Real Salt Lake has kicked off its 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup slate on a chilly but (currently) clear night at Rice-Eccles Stadium against expansion side San Jose Earthquakes. We’re all multi-tasking this evening so pardon the late blog entry as we’ve already played the first half. And an action packed half its been, but back to that in a minute. First we’ll throw tonight’s RSL starting line-up your way and its one that will test the depth of the home side’s roster as Head Coach Jason Kreis has elected to keep a handful of regular starters on the bench:

GK – Chris Seitz; DF – Chris Wingert, Matias Mantilla, Jamison Olave, Tony Beltran; MF – Kyle Beckerman, Kenny Cutler, Matias Cordoba, Andy Williams; FW – Yura Movsisyan, Robbie Findley

Now on to the action. The guys seem happy to home as they have absolutely taken it to the visitors from the opening kick. RSL earned several early chances through strong midfield play and some dangerous work from their young strike duo.  Veteran Quakes keeper Preston Burpo was called into action early as he had to make several diving saves in the first ten minutes to keep the score sheet clean.  However, despite their best efforts the visitors couldn’t keep RSL at bay for long, as midfielder Kyle Beckerman fired home from short range off a bouncing ball in the area. Apparently Kyle wasn’t satisfied with his first effort as only 12 minutes later he blasted home a highlight-reel long range effort that squeezed into the lower left corner past a diving Burpo.  Not to be outdone, striker Yura Movsisyan capped off the scoring less than a minute later, as he clinically finished a Matias Cordoba cross for the third RSL goal.

That about wraps it up, hopefully the guys can keep the fun up in the second half.  Should be fun!