RSL Aims To Ambush Guests

by Greg Seltzer - May 7, 2008

 
▪ Donadoni Grateful to MLS

Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers says it's no accident that the previously unheralded team have made an early season habit of jumping on visitors to Utah early.

▪ Perkins Clears the Line
 
 

Including this weekend's 2-2 draw with Los Angeles, the Royals have scored twice during the opening 33 minutes on three consecutive home occasions.

"When I was with the Rapids, playing in Rice-Eccles was not a difficult place to play," Borchers told American Soccer Daily. "We have worked hard to change that."

"We made it a point this year to be aggressive with opponents at home and try to dominate the game early. We've been successful early on, but we have yet to do it for an entire 90 minutes."

Case in point is Saturday's Galaxy share, in which a 2-0 lead built inside of 18 minutes was summarily wiped out by a pair of magic moments from David Beckham.

The England superstar sliced the lead when given space to pick a corner from distance in the 36th minute, and then knotted the contest four minutes later with a laser free kick from 30 meters. Despite the show, Borchers claims the RSL defense won't be building any Spice Boy monuments to awe at.

"I don't think that we can just say the word 'Beckham' and leave it at that," he said, clearly disappointed by the collapse, regardless of the individual qualities displayed on the goals.

"On the first goal, we should have done a better job with our clearance of the ball, and we shouldn't have fouled their player in such a dangerous part of the field on the second. We still need to remain focused for 90 minutes for our team to be successful."

Real Salt Lake will welcome FC Dallas, second in the West, to Rice-Eccles on Saturday.

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