Real Salt Lake climbed a little bit higher up the mountain of success Saturday when they earned a 3-1 victory against Houston Dynamo at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
It was Real Salt Lake's fourth straight win, their fifth straight game without a loss, and it brought the team a little bit closer to the ultimate goal of making the playoffs.
But with Salt Lake still sitting two points away from fourth place in the Western Conference, the team is not about to start celebrating.
"We're getting closer," Salt Lake coach John Ellinger said. "Jason [Kreis] probably said it a little bit before the game to the guys, 'Don't think we're there yet, because we still have a long way to go.'"
Salt Lake now has 29 points and is in fifth place in the conference; fourth-place Chivas now has 31 points after playing the Kansas City Wizards to a 1-1 tie.
"It's going to be a tight battle. It could come down to the last game of the season [Oct. 15 at Chivas USA]," Ellinger said. "I hope we clinch the week before, but it may come down to that."
To be sure, Real have had a number of lucky breaks in its recent games. That trend continued Saturday when Chris Klein was credited with a goal that may not have actually gone in. In first-half stoppage time, Klein struck from the top of the penalty area; the ball hit the crossbar, bounced down and hit near the line. Controversy ensued when referee Jorge Gonzalez ruled it a goal that gave RSL a 1-0 lead going into halftime.
Houston coach Dominic Kinnear protested loudly; Dwayne De Rosario was given a yellow card for his arguments. The officials were escorted off the field at halftime by security, although the crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium was not about to complain.
Real Salt Lake are not about to complain, either.
"We'll take it," Ellinger said. "I haven't seen a replay; [we've] been there, been on the other side of it, so what else can you say."
The goal was the fifth of the season for Klein, and it was assisted by Jeff Cunningham.
"We didn't catch a break in the first half of the season, so we'll take any break that we can," Klein said. "I haven't seen a replay, but I don't know that I want to watch it anyway."
Real earned a 2-0 lead in the second half just four minutes after Douglas Sequeira replaced Mehdi Ballouchy in the 60th minute. Cunningham assisted Sequeira, passing it off to the left of the goal box; Sequiera's shot spun inside the far right post.
Cunningham also scored the final goal of the game in the 82nd minute, a strike that gave Real more than enough insurance to earn the victory. With an assist from Andy Williams, Cunningham found a window to shoot through from straightaway and hit inside the right post.
Cunningham leads the league with 14 goals; he also is in second place in the league with nine assists, just one shy of Colorado's Terry Cooke.
"No one can say I'm selfish now," Cunningham said. "I may make some wrong decisions at times, but I can't be called selfish now. My focus right now is just to make the playoffs. I don't care how we get these three points, but my concern is the team getting good results, and on doing whatever I can.
"I'm trying to make sure I play good football."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
