What a difference a week can make. Fresh off a disappointing 3-0 loss to open the season against Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake were seeking drastic improvement this week against FC Dallas. They looked like a completely different club Saturday, scoring the first goal of the game and mounting a last-minute bid to tie the game before falling 2-1 to the Hoops at Pizza Hut Park.
While Real was disappointed with the loss, they knew how far they had come.
"We definitely competed," said Real Salt Lake head coach John Ellinger. "It's frustrating. You feel bad for guys because you feel they competed for 90-plus minutes, but you didn't come away with a point. It's something we can definitely build on."
RSL defender Carey Talley also liked the better effort from his teammates.
"I think our work ethic was probably ten times better than last week," he said. "We can build on that. Many of our guys had pretty good games tonight."
Real scored first, their first goal of the season in the 36th minute when midfielder Chris Klein scored on a free kick about 20 yards from the Hoops' goal. The free kick was set up when FCD defender Simo Valakari was whistled for a tackle from behind and received a yellow card. Klein's goal was actually set up by teammate Andy Williams, who tapped the ball to him before Klein sent a blistering ball that curved past FC Dallas goalkeeper Dario Sala.
It was Klein's first goal for Real Salt Lake since arriving from the Kansas City Wizards in an offseason deal.
"It felt great," he said. "It was good to score a goal in the new uniform, and more importantly, to put us ahead. I just wish it would have held up."
Just seven minutes later the Hoops got the equalizer when rookie Kenny Cooper, fresh off his first career MLS goal last week, added his second tally of the year after Carlos Ruiz fed him perfectly inside the box. Cooper then converted from about 12 yards out, sending the ball past RSL goalkeeper Scott Garlick.
Then just before the hour mark, Mark Wilson logged the first goal of his MLS career after Ruiz lobbed a ball into the front of the goal area. Talley came in and tried to make a deflection, but the ball caromed off Wilson's foot and went past Garlick for the go-ahead goal.
"It looked like we had two guys go up for the ball and three guys go after the knockdown," Talley said. "There's a guy just standing in there and Scott (Garlick) blocked it. I came in late and tried to clear it. I didn't connect with Mark Wilson all last year (while playing with FC Dallas) and the one time I did, I'm on the opposite team."
But Real Salt Lake didn't lay down and die. They had two opportunities to tie the game in stoppage time, one by Douglas Sequeira, which was broken up by Hoops defender Bobby Rhine in the 92nd minute, the other by Eddie Pope, which was deflected by Clarence Goodson in the 94th minute.
"You're just asking for a break, just for a ball to bounce your way," said Ellinger. "That's all it's going to take to turn it around. You get Andy (Williams)' shot that misses by a foot. That was a bomb. We had one off the post. Eddie hit the last one.
"They're all good situations and you're just looking for something to even skip off somebody, skip off somebody and find its way into the back of the net to come out of here with a point," he said. "That's what you're hoping in that situation, but it didn't happen."
Klein saw the late-game flurry in a similar light. "Boy, we had our chances," he said. "At the end to tie it up, they cleared two off the line. We just had a bunch of chances. It just wasn't meant to be tonight."
While pleased with their improvement, Real Salt Lake wasn't happy with another loss.
"We've got to get back to work and try and get a result next week," Klein said. "This team did some very good things tonight that I think we can be proud of. In the end, it was still a loss for us. We're not in this just to play well. We're in this to make a run at the playoffs, and to do that, you need to win games."
Ellinger agreed. "I definitely felt that we competed throughout and I think we can do even better with that," he said. "We just have to eliminate mistakes. If you can do that, you're always in every game, especially on the road. I think that is as competitive as we've played on the road since I've been here."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
