Real Salt Lake Proves Its Worth

SEATTLE - Major League Soccer's new champion lost more games than it won during an up-and-down regular season that featured a winless May, a winless September and just two victories on the road. In 240 minutes of play in the MLS Cup semifinal and final, it managed to score just one goal.

Yet Sunday night at Qwest Field, Real Salt Lake confidently proclaimed it was a deserving winner. And nobody really was arguing with them. Despite the unflattering statistics and the absence of the kind of star power that filled the Los Angeles Galaxy's somber locker room down the hall, RSL managed to convert the nonbelievers with an uncanny ability to dictate the flow of their playoff games regardless of the obstacles. Sunday night was the biggest test, and best example, of them all.

"Be confident. Be agressive. Be bold."

It takes those qualities to win when the breaks go against you, and RSL embraced the words written on the whiteboard in their locker room on Sunday. They overcame injury and illness to two key players, the ice-like artificial turf that complicated their efforts to possess the ball and a legion of doubters who either believed they couldn't win or felt they shouldn't have had the opportunity in the first place.

"What-ifs don't mean s**t. It's about doing it. People this year counted us out and said we shouldn't have made the playoffs. Well, you know what? F*** it. We did," midfielder Clint Mathis declared after RSL outlasted the Galaxy, 5-4 in the penalty kick shootout that followed their 1-1 draw. "It doesn't matter if you make the playoffs and you make eighth or first. I've said this a gazillion times. The way this league's set up, it's about getting in the playoffs and then if you start playing great soccer at that time, or good soccer, I think this team has been the better team in every game they've played. I honestly believe that."

Mathis had reason to crow. American soccer's prodigal son entered the final when at what seemed like a desperate stage for RSL. The game was choppy at first as the teams tried to calm their nerves and get used to the slick surface, but David Beckham changed things with a hard challenge on Salt Lake playmaker Javier Morales in the 17th minute. The Argentine tried to return and give it a go but couldn't manage, and five minutes later the architect of RSL's possession game was walking off the field in tears. Mathis came on, and by the time RSL had its bearings, it was halftime and Los Angeles had a 1-0 lead.

During the break, workhouse midfielder Will Johnson realized he could not continue because of a bout of food poisoning he developed on Saturday. Ned Grabavoy replaced him.

"The guys that came in, they know what to do. They know what the deal is," RSL captain Kyle Beckerman told FanHouse. Regarding Morales' exit, he said the team "just had to get on with it. I think maye with Javier out it took us a little bit to get our rhythm and to start creating some chances. But then as time went on we started getting it down."

In the 47th minute, Salt Lake forward Robbie Findley had a good chance on a break down the right side. The ensuing collision would result in the eventual departure of L.A. goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, although substitute Josh Saunders did well in relief. The minutes that followed revealed Salt Lake's character, intentions and ability. The field tilted their way, and Mathis was pulling the strings as adroitly has Morales ever did, while Beckerman and RSL's back four kept an increasingly ineffective Landon Donovan in check. In the 64th minute, RSL equalized on a play that involved about half the team and was finished on the left by Findley.

"They probably deserved to get a goal at some point," Donovan admitted.

Los Angeles was troubled further by Fabian Espindola, who entered the match in the 75th minute and tormented the favorites with his speed on the flanks. With Mathis and Beckerman controlling the middle, and Findley and Espindola demonstrating the ability to beat the Galaxy defenders one-on-one, it seemed just a matter of time before RSL got the goal it needed. The fact that it required 30 difficult minutes of overtime and seven rounds of penalties did not take away from that performance.

"If you're playing defense for 90 minutes and even for 120 minutes, it's going to wear on you. You can't play defense for that long and just try to counterattack. You have to try and play some possession and attack the team," Beckerman said. "It seemed like their game plan all night was just counterattack us and defend. It takes a toll on you."

While L.A.'s stars failed to connect, RSL's unsung players, led by the reserve Mathis (who should have been been given the MVP trophy that went to goalie Nick Rimando), controlled the ball and the game.

"These guys, they've all started games. This is the way we play. And after two years, guys realize this is how we play," Beckerman said. "It's always tough when somebody has to lose on PKs. I thought we were the better team all in all. I thought we were controlling the flow of the game. I think we deserved it. We felt we could win this game. We felt we were the better team than them, but the media didn't and that was great. I think that's the perfect situation to be in."

RSL dominated the overtime. Findley had a close-range shot blocked by a sliding Galaxy defender in the 3rd minute, and ran onto a perfect pass from Mathis in the 8th, only to fire wide. Mathis continued to create and saw a couple of his own bids snuffed out by desperate L.A. defenders. His clever through ball to Andy Williams in the final seconds was wasted when the Jamaican went down with a cramp.

"The chances we created, it was meant to happen. These guys worked their asses off. This is big time, just the fact that everybody counted us out. I think most of you guys know that I like to prove people wrong," Mathis said with a smile.

And so the "lottery" of penalty kicks really wasn't that at all. The team in the ascendancy, which had controlled the game at its most important junctures, emerged victorious. Rimando saved shots from experienced L.A. attackers Jovan Kirovski and Edson Buddle, Donovan suffered his jaw-dropping miss, while RSL defenders Chris Wingert and Robbie Russell dispatched their kicks with calm efficiency. It was as if this team knew something the rest of us didn't, and played with a swagger that nobody outside their locker room felt they had earned. But by the end, nobody was questioning RSL's right to be champion.

Beckham thought enough of their performance to walk down to their locker room to offer his congratulations. While the media, RSL family members and others waited for several minutes outside, the L.A. icon spoke with the victors. "I wouldn't expect that from anybody. For him to come in here and congratulate us, he's just a class act," Beckerman said.

Beckham must have developed some respect for what RSL knew all along.

"There is something gratifying about having an idea or a vision about how you want to put a team together and how you want them to play," Kreis said. "When that comes to fruition, and you get to look out there and see them do that, and be the better team in every game we've played since that last Dallas game away [a 3-0 loss on Sept. 26]. In my opinion, we've been the best team out there in every single game we've played, and played really, really good soccer."

"So now it's nice to say we are the best team in the league."