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Red Bulls rally past Real Salt Lake

Sep 14, 2008 - 4:09 AM By Simon Lewis PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New York Red Bulls staged a second-half comeback at Giants Stadium on Saturday night to record a 2-1 triumph over Real Salt Lake and improve their postseason prospects.

Goals from captain Juan Pablo Angel, his ninth of the season, and Dave van den Bergh, his sixth, canceled out a first-half lead tally from Real Salt Lake's Yura Movsisyan.

The Red Bulls (9-7-8) are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and in one of the two wild-card spots on 35 points for the playoffs, while Real Salt Lake (8-9-7) remains in second place in the Western Conference on 31.

New York had been looking to rebound from last week's 1-0 defeat in Chicago, its first setback in two months and snapped a six-match unbeaten run.

The Red Bulls did open brightly, with Angel coming close to getting on the end of a driven cross to the back post in the 10th minute from Dane Richards and Mike Magee having a header tipped over the crossbar by goalkeeper Nick Rimando three minutes later.

Real gradually worked its way into the game, however, with both forwards, Robbie Findley and Movsisyan of Armenia, going close.

The pair combined in the 38th minute, with left back Chris Wingert sending in a long ball into the New York half which was headed on by Findley into the path of Movsisyan, who took the ball to the edge of the six-yard box and nudged it past the outrushing Red Bulls keeper Jon Conway with his right foot into the goal.

That was the way it stayed at halftime with neither coach feeling the need to change personnel at the interval.

The decision was certainly vindicated for Red Bulls' boss Juan Carlos Osorio when Angel grabbed an equalizer four minutes into the second half, picking up a header from Kevin Goldthwaite and powering into the penalty area before sending the ball home with the outside of his right foot from a narrow angle on left as Rimando came off his line to challenge.

The Red Bulls kept the pressure on for the go-ahead goal with both Angel and Magee going close with headers before van den Bergh sprang the Salt Lake offside trap after the visitors had failed to clear the danger from the same player's corner moments earlier.

Goldthwaite saw a header cleared off the line by Rimando but the ball fell to defender Gabriel Cichero, whose attempt at a volley from 25 yards out saw him miss the ball completely.

The ball reached Richards, who then mis-hit a shot of his own but the effort fell to van den Bergh on the right who cut inside and curled the ball left-footed around the Real keeper and into the net.

Salt Lake was not out of it, though and Movsisyan lashed a left-footed shot goalward in the 75th minute, only to see it touched onto the foot of the post by Conway.

The chances kept coming at both ends with Rimando saving low to deny Angel before Movsisyan sent a right-foot shot from just inside the New York area flying over the bar. Richards had a chance for the Red Bulls right at the death, firing over from an acute angle as the home side claimed maximum points.

"Sometimes, soccer is a game of plays, individual plays. It is obviously a team sport but sometimes it comes down to specific plays," Real coach Jason Kreis. "I thought our two forwards played very well. They probably didn't take their chances cleanly enough in the first half, but apart from that, I thought we did just about everything else right.

"In the second half, a play by our defender looked a little bit (like he was) sleeping, and there obviously is some suspicion about the foul. We made a mental error there and that's another play we didn't pull off. After that, there's the play on the set piece. Sometimes it comes down to plays, and we were on the wrong side of those plays tonight."