During their two-week break between league games, Real Salt Lake worried they would come out flat against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
That wasn't a problem. Now, if only they can translate the strong effort and offensive pressure into a victory. With the Fire's Cuauhtemoc Blanco playing at a world-class level, Real could not prevent a 2-0 victory by the visiting team.
"The effort was good; the guys came out really hard," team captain Eddie Pope said. "On a different night, we get two goals at a minimum, and that completely changes the game. You get a goal, they open up a little bit, and you can get even more. But it just wasn't our night."
In familiar fashion, Real could not get the ball in the goal, no matter how close they came. In the 17th minute, Robbie Findley's shot bounced off the left post and crossed the goalmouth coming the other way, but did not go in. Kyle Beckerman's follow-up also missed just wide left.
In the 76th minute, with Chicago goalkeeper Matt Pickens out of position, Real's newest striker, Fabian Espindola, had a pair of shots blocked by a Fire defender. The first shot bounced off Bakary Soumare and rolled right back to Espindola for another try, but the second try also bounced off Soumare.
Also during the game, Carey Talley, Andy Williams and Beckerman each came within inches of the goal on long-range tries, but could not get it in. Real outshot Chicago 16-10, and put seven shots of frame as opposed to the Fire's five.
"We had a lot of chances, and it seems like on the flip side if we were to give them that many chances, it would be 8-0," Pope said. "It was just really unlucky tonight, but I thought for the most part we played well."
Real had high hopes for the game, considering they had won their last match, had two weeks to heal their injuries, and had a pair of newly-signed Argentinians on the roster they could rely on. Alecko Eskandarian and Robbie Findley were available to start again, and Andy Williams was back after serving a red-card suspension.
"I was pleased with the mentality of the guys and the way they came out," Real coach Jason Kreis said. "I thought we were really all over them."
But as the game wore on, things did not look so good.
"We were not possessing the ball as much as I would have liked in the first half," Kreis said. "We were taking too many chances from over the top and that caused us to have to defend for long stretches of time."
That defending likely led to some fatigue near the end of the first half, when Blanco struck with a fantastic shot that Real goalkeeper Nick Rimando had no chance at. From 20 yards out, Blanco sent a left-footed shot into the far upper corner of the goal to make it 1-0.
Blanco also assisted on Chicago's second goal with a corner kick that found Paulo Wanchope for a header and a 2-0 lead with just 12 minutes left.
"My initial impression on the game is we were just not quite good enough," Kreis said. "Our passing was not good enough, shots on goal were not good enough -- the soccer tonight wasn't quite good enough."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
