every time Real got the ball, the Red Bulls packed eight players behind the ball, forcing Salt Lake to play it out wide. On the other end, New York's defense allowed the Red Bulls to attack down the middle.
It worked out well in the opening minutes of the second half, as New York controlled the run of play and threatened Real's goal time and again. The Red Bulls had a prime chance when Mathis sent a corner kick from the left to Altidore at the far post -- the header looked like a sure goal, but somehow flew over.
But Real turned things around in the 61st minute when Chris Klein found the goal with an unreal goal struck from 25 yards out towards the right. Klein's shot curled towards the goal and hit the far left corner of the net to make it 2-1.
The goal energized Real. In the 64th minute, Adu was fouled by Hunter Freeman along the left sideline; Freeman was shown a yellow card, and Adu played a brilliant ball into the box that Carey Talley got a head to. His point-blank shot was strong, but Waterreus was there to make the save.
Things began to get even more interesting when Cunningham was shown a yellow card on a play that injured Waterreus and forced the Dutch goalkeeper from the field; he was replaced moments later by Jon Conway. Eddie Pope also was shown a yellow card afterwards while lobbying the referee for a better call.
In the 79th minute, Cunningham received the ball in the right side of the box and worked on a way to turn it towards the middle around the defense.
Instead, he was knocked to the ground; in waiting for the restart, New York inserted Dema Kovalenko. The move seemed to make all the difference, as New York's offense immediately began pressuring Real's goal again.
Kovalenko made the most of his few minutes on the field; with a centering pass from the right, Kovalenko found Mathis inside the goal area, and all "Cleetus" needed was a header to make the score 3-1.
But before the end of the game, Real came back with a vengeance. In the 89th minute, Jeff Parke was called for an elbow into Talley's nose in the middle of the box and referee Ricardo Salazar awarded a penalty kick. Cunningham hit the ball to the left of Conway and buried the ball to make the score 3-2.
Into stoppage time, Real were not finished. Adu found Chris Brown to the right of the penalty area, and Brown took a long-range shot similar to Klein's earlier score and hit just inside the far left post to give Real a remarkable come-from-behind tie.
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
