Salt Lake Bitterly Disappointed After Home Loss

But in the Real Salt Lake camp, they really didn’t want it to end tonight.

“It’s a really difficult, foreign feeling to lose a match in our place,” said Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis. “It’s been a long time. I’m confused.”

“This is difficult to take,” said defender Chris Wingert. “I’m bummed out.”

One thing making it perhaps more difficult is that Salt Lake felt like they did enough to earn a result. They were the better side for all but 15 minutes, and they outshot Monterrey 16-8. The disparity in corner kicks was 7-1 for Real. But they were undone by poor finishing – only four of their 16 shots were on target.

“In the attacking third I didn’t feel like we were quite sharp enough,” noted Kreis. “We needed somebody to make a special play, and it just didn’t come home for us tonight.”

It wasn’t for a lack of trying, though. RSL aggressively attacked Monterrey’s goal most of the night, but every good chance ended with a missed shot or a key clearance by the visitors. As Real continued to do everything but score, frustration grew for fans and visitors alike.

“We’ve been there so many times, when we needed a goal late, we keep pushing, the chances are there, and the goal comes,” said defender Tony Beltran. “Tonight that wasn’t the case. All of us on the field believed that it was going to come. Unfortunately it didn’t.”

Sadly, if it weren’t for a poor 15 minutes at the end of the first half, Salt Lake wouldn’t have needed a goal at all. It was then that a defensive lapse gave Monterrey their goal – their only shot on goal of the match.

“When you play a team like Monterrey, if you fall asleep for one play they can punish you,” said Kreis. “And that’s what happened.”

It was never going to be easy to defeat Monterrey, though an amazing, raucous crowd tried to play the 12th man role. After the match, Real expressed their gratitude for all the local and national support, and also their disappointment that they weren’t able to lift the cup.

“I can’t say enough about the crowd,” said Beltran. “It was fantastic. I’ve never been so excited to play a game.”

“Unbelievable,” said Wingert. “That’s a packed house. They were loud and awesome. I love them. I feel disappointed that we let everybody down.”

But with the MLS season in its infancy, RSL must quickly put tonight’s devastating loss behind them and resume their hunt for more hardware.

“We have to go forward,” said midfielder Javier Morales. “Tonight’s going to be a hard night’s sleep, but tomorrow we have to forget this and keep going.”

“I think it’s important that we move on very quickly,” said Kreis. “It won’t be easy for us to pick up and move on. We’re going to see now what kind of group we are.”