As hard as Real Salt Lake has worked in recent months to construct a new winning image, the club has not found a way to break the jinx hanging over its season openers.
RSL failed to win its first game for a fourth consecutive season, settling for a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Fire on Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Fire snatched away what appeared to be a sure RSL victory when Cuauhtemoc Blanco rifled in an unassisted goal in injury time to even the score.
Blanco snagged a clearance attempt and curled the ball into the net from the top of the penalty area, slicing through the heart of a defense which held him in check so well for such a long time.
"It wasn't about a breakdown on our part or a bad mistake in our penalty box," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "A special player makes one special play, because I don't think he did anything else the whole game except run around and whine."
Blanco saved the Fire from a potential game costing mistake. RSL got on the board in the 71st minute after Chicago defender Bakary Soumare intercepted a half-shot/half-cross from Real midfielder Dema Kovalenko, but deflected the ball into his own goal when he attempted to volley it back up the field.
That stroke of good fortune appeared to be all that RSL needed to secure a victory in a game it had dominated defensively up to that point. Aside from Blanco's game winner, Chicago managed only one other shot on goal the whole game.
Unlike a year ago when the club fell apart in the wake of 2-2 tie to FC Dallas, RSL is determined not to let another disappointing opener destroy a promising season.
"We're not hanging our heads," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "That's the last thing we're going to do. We're going to keep going. There's a lot of good soccer out there. We can't hang our heads because of one play."
RSL can draw a lot of positives from the way it performed -- especially in the first half. Offensively, it wasted no time attacking Chicago's defense.
Fabian Espindola fed the ball to forward Yura Movsisyan in front of the goal in the sixth minute. Movsisyan had good position and an open shot, but his header proved too strong and sailed over the cross bar.
Javier Morales sliced through the Fire defense in the 14th minute and left the ball for Espindola to gather in. The Argentinean striker chased the ball down but his shot, like others before it, sailed over the crossbar.
RSL was poised to strike again in the 29th minute when Espindola beat Brandon Prideaux to a pass and tried to bend the ball inside the near post. Jon Busch came out and successfully blanketed the ball just as it reached the post.
"Basically, we were just taking it to them and being the more aggressive team," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "It's kind of like your best defense is your offense when that's going good. That's really what was happening in the first half."
On the other end of the field, Chicago could do little against RSL. The Fire had their best scoring opportunity in the 11th minute when Blanco received the ball near the top of the penalty box. The Mexican midfielder had plenty of time and space to figure out how to best attack the goal, but his shot bounced outside the far post.
RSL successfully kept Chicago pinched on its own half of the field for much of the game, controlling possession and dictating tempo.
"We had some pretty good spells in there," said midfielder Carey Talley. "I think that our midfield definitely controlled the game in quite a few portions there. It's definitely something we can build on."
RSL did not enjoy quite as strong a second half, in part, because the offense created fewer scoring opportunities for itself. But that didn't seem to matter after being handed a break with Soumare's missed clearance -- until one more late stroke of good fortune.
The way the game slipped out of RSL's grasp is eerily similar to what has happened to the team too many times in its short history. But the newest members of the club insist this time will be different. There will be no tailspin like after the tie with FC Dallas a year ago because RSL is a better team now.
"We're not going to win (just) six games this year," Kovalenko said. "It's not going to happen."
John Coon is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
