As a team, Real Salt Lake feels like they just can not catch a break.
On Saturday, Real played a Chivas USA team that did not have its two top scorers, Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo. The Red-and-White were on the road, playing at altitude on an artificial surface freshly soaked with rainwater, and RSL still could not pull out a victory as Chivas won 3-2.
"I remember [Chivas] having three chances, and they scored all three of them," Real coach Jason Kreis said. "We created a lot of chances; I'm quite certain ... we outshot them, we created better chances, more chances, but again we walk away with zero points. That has happened to us too many times this year."
Real took 13 shots to eight for Chivas. Salt Lake's shots were on target eight times, while Chivas' shots were on frame only four times. And still, Chivas earned its first victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium; they now are 1-2-2 all-time in Salt Lake City against their expansion brethren.
"The result didn't go our way today, and if we score two goals at home, we should expect to win," goalkeeper Chris Seitz said. "Defensively, as a team, we need to look at that; it can't be that way, we have to be better."
While playing for a win, Kreis still put a few unusual faces out on the field, no doubt giving players a chance to earn their spot for next year. Seitz was one of those players, starting in the stead of Nick Rimando, who could easily be RSL's defensive player of the year.
Also, Kreis started Chris Lancos and Willis Forko. Lancos acquitted himself well, getting his first MLS point of the season with an assist on Chris Brown's goal in the 62nd minute on a goal that made the score 1-1.
But Forko struggled. In the 22nd minute, Laurent Merlin turned the corner on Forko and centered the ball to John Cunliffe, who put the ball in for his first of two scores on the night.
Cunliffe scored again in the 54th minute with an assist from Sacha Kljestan, but it was Paulo Nagamura's strike in the 58th minute that became the game-winner. Nagamura ripped the ball in from 35 yards out, sailing over Seitz high into the goal to make the game 3-1.
"It seems like we give up a lot of wonder strikes against teams," Kreis said.
Robbie Findley scored RSL's second goal in the 63rd minute off a diagonal ball driven by Andy Williams to the back post. Findley got on the end of it, and with as much pace as the ball had, Chivas 'keeper Brad Guzan had no chance on it from short range.
Findley and Brown now are tied for the team lead in goals scored this year, each with five. Kreis likes the situation.
"I prefer that the goals get spread out amongst players. We've got multiple players out there that can strike, that way defenses are having to look this way and that to figure out who they are going to mark and who they are going to key off of," Kreis said.
But still, Salt Lake still struggles to translate its positive work rate and good number of scoring chances into wins.
"We came in here to get three points tonight," Seitz said. "We definitely are not happy about it, but at the same time we played some good soccer tonight. I hate to keep saying that, I say that a lot this year, but we played great soccer at points and we are not winning games. We, as a team, have to figure out how to do that."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
