15 STRAIGHT: Gómez brace, Crooks winner pushes RSL unbeaten streak to franchise record, 4-3 win over KC
15 STRAIGHT: Gómez brace, Crooks winner pushes RSL unbeaten streak to franchise record, 4-3 win over KC
Andrés Gómez notched a brace, Diego Luna added two assists, and Gavin Beavers made seven saves to help Real Salt Lake extend their unbeaten streak to a franchise-best 15 straight.
Real Salt Lake just made history.
Now what?
Andrés Gómez notched a brace, Diego Luna added two assists, and Gavin Beavers made seven saves to help Real Salt Lake extend their unbeaten streak to a franchise-best 15 consecutive matches with a wild 4-3 win over Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Anderson Julio and Matt Crooks each added a goal for RSL, including a game-winning marker that is the first MLS goal for the “Tree” from Middlesborough to help his side improve to 10-2-7 for 37 points atop the Western Conference — and just 4 points behind league-leading Inter Miami in the Supporters’ Shield race.
“Something that I keep talking with the guys about is, our biggest enemy is ourselves,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said before his 50th win as head coach of the franchise — the fastest to coach to such a feat in club history. “I think when you get complacent, when you feel like you’ve achieved something, then there’s nothing left to achieve — and you lose that hunger. But a big part of why we are as we are is that mentality to keep getting better, as a group, individually, and collectively.”
The match had everything, including Beavers saving a penalty kick (off Johnny Russell, of all Sporting players) in the 23rd minute.
But clinching a franchise record isn’t the end for RSL.
Hardly.
“What celebrates great teams from others is their belief,” Mastroeni said. “For us, it’s about showing up and making sure we validate whatever they’re thinking of us before. That’s the challenge.
“The only constant is us.”
But first, Gómez gave RSL the early lead in the 14th minute. The Colombian winger notched his 10th goal of the season off a pass from Luna, but a break-up press by Braian Ojeda that should not go unnoticed as the visitors took the 1-0 advantage early.
After Beavers’ penalty save that made him the second-youngest goalkeeper in MLS regular-season history to pardon a penalty kick (at 19 years, 51 days), Stephen Afrifa didn’t miss the mark when he found the left post from the right side to equalize in the 28th minute.
But Luna was at his best immediately following, finding Anderson Julio for a right-footed shot that gave Salt Lake a 2-1 advantage in the 33rd minute.
Gómez added his second — and 10th goal of the season — with a banger in the 51st minute, minutes after Chicho Arango entered the match as a halftime sub and Emeka Eneli handed the armband to the Colombian striker.
With the first-half captaincy, the 24-year-old Eneli — who has started 19 games this season in RSL’s double-pivot midfield — became the youngest captain in Real Salt Lake club history.
Willy Agada pulled one back for Kansas City (3-11-5, 14 points) in the 70th minute, finishing a cross inside the box from Zorhan Bassong and taking advantage of a missed clearance by Brayan Vera to pull the hosts within one.
Vera also took a yellow card in the 77th minute for poor sportsmanship, meaning he will miss Saturday’s home match against the LA Galaxy due to yellow-card accumulation — his second such suspension of the season.
But Crooks — who made a second-half substitute appearance after returning from a wedding Wednesday — found the back of the net, converting a cross from Chicho Arango to score his first MLS goal with a wide-open header that put Salt Lake up, 4-2 with five minutes left in regulation.
That wouldn’t be the final score, though.
Agada redirected a corner kick with his head in the fourth minute of added time to pull one back. Sporting had another chance a minute later that caromed off the post, and Beavers corralled a loose shot in the final seconds to do just enough to earn the win.
“We’ve seen that we can compete with anybody in this league, and control large portions of the game,” Mastroeni said. “These moments are fleeting in sport, and I think we’re on the cusp of a team being mentioned along the lines of the LAFCs and the Cincinnatis of the world. The onus is on us to maintain that standard, and to hold ourselves accountable every day in training.”
Real Salt Lake returns home Saturday to host the LA Galaxy (9-3-7, 34 points) at 7:30 p.m. MT at America First Field in Sandy, Utah (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV).