By Jasen Asay
Standard-Examiner staff

Host Ogden unlucky again late in game

OGDEN -- While the Ogden Outlaws may have a lot of friends, including Real Salt Lake and the near 800 fans that showed up to watch the two teams play Tuesday night, the crossbars on the goals at Ogden High School aren't among them.

For the second straight time the Outlaws had a chance to tie their game late with a penalty kick only to see the crossbar interfere. This time it was in a friendly game against Real Salt Lake's reserve team, which left with a 1-0 win.

RSL's Ryan Johnson scored the game's lone goal in the 45th minute off an assist by Chris Brown.

Silverio Martinez's penalty kick in the 84th minute actually hit the crossbar twice -- the second time coming after it bounced off the ground -- before RSL's Noah Palmer grabbed the ball. It was extra frustrating since Ogden lost its game Saturday to BYU 1-0 after a penalty kick in the 87th minute went off BYU's goalkeeper and then hit the crossbar

"Everyone keeps telling me we've got to buy some round posts," said Ogden coach Mike Hickman.

But despite not getting a tie, Hickman was pleased that his players were able to play well against professionals.

The Outlaws' next four games are U.S. Open Cup qualifiers, and Hickman says knowing that those four teams won't be as good as the one they faced Tuesday will boost the team's confidence.

"The defense did strong and didn't stop playing," Hickman said. "They came at us time and time again and the defense played pretty well."

RSL also used the game to prepare its players, focusing more on the psychological demands of the game.

"Really, it's can our players adapt to a game that obviously they're supposed to be able to come in and win," said RSL assistant coach Peter Mellor, who is in charge of the reserve squad.

RSL, which had two goals taken away in the first half when the officials called players offside, possessed the ball most of the game but wasn't able to take advantage of its many scoring chances. Mellor said that the longer the game stayed scoreless, the more adrenaline the Outlaws had.

Although Hickman admitted his players came out a bit nervous in the first 15 minutes, noticing that they were on the same field as Major League Soccer veterans Andy Williams and Chris Brown, the Outlaws were able to play like they belonged on the same field as the pros.

"Ogden has a good team, which makes it better because it wouldn't be as fun if we came up here and played a team that couldn't hang the way they did," said RSL forward Jamie Watson.

RSL NOTES: Tuesday's game will be shown tape-delayed today at 5 and 9:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 3 (Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties) and channel 60 (Utah and Cache counties).