bad beer, worse officiating

H and I finally got to a Real Salt Lake soccer game tonight.  Someone at his work had vouchers for free tickets and, as I always say, you should never underestimate the power of free - we ended up with seats about eight rows up from the field near the north goal.  RSL was playing the Chicago Fire and although RSL is currently third in the Western Conference and the Fire is seventh in the Eastern Conference, Chicago blanked RSL 0-3.

This was actually one of the worst games of soccer we've ever seen.  The refereeing was absolutely appalling: nearly every single call was against Salt Lake, including a red card to a key midfielder in the 11th minute.  Chicago is an amazing bunch of actors and dove more than Jacques Cousteau.  RSL did manage to score in the second half, when it was already 0-3, but the ref called it back, we think for offsides although what with the scrum of players wrestling in front of the goal, I'm not sure how you could have been sure.

The best part of the game were the fans.  One corner of the stadium stood up and played music - drums, horns - constantly throughout the entire game.  Our section was not the family section due to the hilarious and obscene cheers and taunts emanating around us.  I don't think I've heard that much swearing since we moved to Utah (and I did feel back for the LDS family next to us, but their kids were savvy enough to plug their ears for the "Oooooooooooooooooo - you suck, @$$%!%#" on every goal kick).

That linesman right there? Awful.

Rio Tinto Stadium, Real Salt Lake's home field in Sandy, Utah, is a gorgeous little (20,000+ capacity) stadium, with a natural grass field and swooping roof sections that glow at night from the interior lights.  Their beer options, however, leave quite a bit to be desired: Budweiser, Bud Light, Shock Top and Michelob Amber-Bock (all Anheuser-Busch products).  We went with the "amber-bock" as it was the darkest option ($5.50 for a tiny; $9.00 for a large) and after the first couple of sips, H looked at me and asked, "Does this beer have any taste?"  No, no, it does not, for the record.

On the plus side, since parking at the stadium is quite limited, we learned that if you go to the Sandy Crown Burger (9604 South State St.) and purchase at least $14.00 worth of food, you can park for free in their lot for the duration of the soccer game, stadium located just about a block north between 9000 and 9400 South.  We had a Crown Burger combo and a Junior Crown Burger combo and were very happy about all of it.  Except the soccer game.  May RSL have better luck, and better referees, next time.