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Sandy
Manchester United's American tour will continue with games against international powers Manchester City, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Instead of being treated to another of those clubs Monday night, Utahns watched the most popular sports team in the world face Real Salt Lake.
And that made the whole thing more fun for a half-hour, anyway.
Appearing where David Beckham once dug in the dirt to launch the construction of Rio Tinto Stadium, Man U and RSL staged the most entertaining 30 minutes of soccer ever played in the venue. The flaw in that sentence? The number. Those 30 minutes left the teams temporarily tied and the fans wanting more from the home team, which eventually lost 2-1 to Man U.
The calendar created the only downside of the exhibition, compared with the 2006 visit of Beckham and his Real Madrid teammates. RSL is booked for two Major League Soccer games this week, explaining why coach Mike Petke substituted for all 11 of his players after 30 minutes.
"I really like the way they played," said Man U coach Jose Mourinho, who lamented how the schedule forced Petke to rest his starters.
"We showed to everybody that we can play great soccer," said RSL's Albert Rusnák.
Six of Man U's biggest names played the first half, then another three regulars started the second half. The last 60 minutes couldn't live up to the first 30, but the crowd stayed engaged.
An evening that began with a thunderstorm warning turned pleasant, 16 months after the Salt Lake Bees' exhibition game with the parent Los Angeles Angels was canceled because of a snowstorm.
The weather cooperated wonderfully for the biggest soccer event in Utah since August 2006. That's when Real Madrid sold out Rice-Eccles Stadium with 45,000-plus fans (including Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes). Earlier that day, Beckham joined in a groundbreaking ceremony impulsively staged by then-RSL owner Dave Checketts, who was determined to make soccer thrive in this market.
More than a decade later, here came Man U.
RSL owner Dell Loy Hansen is promising more of these attractions, and Monday's event should only heighten the anticipation for his next booking of a big-name opponent.
RSL's starters wanted to exit with a 1-0 lead, instead of allowing Henrikh Mkhitaryan's goal in the 29th minute, and they really wish the timing of Man U's appearance had enabled them to keep playing.
The home team would have enjoyed a chance to "really give it a good go and try to win this," said RSL captain Kyle Beckerman, "but it's going to be a great experience for some of the younger guys. But yeah, ultimately I would have liked to play longer."
Petke acknowledged "terrible timing," but he liked being able to use nearly three full squads.
Beckerman's comments came during a halftime news conference, a wonderful innovation in my deadline-driven business. That's the tradeoff for the RSL regulars' brief appearance. This theory also has merit: Knowing they were only on the field for a while, players from both teams competed more aggressively, at a faster pace.
RSL's Luis Silva will always remember scoring against Man U. RSL's Danilo Acosta won't forget having Romelu Lukaku dribble around him and score the go-ahead goal in the 38th minute.
Petke's message to his team, as relayed by Beckerman, was to "go enjoy yourself" against a legendary opponent. Beckerman embraced that strategy, until returning to the locker room after warmup and changing his mind. "Forget about enjoying yourself, let's go try and win this thing," he said. "We might never play Manchester United here again, so this is a big opportunity to try and get a win or a good performance [against] a world-class team."
RSL partly succeeded, on a memorable night.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
Twitter: @tribkurt