Grand opening, but ... Real Salt Lake fails to make up ground in MLS playoff push

In front of a sell-out crowd and in an electric atmosphere in the new stadium, RSL played like a nervous bunch from the opening whistle and in the end was forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in a very important match for both teams' playoff chances.

In the end, the players' own nerves might've been too much to overcome.

"My single biggest fear about this match was ourselves, and how we deal with everything that goes with this night. There are so many things that people don't realize," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

Little things like parking and family tickets all seemed to take a little toll mentally on the players according to Kreis, and in the end prevented RSL from building on the positive momentum it had recently generated.

"It was too good of an atmosphere for what we saw, the quality of soccer was a little bit lower than what we're used to seeing over the past few weeks," he said. "I think our guys looked very, very nervous. They were a little bit slow in all their decisions."

It was New York's fourth tie in four visits to Utah, and kept the teams level on 36 points in their push to qualify for the MLS playoffs. New York's all-time record against RSL now stands at 6-0-2, including its come-from behind win in New York last month.

New York probably could've officially spoiled the Rio Tinto Stadium opener with a little better finishing in the first half, especially with seven corner kicks.

The Red Bulls opened the scoring in the 31st minute by capitalizing on what is typically a strength for Real Salt Lake. RSL hadn't surrendered a goal on a corner kick all year, but New York's Dave van den Bergh made the most of his team's fifth corner of the game by pouncing on an initial clearance from Kyle Beckerman and uncorking it through a cluster of bodies in the box for the 1-0 lead.

The Red Bulls continued to dominate the match and had chances to pull ahead by several goals over the next 10 minutes.

Kreis believes nerves played a part in the staggering number of corner kicks RSL allowed in the first half.

"I think for me it came down to that they were so difficult to break down. I think our players were a little nervous, they had problems picking out passes to make early," said Kreis.

It took a special moment from Clint Mathis to help change everything. With RSL increasingly under pressure, Mathis made a spectacular switch-the-field pass with the outside of his foot that immediately put the Red Bulls under pressure and led to a corner kick.

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