Real Salt Lake, two players shorthanded, lose 2-1 to the LAFC after a goal stop

While Real Salt Lake was shorthanded and the Los Angeles football club had a decisive win ahead of the game, Saturday night at the Banc of California Stadium turned out to be a battle of wills.

Seven yellow cards and one red card were distributed between the two teams. LAFC attacked with indiscriminate abandon. RSL sent an extra man on the back line in defense.

In the end, the will of LAFC won by defeating RSL 2-1. Real fell to 1-2-1 the season, while LAFC went up to 3-0-1.

"It was a good fight. We did a good job, "Kyle Beckerman told KMYU after the match. "Many have made their way today, and not ours."

LAFC dominated the game in virtually all statistical categories. He is offside, RSL blocked, out-of-corner and past. Two minutes from time, defenseman Erik Holt deflected from Walker Zimmerman's goal and scored the goal.

Before this sequence, even when playing with a man, Real seemed about to come out of L.A. with a draw.

RSL hit first after imposing a penalty on LAFC. Sebastian Saucedo fouled Latif Blessing in the box and Damir Kreilach scored the penalty shot for a 1-0 lead from RSL in the 35th minute.

Five minutes later, Diego Rossi equalized. Donny Toia broke Rossi's pbad and found the back of the net behind the ricochet. It turned out that a LAFC player was in an offside position when the ball was played in the area, but Toia's deflection canceled that fact and the goal remained.

On a similar sequence in the second half, Kreilach dribbled towards the goal in search of a shot but a defender from LAFC looted him. The ball went towards Saucedo, who placed a shot from the right foot to the goal and fled his hands in the air.

Saucedo's celebration was shattered when a referee indicated that Saucedo was in an offside position when Kreilach attempted to score. On this appeal, it was not decided that the deflection of LAFC canceled Saucedo's position.

After Justin Portillo received a red card in the 84th minute and left the game, RSL did not have more players in reserve, much like last week against DC United when the team had finished that with nine men.

While RSL fought tooth and nail for eight minutes after Portillo's ejection, Zimmerman's goal took what would have been a positive result and turned it into a second consecutive loss to Real.

While RSL had to settle for the draw, it was a positive development for a team that had just lost a damn loss a week ago. Four players – Tate Schmitt, Erik Holt, Justin Portillo and Luis Arriaga – made their debut in Major League Soccer, but the team's overall cohesion on the field did not seem too affected.