Movsisyan, RSL do job vs. Outlaws

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 24, 2009 | by Dan Rasmussen Deseret News

OGDEN -- Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis said his team had three main objectives when it traveled to St. Joseph Catholic School on Tuesday to take on the Ogden Outlaws in an exhibition match.

RSL wanted to win, it wanted to be able to look at some different tactical situations and it wanted to give its players a good training workout.

Done, done and done.

Yura Movsisyan scored twice, and Tino Nunez and Andy Williams added one goal apiece as Real Salt Lake scored four second-half goals to win 4-0 and take care of business against the Outlaws of the PDL.

"I think it was good," said Kreis of how his team completed those three objectives. "I applaud the guys because I know these games can be very difficult for an MLS team to come into. It can be very easy to treat them the wrong way, but I think our guys put in the right amount of effort and got the right stuff out of it."

Kreis played four regular starters in the first half (Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Jamison Olave and Tony Beltran) and six in the second half (Movsisyan, Fabian Espindola, Clint Mathis, Nat Borchers, Robbie Russell and Chris Wingert.)

Movsisyan, who's been hot recently, wasted no time making an impact once he got on the field.

Ogden 'keeper Jeff Rogers made a number of solid saves, including a couple of highlight-reel stops, to keep RSL off the scoreboard in the first half, but he was powerless to stop a low Movsisyan free- kick just over 90 seconds into the second half.

He then clipped home a picture-perfect Espindola cross to double RSL's lead in the 65th minute, and Salt Lake looked every bit like the MLS side that it was the rest of the way.

Since shifting to a 4-3-3 formation two weeks ago, two attacking players have clearly shined for Real Salt Lake -- Movsisyan and Espindola -- and both were stellar in everything they did Tuesday.

"Questions kept being asked" about Movsisyan, said Kreis, "and we (kept) giving the same answers that the potential's there and it's gonna come good. Now he's putting his money where our mouths were."

For his part, Movsisyan said he's happy to have his level of play be where he believes it should be.

"I feel good. I feel confident," he said. "I feel like I'm back to where I should be playing, and I'm working my way up from there."

And then there's Espindola, who's been a menace on the left side of the pitch.

"He's been unbelievable, for me, for really at least the past three games," Kreis said. "I think that this formation really fits him probably more so than a lot of players on our team, to be honest. And he's just done extremely, extremely well."

Ogden coach Ted Eck said his team's objectives were to keep the game close in the first half and to get everyone on the field, and the Outlaws accomplished both things.

"It was really good for me to get a look at some players getting challenged in a way that they haven't been challenged and to see if they can be good enough, to see how (high) their level of play is," Eck said.

E-MAIL: drasmussen@desnews.com