Sandy • Bobby Wood scored soon after a two-hour lightning delay and Zac MacMath made it stand up with five saves as Real Salt Lake earned a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders at snowy Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday.
“It feels amazing. I couldn’t be more happy about it, and I am glad it contributed to the first three points of the season,” Wood said.
Wood’s game-winner came in the 46th minute after the weather delay halted play with two minutes left before halftime.
“It is good to start the game with good vibes, and I thought they did a very good job of starting that today. I think we can just continue that,” Wood said. “It felt amazing. I felt bad for the fans because of the whole break, it felt like forever, but hopefully the next home game will be a lot better.”
RSL (1-0-1) outshot the Sounders (0-2-0) 13-8.
“That break we took a look at some of the things they were doing,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “We had time so we let the players recover a bit and showed a couple clips defensively in a way that we can really get after the ball a little differently. I thought we started the game a bit more passively. They were finding combinations through us in between the lines and I felt like showing those clips, talking about it, helped create a better picture as to how we could do it and be more effective in our presses.”
MacMath saved all five shots on goal he faced for RSL. Stefan Frei saved four of the five shots he faced for the Sounders.
“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence right now. I pride myself on knowing that I’m always ready to play for this team,” MacMath said. “My teammates and the coaches have given me plenty of confidence over the last few weeks. Just getting out there and just proving to myself and to my teammates that I’m very capable of keeping a clean sheet and helping this team.”
These teams take to the pitch again on Mar. 13, with RSL visiting the New England Revolution while the Sounders host the LA Galaxy.
