dictate the flow of the game.
Lancos admitted it was like they were putting on a clinic, stringing what seemed like 20 to 30 passes together. Not surprisingly then, Boca Juniors outshot RSL 10-2 in the second half to finish with a 14-8 advantage for the game.
RSL, however, took advantage of its impressive first half to take a 1-0 lead after Freddy Adu buried a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time.
Adu really thrived playing at second forward in his first match back with Real Salt Lake since leaving the team in mid-June to participate in the Under-20 World Cup.
"I played pretty much the same position I played with the 20s, that was great, being a second forward/attacking midfield guy, come back receive the ball, get it, turn, go at people. That's always been that natural position for me," said Adu.
With rampant rumors that Adu will be leaving the team soon for Europe, for perhaps the first time all season he actually played with the type of passion that indicates he still has something to prove with Real.
In the second half, RSL's defense finally cracked in the 68th minute amid heavy pressure from Boca.
After Boca midfielder Neri Cordozo slipped a through ball into the box between the legs of RSL substitute Atiba Harris, Rimando charged off his line about three or four yards before realizing Boca player Alvaro Gonzalez was going to beat him to the ball. Gonzales capitalized by chipping the ball over Rimando to a waiting Maruo Boselli who buried the equalizer.
Five minutes later, Cordozo missed a golden opportunity to score the go-ahead goal but he missed the target completely after tapping the ball around Rimando at the top of the box. Amazingly enough, in the 80th minute teammate Marcos Mondaini whiffed on a very similar scoring opportunity.
"To keep them to score just one goal was pretty positive for us," said Lancos.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com