Real Salt Lake Vs. New York Red Bulls: Visitors Thrashed In Embarrassing 3-0 Defeat

Well now, things really have gone completely pear shaped in New York, haven't they? The New York Red Bulls are now in absolute free fall, as they have now gone five consecutive matches without a win after being top of the Eastern Conference for most of the year. This defeat has been the worst of them all, as they were never involved in the match. Real Salt Lake has come out of their two-game slump with a 3-0 win, and the score was no more than they deserved.

New York have shown very little cohesion, imagination and creativity going forward in recent weeks, so they were going to be depending on their extremely talented defense to step up, especially on the road. Unfortunately for them, that defense did nothing of the sort, allowing Nat Borchers to score the opening goal in the 13th minute off of a corner kick.

Fabian Espindola beat the slow-looking central defense pairing of Rafael Marquez and Tim Ream over and over like rented mules, but thankfully for them his speed was easily the best part of his game. Had Espindola's decision making and finishing matched his pace, the Red Bulls might have been looking at a deficit of six or more goals.

Luis Gil scored a fantastic goal for the hosts in the 44th minute, and it was the cherry on top of a brilliant first half for the 17-year-old. He looked very calm and composed taking over Javier Morales' spot at the tip of the midfield diamond, and he capped off his great performance with a brilliant strike to put his team up 2-0 just before the halftime whistle.

As if Gil's goal didn't effectively end the game, New York left back Roy Miller completely put the game to rest in the 76th minute, when he was called for a deliberate handball in the penalty area. Alvaro Saborio stepped up and drilled it home, giving RSL a 3-0 lead and raising serious questions about the future employment status of New York manager Hans Backe.