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SALT LAKE CITY - Andy Williams had just missed out on a scoring opportunity from point-blank range. Moments later, he redeemed himself.
The veteran delivered a lob pass in the 73rd minute to Kyle Beckerman, who poked home the game-winning goal past goalkeeper Dario Sala to give Real Salt Lake a 2-1 triumph over FC Dallas on Saturday.
"It was a decent little spurt of possession. Andy, that's what he does," Beckerman said of the game-winning play. "He can put that final pass for anybody. I knew it was coming, so I made the run. He put it on a plate for me and luckily I put it in."
After relinquishing an early one-goal lead, Real (2-3-2) saw several scoring opportunities slip by in the second half. Midfielder Dema Kovalenko had Sala one-on-one inside the box in the 61st minute, but he delivered a weak shot attempt that was easily stopped and cleared away by defender Duilio Davino.
About 10 minutes later, Williams found himself with wide open space on the right side of the box, but he couldn't get quite the look he wanted, mishandling the ball as Dallas (2-2-3) escaped the threat. But Beckerman's third goal of the season a minute later put Real back on top - this time for good.
Despite his team scoring first and coming away with its second victory of the season, Real coach Jason Kreis witnessed a club that displayed one of its most haphazard offensive showings of the season, consistently losing possession and failing to get off quality shots in good scoring situations.
"Honestly, I think that's probably one of the worst games we've played this season. And in some ways, maybe that's a good thing, because maybe we need to learn how to win ugly," Kreis said. "And I would say tonight would be case-in-point to that. We won ugly."
Javier Morales got the scoring started in the 28th minute, taking advantage of one of many Dallas defensive lapses on the night. Sala tried to get his hands on the ball to clear it out of the zone, but Morales got in the way. The two nearly collided, but Morales got the better of it, poking the ball between a pair of defenders as it dribbled to the net for the first score of the night.
"I thought we had some good chances at the beginning of the game. We had a good flurry where we made Sala come up big, and he did. He's a great goalkeeper," Beckerman said. "And then it kind of got ugly. But there's gonna be games like that. ... You've just got to come out and try to do anything to try to win."
It took 28 minutes to get the first goal on the board, and it took another 28 to get another one, but Kenny Cooper finally did the trick for Dallas. The 23-year-old forward had been aggressively attacking the Salt Lake defense all evening, and finally got one to go through in the 56th minute.
Attacking deep in the zone on the far right side, Cooper was shadowed by a Real defender, but somehow got off a clean shot from an awkward angle that slipped just inside the right corner of the goal for the equalizer. It was Cooper's fifth goal of the season.
Dallas nearly rallied to tie the match in the final minutes, as Ricardinho somehow found a huge crease in front of the Real goal, but his shot attempt was blocked and bounced out of bounds.
"We had spurts where we played some great possession, and then Dallas came at us, and they brought everything at us. They pushed numbers and were coming for the draw," Beckerman said. "We kept trying to stick at it, and at the end, it was a dogfight to get to the end - to get to the whistle."
