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Findley's goal lifts RSL by Seattle FC 1-0

Aug 9, 2009 - 4:05 AM By JASEN ASAY STATS MLS Correspondent

SANDY, Utah (STATS) - Robbie Findley didn't let an early miss damper his game.

Findley scored his eighth goal of the season and became Real Salt Lake's career scoring leader in its 1-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday night.

Findley's goal, his 20th with Real Salt Lake (7-8-5) and 22nd in his three-year career, came in the 62nd minute off an assist from goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

Rimando quickly took a goal kick, catching the Sounders (7-5-8) off guard, and sent it past the midfield line for a running Findley, who controlled the ball and beat Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller from just outside the penalty box.

"Robbie's always looking to get behind the defense with his pace, and I saw two of their defenders with their backs to me and an opportunity to hit Robbie through," said Rimando, who made one save to record his fifth shutout of the season and 56th of his career. "I just hit it over them and Robbie did the rest."

Rimando also notched the third assist in his 10-year career.

Findley nearly scored earlier in the second half on what RSL coach Jason Kreis joked was an easier shot. However Keller made a fantastic save in the 47th minute on Findley's attempt from the six-yard box. Findley also nearly scored in the 16th minute, but his sliding effort to finish a cross in front of the Seattle goal from RSL defender Tony Beltran was a split-second too late.

"If you hang your head on that then you're not going to do well the rest of the game," Findley said of his miss in the 47th minute. "I just tried to keep my head up."

Findley said all he had to do was establish quick eye contact with Rimando before taking off up the field just prior to the goal, which came as a reward for Findley on a night when he was all over the field.

"I thought Robbie was extremely active all night and I thought in particular he did a fantastic job challenging for head balls with their defenders and won quite a few of them," said Kreis, who served the final game of his two-match suspension for confronting officials in a 4-2 victory over FC Dallas on July 24.

Kreis watched the game from a booth at Rio Tinto Stadium and did not have contact with his assistants on the bench. Real improved to 3-0-2 in its last five home matches.

Seattle, which has lost consecutive matches, had a good chance to tie the game in the 90th minute when Sanna Nyassi broke through RSL's defense. Rimando, though, smothered the ball before he could get a shot off to preserve the win.

Osvaldo Alonso had Seattle's lone shot on goal, but it came from long range in the first half, and Rimando easily made the save. The Sounders outshot RSL 7-6, and Real Salt Lake placed three of its shots on goal.

Seattle hasn't scored a goal in its last three league games after scoring 12 goals in its previous five contests.

"The difference has been not enough effort and certain guys up front turning the ball over," said coach Sigi Schmid. "I don't think we had a very good ball holding the ball up front. I don't think our forwards held the ball very well, but at the end of the day we should have walked away 0-0 at the very worst."