and to be honest, we should," said Jason Kreis, the club's newly-installed coach. "When we come back from a two-goal deficit, it's a huge boost to everyone's mentality involved, and we need that in a big way right now. That could be a very good starting point for us at this point."
Kreis, who just six days ago was on the field playing as a holding midfielder for Real, had the odds stacked against him vs. New York. The Red Bulls are unbeaten, had not given up a goal all season, and are coached by the renowned Bruce Arena. Real, but contrast, had not scored in 309 minutes and had a coach with no experience on the MLS sidelines.
"I thought the biggest thing that we were going to miss [on the field] would be his heart and his fight and his passion that he brought to the team," Klein said. "The way that we fought tonight showed that it can bleed into the team by having him on the sidelines. The way that we fought and the way that we battled back really showed his personality and the type of coach that Jason Kreis is going to be."
Klein's goal went in from 25 yards away above the right side of the penalty area. Klein felt good about the shot when it left his foot; doubtless, he felt better when it went in and ended Real's scoring drought at 369 minutes.
If it weren't for Real's two late goals, the game would have been the Clint Mathis scoring clinic. The New York midfielder tallied two goals and added an assist after starting in place of Dema Kovalenko.
But instead, RSL's Carey Talley took an elbow in the face in the middle of the penalty box in the 89th minute, giving Jeff Cunningham a penalty kick that he buried in the right corner. Then, Chris Brown, who entered the game in the 63rd minute for Jack Stewart, took a shot that curled from the right of the box inside the far post and tied the game 3-3 in the second minute of stoppage time.
Brown was not quite as confident in his shot as Klein was in his.
"Let's just say I had my eyes closed," Brown said. "It happened in slow motion; I thought it would hit the post and bounce out, so I don't know if it was the soccer gods, but it just hit the inside of the post and went in."
Kreis' biggest goal for Real when he took over as head coach from John Ellinger on Thursday was to give his team a mental boost; Saturday's tie should do the trick. The game also gave Kreis reason to smile, as some of his closest friends made big plays in the game: he mentioned the efforts of Klein, Talley and Brown.
And although Mathis, another friend, also made some big plays, he was not quite as happy about those.
"I'll be seeing him a little later -- maybe I'll try to hurt him or something," Kreis said. "I asked him to score an own goal, he hasn't done that for me, but he said he would score four so I guess two was a little bit of a favor from him."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
