who was the second-youngest goalkeeper to start a game in MLS history -- and when he handled the ball, referee Abbey Okulaja called for an indirect free kick in the penalty area.
• Colorado's Herculez Gomez sent the ball under the wall and into the back of the net on the first attempt, but Okulaja had not whistled for play to restart. So on the second chance, Gomez's shot banged into the wall -- but the rebound went back to Kyle Beckerman, and he lashed a low shot through the goalmouth scrum into the goal.
• Real head coach John Ellinger made two changes to the team that lost 4-0 to Chivas USA nine days earlier. Danny Torres returned from injury, coming back into the back four for Chris Lancos, while Chris Seitz made his first career MLS start, coming in between the posts in place of Nick Rimando.
• Here's Ellinger's team (4-2-3-1): Chris Seitz - Jack Stewart, Eddie Pope, Daniel Torres, Willis Forko (Atiba Harris 78) - Jason Kreis, Carey Talley - Chris Klein, Mehdi Ballouchy, Freddy Adu - Jeff Cunningham. Substitutes Not Used: Nikolas Besagno, Chris Brown, Duke Hashimoto, Chris Lancos, Nick Rimando, Jamie Watson
• "I certainly felt that we didn't play bad enough to lose," Ellinger said. "We make two mistakes, and they punish us for it, and they go out of here with a 2-0 win. I felt the guys put the effort in, no question about it, we just have to quit making mistakes."
TEAM NEWS
• Real sent the first shockwaves of the season when Ellinger was relieved of his duties as head coach on Thursday, and Jason Kreis, who retired as an active player while the league's all-time leader in goalscoring, was named the club's new head coach.
• "This signals a new beginning for our franchise," said RSL investor/operator Dave Checketts. "Jason fits the profile of every great leader I have worked with throughout my career. He is a hard-working, dedicated over-achiever who refuses to accept anything less than maximum effort from everyone around him. While I know his leadership and ability on the field will be missed, we need his efforts to be completely focused on the many responsibilities that lie in front of him as our new head coach. I have total confidence in his ability to make the transition and look forward to working with him as we embark on this new chapter for our organization."
• Kreis will become the youngest active head coach in MLS at 34 years and 127 days of age. In addition to becoming the youngest full-time coach in MLS history, eclipsing former New York Red Bulls interim coach Richie Williams' mark of 36 years and 25 days set during the latter half of the 2006 season, Kreis on Saturday will become the second-youngest to coach in a league match, as former Colorado Rapids player Roy Wegerle (32 years, 186 days) was the interim coach of record for their final game in 1996. The new role for Kreis makes the Duke University product the 11th ex-MLS player (not including Wegerle) to take the reins of a league side, and the seventh current head coach to make the switch from the field to the sideline.
• Ellinger, the only coach Real had known in their brief history, will remain the club's technical director and director of soccer operations. In addition, Steve Pastorino resigned as general manager of the club.
• Real have now gone three consecutive games without scoring a goal; while nowhere near the club record of nearly 10 hours without a goal, it still is not the start RSL was looking for this season.
• "There are times when the offense seems stagnant. We have one center forward and two wide guys. We are constantly telling them if one side goes wide the other one has to come in, not just for the one game," Ellinger said. "That is the way we are trying to play. We are trying to bring Freddy (Adu) or Chris (Klein) in as a second forward. We have to do a better job of combination play."
• Said midfielder Chris Klein: "We had some good looks at the goal. At the end of the day, that's what you've have to do on offense is capitalize on the other team's mistakes, and we didn't do a very good job at that."
• Real's last goal came in the 51st minute of the season opener on April 7, now having gone 308 minutes without a goal coming into the game.
• "I would be really angry if they outworked us tonight, and that didn't happen," defender Eddie Pope said. "It's frustrating not coming away with the result, but you have to keep plugging away. You can't hang your heads and not give the same effort next time."
• There was room for optimism after Real opened the season with a pair of draws, the first time in club history they hadn't lost one of their opening two games. But that has since been tempered with the pair of shutout defeats.
• "We realize from our experience last year that you can't give points away early, and giving points away is only going to come back to haunt you in the end," Klein said. "It is early, we are only four games in to an early season, so there is some reason to keep our heads high, but at the same time, I thought that the majority of the game, we carried the game."
