SANDY — Real Salt Lake's final preseason game was a mixture of good and bad.
Facing some adversity and pulling away in the final 15 minutes for a 3-1 victory over the Austin Aztex at Rio Tinto Stadium was a good thing. Losing defender Ian Joy to a reaggravated hamstring injury with the regular season only a week away, however, was a bad thing.
"Obviously, we're very disappointed with the early injury to Ian Joy. Anytime you have your last preseason game and you're trying to gear up for the season and you have somebody that's in your starting lineup at the moment get injured is a big disappointment," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "Everything else was pretty good."
The victory helped RSL close the preseason with a 7-1-1 record. It opens the regular season next Saturday at the expansion Seattle Sounders.
In many respects, the match played out how Kreis hoped it would. In RSL's most recent preseason trip to Charleston, S.C., it posted a 3-0 record, but two of those wins came against 10-men opponents following red cards. Against Austin (USL-1), RSL was forced into a precarious spot in the final 20 minutes.
Trailing 1-0, Austin capitalized on an RSL defensive miscue in the 72nd minute to level the score at 1-1. Suddenly, what figured to be a shoo-in victory didn't seem like such a foregone conclusion.
"It's funny sometimes how things play out the way you want them to. It kind of threw a challenge out there for them for the last 10 minutes, see how they reacted, and we reacted in a very positive way," said Kreis.
Yura Movsiyan regained the advantage in the 82nd minute for RSL by heading in a fantastic lofted cross from Will Johnson.
In stoppage time, Javier Morales increased the lead to 3-1 with a cheeky chip over Austin's goalie, a quick counterattack set up by keeper Nick Rimando who heaved the ball upfield to a streaking Morales following an Austin corner kick.
"They're a very good team. I give a lot of credit to Austin, they have a lot of veteran guys on their team, they're well-organized," said RSL defender Nat Borchers. "They really gave us a good game overall."
The unfortunate injury to Joy happened very early in the match, with Tony Beltran replacing him just seven minutes in.
RSL defender Jameson Olave opened the scoring by heading home a Morales corner kick in the 38th minute. Austin, which beat defending MLS champion Columbus 1-0 in a preseason match last week, eventually equalized in the 72nd minute when two RSL defenders collided setting up an easy finish for Ryan Caugherty.
"We were lucky enough to have a good opponent in Austin, it was a good dress rehearsal. Hopefully the fans who came out had a good time, I know we had a good time. Apart from the injury to Ian Joy we've come through OK," said Will Johnson.
Approximately 6,000 fans attended the open house match against the lower division Aztecs.
"Ultimately, it was a tremendous sign of commitment from our club to open up our stadium and have everyone in here for free, and have everyone in here to help us prepare for next week," said Kreis.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com