Real Salt Lake outworked, outshot and outperformed the New England Revolution on Saturday.
All of which just made the scoreless tie at Rice-Eccles Stadium that much more frustrating for the home team. To be sure, no one took the result harder than forward Jeff Cunningham.
"My job is to score goals, and to finish my chances and I didn't get it done," Cunningham said. "You guys can blame me, the entire club can blame me -- I'll accept the responsibility."
Cunningham took four shots, including three in a two-minute span late in the second half. He also had a number of choice opportunities off crossing passes, many from Chris Klein, that did not result in a shot.
In the 29th minute, Cunningham took a shot from the right side outside the penalty area that shaved the paint off the outside of the left post. In the 78th minute, Cunningham's shot flew wide right. And in the 80th minute, Cunningham sent a rocket into the crossbar.
But midway through the first half he failed to get the final touch on a rolling Klein cross with the goal wide open in front of him.
"You just felt like it was going to come," assistant coach Peter Mellor said. "A lot of balls went across the face of the goal, and in those type of situations you've got to sacrifice everything to get that touch on the ball and put them away."
Mellor was in the head coach's position on the bench on Saturday while John Ellinger watched the game from the press box. Ellinger was fined and suspended for the game after criticizing the referees in Real's last game against Houston Dynamo.
"I don't like the view from up there," Ellinger said. "We missed some opportunities for sure, and we missed an opportunity to move up in the standings."
Real captain Jason Kreis also missed out on a prime scoring opportunity in the 51st minute. Klein sent one of his many sharp passes through the box to Kreis who got his foot under the ball, sending it high over the crossbar.
"Chances came after chance, and it's just disappointing that we didn't finish one," Mellor said. "Our videotape this week will be a long one of missed chances when we reflect on our game."
Other than the final shot on goal, Real had the`mastery in every other facet of the match. In the week prior to Saturday's game, the team focused on playing hard throughout the game. In several games leading up to Saturday's match against New England, Real had performed poorly in the first half but played well in the second.
But Real seemed to have that problem solved against the Revolution.
"We played from the opening whistle to the end," Ellinger said. "Other than finishing, we put two good halves together."
Real used Jason Kreis in a wide role with Cunningham and Atiba Harris as the nominal forwards. Chris Klein attacked from the other flank, with Mehdi Ballouchy and Carey Talley in the center. It left Kenny Cutler, a regular starter, on the bench.
"The whole objective was to get [Kreis] the ball more," Ellinger said. "The guy has 104 [career] goals, and we wanted to find ways to get him the ball more. We felt like that was working. Our wide play was better than it has been for a while, and we created some clear chances, some sitters, but we just didn't put them away."
Real took 11 shots, including eight in the second half; New England took a total of eight shots in the game. Real put three of their shots on goal; the Revolution forced goalkeeper Scott Garlick to make only one save.
"We have talked for a couple of weeks about putting together 90 minutes," Klein said. "We had New England on their heels for 90 straight minutes, so to not get the three points is disappointing for us. To dominate a team like that up and down the field, offensively and defensively, and to not get more is disappointing."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
