SANDY — Albert Rusnak had a chance to be a hero as the ball rolled to him at the top of the box late in Saturday’s MLS playoff game. Instead of having a crack at a potential winner through, RSL’s designated player let the ball roll right through his legs.
It might’ve been the best dummy in Real Salt Lake history.
Jefferson Savarino was standing alone behind Rusnak, and when Rusnak simulated a play on the ball it pulled Portland’s defender with him, allowing Savarino a 1v1 opportunity with the keeper. It was an opportunity the young winger made the most of, burying the close-range shot past Portland’s keeper in the 87th minute to secure Real Salt Lake’s nervy 2-1 win on a rainy, snowy, chilly Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Over those final three minutes of regulation and stoppage time, the RioT was rocking as RSL protected the lead to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.
“We knew in the past we’ve got some late goals here, so the confidence stayed the whole time and to have that home game that we worked so hard for the whole year paid off for us,” said Nick Rimando.
In June as RSL flirted with the playoff line in eighth place, a top four Western Conference finish and a home playoff game seemed extremely unlikely. Since the CONCACAF Gold Cup break through, RSL owned the best defense in MLS allowing 13 goals over the final 19 games of the season.
That defense dominated the first half, and even though it was under it for large stretches of the second half as Portland equalized and then pushed for the winner, defender Aaron Herrera said past experiences help the team stay composed.
“This team all year we’ve sort of figured out how to grind out results. It’s not always going to be a pretty game and we’re not always going to dominate for 90 minutes,” said Herrera.
When trying to grind out victories, it helps to have Savarino, who’s been clinical with late winners this year.
“Once Albert dummied the ball to Sava, Sava’s in on goal you’re expecting him to score but at the same time you never know what can happen, so to see that ball go in was an unreal feeling,” said Herrera.
With the win, Real Salt Lake advances to the Western Conference semifinals at Seattle on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
It will hope for a similar start like it got against Portland with Damir Kreilach’s goal in the 28th minute.
Kreilach timed his step perfectly on Corey Baird’s cross, leaving himself unmarked to snap the header down past Portland keeper Steve Clark and into the back of the net. Neither Portland center back stepped with Kreilach on Baird’s cross, which left RSL’s version of Mr. October alone about 8 yards from goal.
Kreilach has scored four goals in four playoff games with RSL — including two against LAFC in last year’s surprising 3-2 knockout road victory.
“What it forces is the opponent can’t sit in, most of the first half they were sitting in they were waiting for us to make a mistake,” said RSL interim coach Freddy Juarez about scoring the importance of scoring first.
Kreilach had a great chance to score 10 minutes earlier with his foot, but he rifled a shot straight at the keeper from inside the box.
It was a busy opening half for Clark who made four saves as RSL outshot Portland 9-0 with a 5-0 edge in shots on goal. His most acrobatic save came in the 14th minute as Aaron Herrera nearly curled a long-range shot into the empty net, but Clark made a darting recovery run to punch it away just in time after initially clearing the ball away from Corey Baird near the corner flag.
Everton Luiz was a beast in the midfield for Real Salt Lake, regularly winning 50-50 balls and never shying away from a challenge on the field.
The snow started falling while the teams were in the locker room at halftime, but it didn’t intimidate Portland. It came out the sharper team early in the second half and scored in the 47th minute as Dairon Asprilla headed in a Sebastian Blanco corner kick to level the score at 1-1.
Portland continued to be the more dominant team over the net 20 minutes as RSL’s backline was in scramble mode blocking shots and clearing crosses nearly every minute.
“The second half came around and It’s not that we didn’t play good, they came out with a little more energy and got on top of the ball,” said Rimando.
The Timbers outshot RSL 12-7 in the second half.
RSL was able to settle things down a bit in the 77th minute after Juarez made a double switch inserting Sam Johnson and Joao Plata into the match for Kreilach and Baird.
It was Plata’s cutback and toe poke just before getting crunched by a pair of Portland defenders that set up Savarino’s goal after Rusnak watched the ball role right through his legs.
“He had a great 10 days of training when the guys that went to the national teams and we kept the nine or so players back, he was very good. As he was going on, I’m just like, ‘Look, you’ve trained so well just go in there and make sure these guys have to work and give their defense a little of chaos and he did that,’” said Juarez.
The focus now shifts to Seattle with a quick turnaround. Both teams won their home game this year, with the Sounders defeating RSL at CenturyLink Field back on April 6.