Real Salt Lake: Emerging Morales puts his stamp on opener

SANDY — Javier Morales is one of the elite players in Major League Soccer, an emerging contender in the leaguewide MVP race, so it's only appropriate he put his stamp on Real Salt Lake's inaugural match at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Morales' corner-kick delivery in the 42nd minute led to RSL's first goal, earning him his team-leading 13th assist of the season. It also pushed him past teammate Andy Williams as RSL's all-time leader in assists with 15.

Even though the native Argentine has played well most of the season, he's really come on as of late. Last weekend at New England he tallied a goal and an assist in RSL's 2-2 draw. The week before in a critical 3-2 win at San Jose — perhaps RSL's most important win of the season — Morales finished with an assist and the game-winning goal on a scintillating free kick.

He's even starting to make a name for himself back home despite being a relative unknown when he left for MLS. Argentine TV station TyC, the equivalent of ESPN, sent a correspondent to Salt Lake City this week to do a story on Morales.

As well as fellow Argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto has played at Columbus this year, it's unlikely that Morales will win the MLS MVP award. However, he's a decent candidate to finish second, especially if he continues his strong play and leads his club to the playoffs.

SURFACE STILL FAST: While Real Salt Lake players were undoubtedly thrilled to leave the hard, unpredictable and artificial surface at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the surface of their new stadium nonetheless played extremely fast.

It might not have been quite as fast as Rice-Eccles, but it was close.

Rio Tinto Stadium groundskeepers watered the grass approximately 15 minutes before kickoff Thursday evening, and the ball zipped along the ground very quickly throughout.

THERE IN THE BEGINNING: When Clint Mathis departed Real Salt Lake at the end of the 2005 season, you would've been foolish to predict that Mathis would be in the starting lineup for RSL when it opened its brand-new, soccer-specific stadium three years later.

By some strange turn of events, however, it unfolded that way Thursday night. Mathis was in the starting lineup against the Red Bulls, making him the only RSL player who participated in RSL's first match at Rice-Eccles Stadium and RSL's first match at Rio Tinto Stadium.

SO-SO OPENINGS: Thursday night marked the seventh grand opening of a soccer-specific stadium in MLS history, but it doesn't always guarantee success for the home side.

Despite the tremendous atmosphere and obvious buildup to the match, history says a win isn't always given. In the previous six inaugural matches, the home team won three times, lost once and tied twice. Add another tie to the list after after RSL and New York finished even at 1-1.

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