Two United Heads Better Than One by Greg Seltzer - September 13, 2007 |
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| ▪ Toffees Start Second US Partnership | |
MLS front runners DC United were at times outplayed by visiting Real Salt Lake, but managed to eke out a 2-1 win on headers from Luciano Emilio and Christian Gomez. |
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| The nervous win, which saw each side fail from the spot, secured United the first pass into the MLS postseason. RSL started aggressively, with Troy Perkins forced to turn away twin Alecko Eskandarian drives, but it was United who broke the ice. A quarter hour in, Gomez served a perfect far post cutback cross for league goal leader Emilio to nod home. The high riser was his 19th strike of the season and fifth in the last three games. The lead would only last until the 32nd minute as Kyle Beckerman buried a sneaky shot from the top of the area. The contest then briefly turned into the Nick Rimando show, with the Real Salt Lake keeper punching away a dangerous Gomez free kick on the stroke of intermission. Only four minutes after the break, he smothered a Gomez penalty try after Jean-Martial Kipre tripped Josh Gros just inside the area. Moments after Emilio had a goal waved away for offside, Gomez deposited the 73rd minute winner on a splendid cross from Fred. The hosts were not in the clear yet, however, as Perkins had to paw away Eskandarian's spot kick two minutes later after Devon McTavish was charged with a shirt tug in the area. Scoring DCU - Luciano Emilio 19 (Christian Gomez) 16' RSL - Kyle Beckerman 2 (Chris Wingert) 32' DCU - Christian Gomez 7 (Fred, Bobby Boswell) 73' Line-ups RSL - Nick Rimando; Jean-Martial Kipre (Chris Lancos 61'), Ritchie Kotschau, Matias Mantilla, Chris Wingert, Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Carey Talley, Fabian Espindola (Robbie Findley 72'), Chris Brown (Andy Williams 75'), Alecko Eskandarian DCU - Troy Perkins; Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Ben Olsen (Clyde Simms 80'), Brian Carroll, Christian Gomez, Joshua Gros, Luciano Emilio, Guy-Roland Kpene (Fred 46') |
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