REAL SALT LAKE @ COLORADO RAPIDS – FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011 RSL “BRACING” FOR SUCCESS: With FW Fabian
NEW BLOOD JOINING RSL … : At the death of the
Espindola’s two-goal ‘brace’ Sept. 21 at NY, RSL has now seen 11 of its 31 all-time multi-goal performances occur on the road in its 216-game MLS regular-season game, 12game CCL and 12-game Open Cup histories … The multigoal game was Espindola’s 2nd across all competitions, tying him with RSL attacking luminaries Jason Kreis (200507) and Yura Movsisyan (2007-09) …
Sept. 15 MLS roster freeze, RSL GM Garth Lagerwey announced the addition of two players to the team’s roster … Joining RSL on loan from USL PRO Champion Orlando City FC, MF Yordany Alvarez will wear #14 for the Claretand-Cobalt … Now 26 years old and recently named the MVP of the Division 2 USL PRO league, Alvarez is a Cuban-born asylee who defected to the United States during the Olympic qualifying tourney in 2008 … The holding midfielder played at Rio Tinto Stadium in March of 2009 with the Austin Aztex, his side in 2010 as well, prior to the organization’s move to Orlando last winter …
Saborio owns 7 multi-goal performances across all competitions, ahead of Jeff Cunningham (5) and Javier Morales’ tie with Robbie Findley with four “braces,” while Espindola, Movsisyan and Kreis each have 2, ahead of Paulo Junior, Will Johnson, Kyle Beckerman, Atiba Harris and Chris Brown who have each also scored 2 or more times in a game … When an RSL player scores 2 or more goals in a game, the team has posted a 22-3-4 all-time mark … Besides the 4-5 loss at Cruz Azul in CCL play and the 4-6 loss at Minnesota in Open Cup action, when was the lone MLS loss? … June 17, 2007, when Chris Brown’s brace @LA was wasted in a 2-3 loss: G Player 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2
Fabian Espindola Álvaro Saborío Álvaro Saborío Javier Morales Javier Morales Álvaro Saborío Paulo Junior Will Johnson Álvaro Saborío Álvaro Saborío Javier Morales Álvaro Saborío Álvaro Saborío Javier Morales Robbie Findley Yura Movsisyan Robbie Findley Robbie Findley Yura Movsisyan Fabian Espindola Kyle Beckerman Robbie Findley Chris Brown Jeff Cunningham Atiba Harris Jeff Cunningham Jeff Cunningham Jeff Cunningham Jeff Cunningham Jason Kreis Jason Kreis
*CONCACAF Champions League
Date 09/21/2011 07/23/2011 06/25/2011 03/26/2011 03/01/2011 10/23/2010 10/18/2010 09/25/2010 08/25/2010 08/18/2010 08/14/2010 07/02/2010 05/13/2010 03/27/2010 04/02/2009 07/24/2009 08/26/2009 10/24/2009 09/27/2008 08/29/2008 04/12/2008 06/23/2007 06/17/2007 04/07/2007 09/30/2006 08/09/2006 07/29/2006 06/03/2006 05/13/2006 07/13/2005 04/30/2005 &U.S. Open Cup
Opponent Result @ NY vs. SJ vs. TOR vs. LA vs. CLB @ COL vs. CAZ @ AUO @ CAZ vs. AUO vs. CLB vs. NE vs. HOU @ SJ vs. CLB vs. DAL vs. CHV vs. COL @ SJ vs. COL vs. DC vs. DC @ LA vs. DAL @ KC @ COL vs. DC vs. CHI @ LA @ MIN vs. SJ
W W W W W T W W L W W W W W W W W W W W W W L T T W W W W L T
3-1 4-0 3-1 4-1 4-1* 2-2 3-1* 3-2* 4-5* 2-1* 2-0 5-0 3-1 3-0 4-1 4-2 4-0 3-0 3-2 2-0 4-0 2-1 2-3 2-2 3-3 4-1 2-1 3-1 3-0 4-6& 2-2
Yordany’s performance Sept. 21 at New York was amazing on several fronts, the first player in recent memory to be signed by the Lagerwey / Kreis regime and forced quickly into action … The Cuban Alvarez had 92 touches in his MLS debut, completing 88% of his passes and winning 6 of 9 duels, according to Opta …
… WHILE OLD BLOOD RETURNS TO HEALTH: Stalwart MF Ned Grabavoy has played 17, 22 and 31, 90 and 90 minutes each of the last five games after missing all of August, while FW Cody Arnoux was one of two RSL players to make his team debut a few weeks ago at home vs. PHI, joining DF Blake Wagner … Arnoux has missed most of 2011 due to his recovery from a serious knee injury suffered last November while with Vancouver, while Wagner signed with RSL on August 15 after DF Chris Wingert – who has started nearly every game since 2008 – broke his wrist that weekend at Toronto … Wingert has been cleared for action, starting and playing 45 minutes in the same Sept. 18 reserve game loss to Kansas City that knocked DF Tony Beltran out for the long haul … Another midseason pickup – FW Chris Agorsor – made his MLS debut last week at Vancouver after breaking his right hand in a reserve game at Houston on August 21 …
DEPTH CONTINUALLY TESTED:
The return of talisman MF Javier Morales – the man who has made the RSL attack click since 2008 – could not come at a better time for the Claret-and-Cobalt … This year’s time lost due to injury, suspension or int’l duty:
PLAYER
Javier Morales Paulo Junior Alvaro Saborio Arturo Alvarez Will Johnson Chris Wingert Fabian Espindola Jamison Olave Tony Beltran Ned Grabavoy
MIN. LOST 2430 1880 990 990 900 810 720 540 540 360
RECORD RETURN 12-8-6 5-5-6 3-4-3 4-3-3 2-3-2 6-3-2 1-2-2 1-5-0 2-4-0 1-3-0
9/28 v CHI 8/13 @ TOR
9/24 @ DC 8/27 @ CHV ??? 9/3 v PHI
The total number of games lost due to injury or national team duty this season? … More than 100 games worth by RSL’s top contributors …