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls return to action after a 10-day layoff, still riding their undefeated and unscored upon streak to begin the season. They last played on April 26, a 1-0 victory at FC Dallas, and coming into the week are tied atop the Eastern Conference with 10 points from four matches, level with the Chicago Fire a point ahead of the Kansas City Wizards.
LAST MATCH
• It was a matchup of two of the top three teams in the league record-wise through the first weeks of the season, FC Dallas leading the Western Conference with seven points, while the Red Bulls were level with the Chicago Fire in the East, also with seven points. It also matched the league's top attack early on - FC Dallas, with a league-leading seven goals, facing a Red Bulls team that had yet to allow a goal.
• And just as they had done 11 days previous at Giants Stadium, the Red Bulls came away with the victory, this time from the game's only goal. Jozy Altidore poked the ball to Dave van den Bergh on the left flank, and he curled in a pinpoint cross to Hunter Freeman at the back post. Freeman took a touch before hammering a rising blast inside the far post to keep the Red Bulls unbeaten on the campaign.
• The shutout extended the Red Bulls shutout streak to 360 minutes to begin the season, setting a new MLS record, passing the Dallas Burn of 1999, who didn't allow a goal for the first 343 minutes of that season.
• Red Bulls head coach Bruce Arena made one change to the team that defeated Houston Dynamo 1-0 at Giants Stadium the previous weekend. With Clint Mathis suspended after being sent off in that game, Seth Stammler came back to a holding midfield role with Claudio Reyna pushed farther afield.
• Here's Arena's team (4-4-1-1): Ronald Waterreus - Hunter Freeman, Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, Todd Dunivant - Dane Richards, Dema Kovalenko, Seth Stammler, Dave van den Bergh (Tim Regan 82) - Claudio Reyna (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 90) - Jozy Altidore (Jerrod Laventure 86). Substitutes Not Used: Sal Caccavale, Jon Conway, Taylor Graham, John Wolyniec
• "It was a tough game. Dallas has a good team. I felt that in the first half, we played pretty well but didn't do well with our final cross and finish. I thought the first half was a good half. " Arena said. "The second half, things got a little bit more even and I think the game could have gone either way. We scored a great goal and are fortunate to get out of here with three points. But I think we earned them. We played for 90 minutes, a pretty good game."
TEAM NEWS
• The New York club record for not allowing a goal is now within sight. A year ago, the Red Bulls did not allow a goal for 397 minutes, from July 8-29.
• "I think we play very well as a unit," Arena said. "It's our entire team that understands that when the other team has the ball that we have got to work together and try to get it back. Our ability to hold the ball at times is a defensive mechanism as well. We're continuing to grow as a team."
• "It's not just the defense and the keeper, it's the whole team," said Hunter Freeman. "Our defense starts up top with Jozy (Altidore), Dave (Van den Bergh) and Dane (Richards) and comes all the way back to us in the back. We might not be playing the best at times but we're smart when we play it out of the back and smart when we knock it forward to go on with it and live to fight another day."
• Another key to the Red Bulls success thus far as been their flank play. Rookie Dane Richards has impressed with his pace on the right side, and Dave van den Bergh set up the only goal in Dallas
• "He's a good player," Arena said. "I think (FCD's) Drew Moor is an outstanding right back. Defensively, he's the best right back I've seen this year. Obviously, we haven't been around the league yet, but he's a good player. He makes it tough on Dave. Dave is a great crosser of the ball. His cross led to the goal and a couple of other good chances. He had a good night. He's a good left-sided player, which is rare in our league at this point."
• For Freeman, the goal was the first of his MLS career, and came in front of a large group of family and friends - he grew up in nearby Allen, Texas, less than 30 minutes from Frisco.
• "I had 15-20 friends and family here, if not more than that," Freeman said. "That is my first goal in the league and that's always a good thing. When you can do it at home, that makes it that much better. To get a win out of it and to still not give up any goals is about the best-case scenario you could ask for."
• Arena could soon have some decisions to make, as Austrian winger Markus Schopp has returned to training and Juan Pablo Angel is waiting for his work permit.
• "I hope that they're all tough decisions," Arena said to The (North Jersey) Herald-News. "I want a number of players competing for first team positions and as we move forward and get everyone healthy we're going to have a number of players vying for starting positions. Maybe we'll even consider some type of rotation of players.
• "That's one of the goals here. First is to get a good first 11 and then to get players who can play key roles as reserves. Competition makes players better within their team and around the league. That's a problem and I think it's more so a problem with better players. They simply get a game every week and in the real world that doesn't happen as often."
