Real Salt Lake just can't catch a break. Even though they played a good road game and found the net twice against the Red Bulls at Giants Stadium on Saturday night, a controversial late penalty kick call forced them to settle for a 2-2 tie, a result that eliminated them from playoff contention.
"We did enough to win the game and felt we deserved it, and it kind of got taken from us," said midfielder Kyle Beckerman, who scored his team's second goal.
"It was frustrating, but I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. Early in the year we would have been happy with [the draw], but we needed a win to stay in the playoff race, so that hurt a little bit."
Referee Alex Prus made the debated decision just five minutes after Beckerman's strike had given his team its second lead of the game (Chis Brown netted off a Bulls' defensive breakdown in the first half). On the PK call, Prus ruled that New York defender Seth Stammler has been tripped in the box. Replays seemed to suggest it was a harsh call for the visitors.
Keeper Nick Rimando, who was unable to keep Juan Pablo Angel's ensuing spot kick out of the net, agreed with Beckerman.
"We got a point, but we should have had three." Rimando said. "I guess there are positives there because this is a tough place to play. The negatives are that we gave up a penalty kick, and we gave up a goal early in the second half. It's tough because we get a rhythm going and then let them come back. But the way we played tonight, I think we should have had three points."
Real's rookie coach Jason Kreis felt his team should have escaped with the victory -- regardless of the questionable call.
"To have a lead twice in the match, you feel that you should walk away with three points -- especially when you have a lead in the as late in the second half as we did," Kreis said.
With his team now officially out of postseason contention, Kreis, who began the season as the club's captain and star striker before hanging up the boots to take the coaching reigns form the fired John Ellinger, already is looking toward next season.
"We keep coming back to the fact that we didn't have a preseason, we didn't have a long stretch of time to do a lot of coaching and coming together," said Kreis. "We're just lagging behind the rest of the league in our opinion, so we are very much looking forward to planning our preseason, just mapping it out completely during the offseason."
After the atrocious start cost Ellinger his job, Real has improved significantly, and has played .500 ball since August. Beckerman in convinced that bodes well for 2008.
"It's good for next year," he said. "Tonight we had two really nice goals, team goals. When you are scoring goals from the run of play it's a great sign. It's coming together. We're really starting to gel together, get results on the road and get wins at home.
"We're becoming a hard team to beat, which is a good sign. If we can continue that for the rest of the year and then go into preseason with that mentality, then we'll be a playoff team next year for sure."
Doug McIntyre is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
