Sandy • Real Salt Lake made a point to stress that when the U.S. Open Cup comes around, not only does the team care, but it actually sets out to compete and even win.
But on Tuesday against Los Angeles Football Club, the most competitive RSL got was when defender Donny Toia got in the face of Latif Blessing after fouling him and receiving a yellow card, and had to be separated from Blessing by a push from another LAFC player.
Other than that, the game felt as though RSL was going through the motions, and it paid the price with a 3-0 loss in the tournament’s fourth round — the first for most Major League Soccer teams.