Real Salt Lake had the pace, the finesse and the dominance in the first half of Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup match against the Colorado Rapids.
But only one half of decent play was not enough. In the second half, the Rapids came out with determination and a fair amount of physical play, and it was enough for Colorado to earn a 1-0 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium. With the victory, Colorado advanced to the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Both teams came out hard, meaning to score early and often and avoid overtime. Real Salt Lake was first to find some success on offense, Jeff Cunningham finding Chris Klein, who took a straightaway shot that bounced off the chest of Colorado goalkeeper Matt Jordan.
Mehdi Ballouchy played a beautiful ball through to Klein in the 14th minute that led to a shot from the left angle of the penalty area, but the shot was deflected. After the corner kick, Jack Stewart tried a 25-yard shot from straightaway that flew over the crossbar.
Colorado gave itself a solid look at the goal minutes later with a fine cross through the area to an on-running Nicolas Hernandez, but RSL's Kevin Novak tracked back step-for-step with Hernandez and headed the ball out.
Hernandez took another fine shot in the 24th minute, a riser that just missed the far upper right corner.
Hernandez repeatedly found space on his runs down the left side in the first half, and sent plenty of dangerous looking crosses into the box. Real also had some good looks on goal, perhaps none better than Cunningham's run into the right side of the box that led to a point-blank shot against Jordan's chest.
In the 43rd minute, Stewart stole the ball in the midfield and worked it into the box; a pass off to Klein led to a narrow-angle shot knocked past the endline by Jordan. On the corner, Andy Williams crossed it to the top of the goal area to where Nikolas Besagno put a diving header on goal. But the half ended in a 0-0 tie.
Colorado had a good opportunity in the 53rd minute when Jovan Kirovski found some space and took a shot, but Real goalkeeper Jay Nolly made the save by diving to his left and popping the ball up and back to himself.
Klein had a strong shot in the 60th minute after a strong play from the right side through Ballouchy took the attack to the left side. His riser forced Jordan to make an acrobatic diving save.
But Colorado came right back. Clint Mathis drew two defenders out of position with a run to the endline right of the goal. Mathis dropped the ball off with a backheel that found Jacob Peterson, and Peterson hit home from a perfect position to give the Rapids the lead in the 61st minute.
Real coach John Ellinger began making substitutions in the 75th minute, trying to find an equalizer. Ellinger replaced Williams with Joey Worthen, then put in Douglas Sequeira in exchange for Cunningham.
Ellinger made another two-player substitution in the 84th minute, putting in forward Jamie Watson in exchange for defender Besagno, and replacing Klein with Chris Brown. The moves, however, made little difference in the final few minutes.
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
