Real Salt Lake: Scoreless draw tastes sour
Apparently RSL isn't ready for second place, either.
On a night when a win over expansion side San Jose would've propelled RSL toward the top of the table, it failed to produce a goal and settled for a 0-0 draw against an opponent that played the final 46 minutes with 10 men.
"It's another night where I think we've done enough to create the quantity of chances that we're wanting to create. We'll have to feel disappointed the final touch wasn't there to get us all three points," Kreis said.
Instead of vaulting past Colorado, FC Dallas and Houston into sole possession of second place, RSL's second scoreless draw in its past three matches added just one point to its season haul and it's now tied for third with FC Dallas with 16 points.
"I do think it's a little early to look at the standings," Kreis said. "We started off the season saying we weren't going to be talking about points and a number of a results, and I prefer we stick as a franchise to that focus and that mindset that we went into the season with.
Settling for the draw against San Jose, a team it beat 3-1 at Rice-Eccles Stadium on May 31, was definitely a missed opportunity.
RSL dominated possession from the opening whistle and outshot the Earthquakes 24-7. Amazingly, only four of those 24 shots were put on frame, and many were from ambitious distances outside the box.
Kreis went so far as to call it an unacceptable outcome playing with a man advantage for the entire second half.
"We're a good enough team and playing against a team that's a man down; we should score two goals," he said.
The game-changing moment came late in the first half when San Jose defender Jason Hernandez was slapped with his second yellow card of the match and subsequently ejected on a reckless challenge directed at Robbie Findley.
From that point on, back-to-back wins for Real Salt Lake seemed inevitable. It might've been had Kreis' team not played so passively following the red card.
"I think our players need to have a little more aggressive mentality when you're playing against a team a man down," Kreis said. "You have to know they're going to sit in and bunker, and in order to move those players around you have to dribble at them and be aggressive and cause defenders to make decisions on who to play."
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