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Toronto FC benefits from late penalty kick, downs RSL

Jul 5, 2007 - 6:17 AM SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- Real Salt Lake could not build on its momentum.

Collin Samuel scored his first goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 79th minute, giving Toronto FC a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday in the first-ever meeting between the teams.

RSL, which won its first game in 13 tries on June 23 against D.C. United, was unable to sustain the success against Toronto FC, which won its first road contest of the season.

"I am extremely disappointed," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "We had a fantastic crowd out there tonight and I felt the boys were ready for it. I thought we did the right things during the week and everybody looked sharp, so I was expecting a whole different game tonight."

"It's a very good three points for us," Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston said. "We have a lot of back depth coming off our bench, then we'll get (defender) Marvell Wynne back for Saturday and hopefully (goalkeeper) Greg Sutton. Things are looking positive."

Samuel's goal came shortly after getting the benefit of the doubt on a questionable tripping call on Real defender Jean-Martial Kipre.

On the go-ahead goal, the 5-9 forward blasted a kick through the right side after Real goalkeeper Nick Rimando dove to his right, anticipating a shot on the left side of the goal, to give Toronto a 2-1 advantage.

"I (thought) it was coming," Samuel said. "I'm just happy to get it on the road. I was just really, really happy about it."

Jeff Cunningham scored the first goal in the match in the 19th minute - his sixth of the season - as fellow Toronto FC forward Danny Dichio found him breaking away from the pack from inside the penalty box area. Cunningham fired a kick that ricocheted off both the right and left posts before settling into the net for an early 1-0 lead.

"He (Cunningham) has been great," Johnston said. "He already has three goals for us and could possibly have seven or eight. He creates goals; you have seen him often enough. We love having him here because he's a major threat all the time."

Real's Alecko Eskandarian scored the lone goal - his second - of the contest for Real, which dropped to 1-3-3 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"I don't think the fans could have been pleased with what they saw; I felt [RSL] were overaggressive, in a lot of ways," Johnston said. "We came here to play soccer and I don't think there was much soccer played. I'm disappointed in that part. We're a good soccer team and the tactics that you saw tonight weren't acceptable."