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Two late goals propel Columbus to win over RSL

Jun 9, 2011 - 1:40 AM Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - For the first 75 minutes of the Real Salt Lake at Columbus Crew Major Leaguer Soccer fixture on Wednesday, it looked like the RSL central defense would be the heroes.

Not only did center back Jamison Olave score the game's only goal up to that point, but he and partner Chris Schuler did a masterful job of shutting down the Crew attack.

But things came unhinged in the final 15 minutes as the Crew earned the 2-1 victory on their home field.

It started when Olave took down Justin Meram in the penalty area, drawing a call from referee Ricardo Salazar. Andres Mendoza stepped up and buried the resulting penalty kick to tie the game at one.

The Crew got a little lucky on the game-winning goal scored by Josh Gardner eight minutes from time.

After Mendoza played a ball back, Gardner ripped a hard shot from about 25- yards out that deflected off Schuler before fluttering over RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

RSL got the game's first goal in the seventh minute when Olave outmuscled Emmanuel Ekpo at the back post on a Nelson Gonzalez corner kick and powered a shot home.

RSL (6-3-2) will aim to rebound from the tough loss when it travels to Philadelphia on Saturday, while Columbus (4-3-6) travels to Portland for a clash with the Timbers later the same night in its next MLS fixture.