by jeff
Real Salt Lake Takes The Cup
Real Salt Lake defeated the L.A. Galaxy 5-4 in penalty kicks to win the 2009 MLS Cup in front of over 46,000 fans. Real Salt Lake became just the second 8 seed to win the MLS Cup. The shootout win came in the 7th round of kicks when Robbie Russell found the back of the net after Nick Rimando saved a weak shot by Edson Buddle.
Rimando was named the MVP of the game after saving two penalties to win the shootout. The Galaxy would miss three of their penalties with Landon Donovan’s attempt sailing over the crossbar and Rimando saving attempts from Buddle and Jovan Kirovski.
L.A. dominated the first half and finally went up in the match 1-0 after Donovan found Mike Magee open on the back post four minutes before halftime. Magee would hit the cross first time with a fantastic finish.
The second half proved to be a different story. Real Salt Lake would tie the match in the 64th minute when Robbie Findlay found the back of the net against his old squad. Findlay was lucky to get on the end of a deflection and found himself with a wide open goal.
The match was slowed due to the number of players collecting injuries. The MLS season is a long and strenuous amount of time due to its scheduling and the amount of World Cup qualifiers the players participated in this past summer. The first injury of the match was in the 22nd minute when Real Salt Lake had to put Clint Mathis in for the injured Javier Morales.
The Galaxy soon found themselves in injury trouble also when star goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was forced out of the game due to a wrist injury. Backup Josh Saunders came in the match and immediately was tested by Real Salt Lake. Saunders would be the MVP for the Galaxy with great saves throughout the rest of the match and in penalties.
Real Salt Lake finished the regular season with a losing record and sneaked into the playoffs with an eight seed. This is why the MLS is great in many ways but also makes the regular season seem not as important. This just shows us that you need to be in good form come playoff time and Real Salt Lake IS the best team in MLS at the moment!
