Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SANDY -- Since Real Salt Lake's inception in 2005, many, even avid soccer fans, have doubted that an American soccer team, especially in the suburban community of Sandy, Utah, could impact the future of MLS and American soccer in general.
But in Wednesday night's CONCACAF Champions League final, arguably the biggest sporting event in Utah since the 2002 Winter Olympics, RSL represented all of American soccer and MLS hopes as they took on Mexican
champion Monterrey in the second leg of the Champions League final.
Despite the highly anticipated game at sold out Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL narrowly missed out on an opportunity to advance to the FIFA Club World Cup, losing to Monterrey 1-0, with an aggregate score of 3-2, snapping a 37-game home winning streak in all competition.
With extra time added to the clock in the first half, Monterrey's Humberto Suazo effortlessly scored the game's only goal off an assist from midfielder Sergio Santana in the 46 minute, devastating a raucous home crowd.
When you play a team like Monterrey, if you fall asleep for one play, they can punish you. Essentially that's what happened, we fell asleep for one play.
–Kreis
"When you play a team like Monterrey, if you fall asleep for one play, they can punish you," said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. "Essentially that's what happened, we fell asleep for one play."
"There was 10 or 15 minutes there where we didn't do as good of a job as we did in the first half hour," described Chris Wingert.
Real controlled much of the tempo against one of the best teams in international competition, but after the excitement of the game wore off, RSL was forced to play up to Monterrey's tempo in the latter part of the first half, getting beat on the defensive side of the ball.
"It's a tough loss to swallow, especially in front of our home fans," commented goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
"Everybody in the locker room is pretty hurt right now," said Kyle Beckerman. "Tomorrow will be a new day and we'll think about the next game."
RSL was without team captain Kyle Beckerman following a penalty in the first leg of competition in Monterrey, giving him his second yellow card of the Champions League competition. Beckerman was forced to watch from the sidelines because of a yellow card accumulation in CONCACAF league play. Midfielder Ned Grabavoy started in place of Beckerman.
"Kyle is an extremely important player, not only with how many defensive plays he makes for us, but how active he is in our possession," said Kreis. "I felt like we were missing that little bit of energy when we had the ball."
"It was no fun, that's for sure," said Beckerman on missing the game. "I definitely wanted to be out there but there was nothing I could do."
Regardless of Wednesday night's loss, RSL has much to be proud of as a top contender in American soccer and MLS.
"We have to continue to be proud of what we put into this tournament and the fact that we made it all the way to the final," Kreis remarked. "I think we take some pride in that. I would hope that people would judge us on the tournament and not on tonight. This was a huge opportunity gone missing and we feel deeply, deeply sorry about that, but judge us over the entire tournament."
Despite a long-shot attempt, with cynics and naysayers saying it couldn't be done, Real Salt Lake has transformed the game of soccer in the United States as they continue to show others that they're not a club that's willing to stand by and let the soccer world pass them by.
Winning an MLS title and advancing to the final round of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament in the short existence of its program is only the beginning.
RSL will continue to live by Kreis' mantra of Audentis Fortuna Juvat, Latin for Fortune Favors the Bold, as the team continues to pursue a run at the Supporters Shield and another MLS title.
"We've had tremendous support from fans that have been here from day one and the fans that have just come on board," Rimando said. "We wish they'd stay with us because we've got something special here and because this loss doesn't mean that we're out of the season. We're 4-0 on the season."
RSL will resume MLS play on Saturday as they take on the Portland Timbers in a tough matchup.
"We'll see what kind of group we are now," commented Kreis. "It's a really easy task to talk about how good we are and how good everybody is when things are going our way. Now to have this major disappointment, we'll see how we respond."
*E-mail: jfurlong@ksl.com*Twitter: @JFurKSL
