SALT LAKE CITY - Like most ties in soccer, Real Salt Lake's draw with FC Dallas on Saturday left the RSL players with mixed feelings.
Good, but not great. Disappointed, but not terrible.
Still, there were some positive things Salt Lake could take away from the match. Among them, forward Jeff Cunningham is now two goals closer to the 100th of his career. He scored in the 29th minute with an assist from Chris Klein, then again in the 51st minute when a Jason Kreis shot was deflected right to him.
With the pair of goals, Cunningham now has 92 for his MLS career. Last year's Golden Boot winner scored 16 times last year, meaning he is well on his way to breaking the century mark. Not as close as Ante Razov, who scored his 99th career goal for Chivas in a 2-0 win against Toronto on Saturday, but close.
"It's great that Jeff got two goals today," Real coach John Ellinger said. "He'll have his confidence and we will just build off of that."
Real also got their first look at Freddy Adu in a regular season match. The 17-year-old acquitted himself well in the first half of the game, earning multiple corner kicks on the left side. Adu contributed less in the second half, but not for lack of trying.
"In the first half, I thought he played very well," Ellinger said. "He had less chances in the second half; their outside backs weren't trying to go forward, they were just trying to contain Jeff and Freddy and Chris [Klein] and limit the one-on-one situations as much as they can."
Much like his teammates, Adu looked on the positive side of the draw.
"We should be happy as a team, but we shouldn't be happy to give up that goal at the end of the game," Adu said. "I'm not worried about it. We've got another home game next weekend, so I'm just focused on that right now."
Ellinger did not seem frustrated by his team's performance after the game.
The three substitutions he made were based on necessity, rather than a lack of performance. Ellinger took Eddie Pope out of the game in the 61st minute after the veteran defender sustained an injury to his left hip in the early minutes of the second half. Nik Besagno entered the game for Pope to play the right wing, and Jack Stewart slid over to Pope's spot in the center.
Ellinger also replaced Mehdi Ballouchy with Kenny Cutler in the 79th minute.
Ballouchy had sustained a muscle strain in practice prior to the game, and during the game got kicked in the same spot on his left calf. Ellinger's third substitution was bringing on Luis Tejada in exchange for Kreis in the 88th minute, in an attempt to improve his team's ball-control in the waning minutes.
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
