It's not yet time for Real Salt Lake to begin looking toward next year following Saturday night's 2-1 loss to FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park.
But RSL, who continue to fight for their proverbial playoff lives in a tight Western Conference race, were clearly disappointed with the result.
RSL trailed by two goals before the 15-minute mark of the first half. FCD forward Carlos Ruiz scored in the ninth minute, hitting a perfect header past Salt Lake goalkeeper Scott Garlick off a Greg Vanney free kick.
The Hoops then added a second tally in the 14th minute when Kenny Cooper sent a bending ball toward the RSL net. Garlick was caught napping and thought the ball would sail clear of the goal, but it instead arced inside the far post and FCD had doubled their advantage.
"I think we need to give credit where credit is due," said RSL forward Jason Kreis. "Dallas was great in the first half and showed why they are in first place in our conference. It's been a while since they've shown that. I thought they were excellent and were giving us fits all over the place.
One thing Kreis didn't do was chalk up the two goals to his team starting slowly.
"I don't think it's a matter of starting slow or a lack of effort," he said. "I just think that tactically, they were causing us fits. They were moving the ball extremely well. Their forwards were checking back and playing off the ball and everybody was moving."
Jeff Cunningham pulled a goal back for Real in the 48th minute, his league-leading 16th of the year to cut the advantage to 2-1, but in the end, RSL had to settle for leaving Frisco empty-handed.
"The bottom line is we dug a hole and at this stage in the season, we have to play for 90 minutes," said RSL head coach John Ellinger. "We can't just play for 45 minutes."
RSL's best chance of the opening frame, in which they were outshot by a 10-3 margin, came in the 40th minute. Midfielder Chris Klein got a nice look at the FCD goal, but starting goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, who was making his MLS debut, stopped him cold. The ball popped free but the rebound was quickly covered by Hislop.
To their credit, the visitors came out inspired in the second half. That point was driven home with Cunningham's strike in the 48th minute. He got behind two FCD defenders to latch onto a long pass from rookie defender Willis Forko and beat Hislop to the far post to cut the home side's edge.
That was only RSL's fourth shot of the entire night and came on Cunningham's first shot of the evening. RSL did manage to outshoot the Hoops 5-4 in the second half, but in the end, still have 36 points and are fighting for a first-ever playoff berth.
"Dallas came out with a lot of intensity," Cunningham said. "In the first 20 minutes, we weren't able to absorb their pressure and gave up two goals. We fought our way back, got a goal early in the second half and I felt like we ran out of time. I felt like we had another goal in us."
Cunningham was impressed with the character that RSL showed Saturday.
"We showed good character to fight back," he said. "We had a chance to walk away with a point, but it didn't happen. I am disappointed because the things we discussed before the game were what happened -- not marking and not letting them earn three points."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
