Real Salt Lake hands Sporting KC its first loss of the season, 2-1

The reigning MLS player of the month award winner lined up a free kick 30 yards from the south goal at Children’s Mercy Park, and within a fraction of a second after the ball left his foot, a cluster of his Real Salt Lake teammates surged past the back line of the Sporting Kansas City defense.

In that moment, it became a matter of which Real Salt Lake player would find the other end of Joao Plata’s pass. It was the unmarked Justen Glad, and he easily redirected a shot into the back of the net.

So it went.

Real Salt Lake took advantage of a listless Sporting KC outing and pulled out a 2-1 victory on Saturday.

The first MLS tally of Glad’s career offered a first for his club, too.

A depleted Real Salt Lake team — which was missing five starters — won for the first time at Children's Mercy Park in seven tries.

“You could see when it was 0-0, they wanted to take the air out of the game. That was their game-plan. And they did that well,” Sporting KC defender Kevin Ellis said.

Salt Lake’s Luke Mulholland provided the dagger in the 79th minute from 30 yards away after Sporting KC was unable to clear a rebound chance.

Making his season debut, Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber scored on a penalty kick in second-half added time. Even so, Sporting KC, 3-1-0, was dealt its first loss of the season.

It was a deserved result for the visitors, who put eight shots on goal on Saturday. Sporting KC managed only three, one of them being the penalty kick.

“I truly think that we lost the game on one play,” Feilhaber said. “I think if we don’t give up such a soft free kick, a soft set-piece goal and put ourselves in such a bad position where they can play exactly how they want to play — slowing the game down — I think we have a much better chance to get a result today.”

When Glad opened his account in the 29th minute, it not only supplied Sporting KC with its first deficit of the season, it ensured the slow tempo would last the duration of the game. While using an irregular lineup, Real Salt Lake, 2-0-2, effectively prevented Sporting KC from quality chances on goal.

“Teams are going to come in and try to slow the game. We need to figure out a way to still break through,” Sporting KC winger Brad Davis said. “It’s on us. We take responsibility.”

It was an especially impressive result for a Real Salt Lake club that was absent five starters. Captain Kyle Beckerman, defender Jamison Olave and forward Juan Manuel Martinez were on red-card suspension. And goalkeeper Nick Rimando (ankle) and midfielder Javier Morales (rib) skipped the trip because of injury.

It wasn’t the only team without its full lineup.

Sporting KC captain Matt Besler sat out with a concussion he suffered while practicing with the United States men’s national team last week. Midfielder Roger Espinoza was relegated to a spectator role after he received a red card in the club’s previous match against Toronto FC.

One shorthanded club couldn’t get a result.

Another one did.

“We knew going into this game that they were going to slow the game down. We didn’t do a good job — even though the referee didn’t manage the time wasting very well — to counter that,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. “We didn’t do a good enough job on our end. We played at their tempo and made it easy for them for the majority of the game.”

Saturday’s summary

REAL SALT LAKE 2

SPORTING KANSAS CITY 1

REAL SALT LAKE: Jeff Attinella, Chris Wingert (Demar Phillips, 59th), Tony Beltran, Jordan Allen, Aaron Maund, Justen Glad, Sunny, John Stertzer, Luke Mulholland, Yura Movsisyan (Devon Sandoval, 70th), Joao Plata.

KANSAS CITY: Tim Melia, Kevin Ellis, Amadou Dia, Chance Myers, Nuno Coelho, Graham Zusi, Benny Feilhaber, Brad Davis (Diego Rubio, 82nd), Soni Mustivar, Jordi Quintilla (Jimmy Medranda, 73rd), Dom Dwyer.

GOAL SCORING

Real Salt Lake: 1, Glad 1 (Plata), 29th minute. 2, Mulholland 1, 79th. Kansas City: 3, Feilhaber 1 (penalty kick), 90th+.

YELLOW CARDS

Real Salt Lake: Movsisyan, 67th; Plata, 76th; Mulholland, 89th.

Kansas City: Feilhaber, 89th.

RED CARDS

Real Salt Lake: None.

Kansas City: x.

OFFICIALS

Referee: Ted Unkel.

Assistant Referees: Claudio Badea.

Assistant Referees: Anthony Vasoli

4th Official: Armando Villarreal.

Attendance: 20,553.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Real Salt Lake hands Sporting KC its first loss of the season, 2-1."