Real Salt Lake let a prime opportunity slip away Thursday night. Whether it was the excitement of the rivalry with the Colorado Rapids, the pressure of playing with a chance to earn first place for the first time in club history, or simply an inability to play away from home in the second half, Real Salt Lake fell 2-0 in the first Rocky Mountain Cup match of the year.
While a win would have put them in first place in the Western Conference, the loss keeps them in third place, four points behind the Rapids, who climbed to the top of the table.
"It's disappointing for sure, especially against Colorado, our rival," said Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando. "There was opportunity there and everyone in this locker room knew it. We didn't step up to play and we played one of the worst games of our season."
Real Salt Lake played the Rapids to a stalemate in the first half, but seemed unable to match the energy Colorado showed in the second half. Both of the Rapids goals came in the second half, which seemed to be played mostly in and around Real's penalty area.
"I'm a little bit disappointed that we didn't come out in the second half with a better mentality," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "Typically we've seen the team this year in Salt Lake that responds well to halftime and picks up their play and tonight that wasn't the case at all."
Striker Kenny Deucher agreed with his coach's assessment of the team's second-half woes.
"I thought we felt good at halftime and that the game was there for the taking," said Deucher. "We knew they would come at us at the start of the second half because it is obviously their home, but they got a few dangerous balls into the box and they did a good job of finishing."
Still, some in the RSL locker room felt that the team did enough to win but just was missing the ability to take a chance and convert it to a goal.
"What was missing was a goal," said defender Chris Wingert. "That was it to be honest with you. We had chances, with the ball in front of the box, but we couldn't put it in the back of the net. That's been the difference between our home games and our away games this year. In our home games we jump on the other team and score early and in the away games we haven't scored."
Deucher agreed with his teammate, adding that quality crosses from the wings was what really separated the teams on the night.
"I don't think we got the ball in the box enough," said Deucher. "It was going side to side, but we weren't able to put the ball in the box. We had a few chances but couldn't put it away and they punished us for it. They put a lot of crosses into the box and were rewarded for that."
Part of Salt Lake's success in the first half was containing Christian Gomez. Shadowed for much of the game by Kenny Cutler, he was quiet, but he eventually broke free (especially after Cutler was taken off for a attacking substitute), scoring the Rapids' second goal after starting the play that led to the first.
"When you have a player like Christian you have to have an idea of where he is at all times," said Kreis. "[Cutler] was charged with the responsibility when we were attacking to always have an idea of where Christian was and I think he did a pretty good job there."
Cutler agreed with his coach, but felt that his vigilance cost the team on the offensive side of the ball.
"I wasn't trying to man-mark Gomez but he's a very dangerous player," said Cutler. "We talked about needing to have eyes on him at all times and I made it my personal battle to keep an eye on him. But on the opposite end I didn't do enough to help the team keep the ball and then we couldn't move forward and move them around and get them tired."
There is a strong consensus within Real that they will have success at home, but that the key to the season will be learning to play on the road.
"We just need to keep working hard," said Deucher. "At home we have been creating lots of chances. On the road we are not the same team. We need to address that and play away from home the same way we do at home. No one fancies playing us in Salt Lake City, but it is a different story on the road."
Borchers echoed his teammate's comment, believing that the entire team needs to step up their play when they travel.
"I don't think we've done a very good job on the road of defending and creating chances," said Borchers. "I don't think we came out sharp enough, I don't think we connected on enough of our passes, and I don't think we got forward enough. We were in our own half basically the whole second half. Obviously we're not going to score goals that way."
Real have now lost all four of their road games, and have allowed 10 goals away from Rice-Eccles Stadium, while scoring only two.
"I think there was real casual play in the back," said Rimando. "On the road we can't get beat to the ball and we can't give up penalty kicks. We've been doing that on the road too much and it has to stop. We are the away team. We have to dig in and match their intensity and be sharp, especially in the back. Sharp is exactly what we weren't today."
Although the team missed their chance to move into first place, Kreis hopes that his side will learn from this and seize their chance when next it comes.
"To be completely honest I don't think we deserve to be the best team in this conference; we're not ready for that yet," he said. "That's my opinion after looking at the game tonight: we're not ready. Hopefully that opportunity will come again. I told the guys that you get limited opportunities in life and certainly in your career in professional sports so it is disappointing that we let this one slip by. Hopefully we will be ready for the next one."
Geoffrey Urland is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
