FRISCO, Texas — The Real Salt Lake locker room was subdued as expected following Saturday's loss, but there was a slight sense of pride that wasn't there last weekend.
Sure, a loss is a loss. And Saturday's 2-1 setback at FC Dallas was no different. But there was a silver lining associated with this particular loss — at least the team competed, something that couldn't be said about last weekends's season-opening loss at Chivas.
"It's frustrating. You feel bad for the guys because you feel they competed for 90 plus and didn't come away with a point," said RSL coach John Ellinger. "Hopefully, we can build on it."
The passing was better, the work rate was better, but in the end, it was another road loss for a franchise still seeking its first victory away from Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"We played 90 minutes of hard-fought soccer, which we didn't do for one minute last week," said RSL midfield Andy Williams.
Ironically enough, despite an effort that Ellinger dubbed the best road performance in team history, it was a series of unfortunate bounces in the second half that led to the loss.
Dallas scored the eventual game winner in the 57th minute on a shot that Mark Wilson deflected into the net on an attempt by RSL's Carey Talley to clear the ball off the line. When the roles were reversed in stoppage time, RSL wasn't so lucky. Douglas Sequeira had a shot cleared off the line by Bobby Rhine, and then Eddie Pope had the same thing happen to him a minute later by Clarence Goodson.
"Eventually we're going to start scoring — the ball's going to start going in for us. The key is to stay positive and believe in each other and continue to work together as a team," said Jeff Cunningham. "I thought the effort was great, and that's the effort we're going to need every night."
A big part of that was Salt Lake's commitment to shoring up the midfield by inserting Kenny Cutler alongside Douglas Sequeira. Even though Dallas enjoy nearly twice as many chances as Salt Lake (19-11), many of those chances came via the wings, not necessarily through the middle of the field.
The move came at a price, and it was obviously on the offensive side. In fact, RSL's only goal of the game came on a set piece.
RSL struck first on a magnificent free kick from Chris Klein in the 36th minute. On the indirect free kick, Williams rolled the ball slightly to Klein, who unleashed a powerful 30-yard shot that somehow found a seam in Dallas' defense wall and soared past a helpless Dario Sala.
It was RSL's first lead in 471 minutes, dating back to early October when Clint Mathis gave RSL a 1-0 lead at Colorado.
Five minutes later, however, Dallas pulled even on a fantastic pass and finish from Carlos Ruiz and Kenny Cooper. With Eddie Pope marking Ruiz tightly at the top of the box, Ruiz spotted Cooper making a run off his right shoulder and promptly laid a perfect back-heel pass off to his teammate, who easily buried the chance past Scott Garlick.
Amazingly, both teams had excellent scoring chances in first-half stoppage time. Dallas' came first as Arturo Alvarez's close-range shot bounced off Garlick's right shoulder and then harmlessly off the right post. Just before the halftime whistle, Cunningham pushed a close-range header on a corner kick wide.
While the effort and fight were definitely there, Ellinger sees several areas that still need improvement. In addition to several more unnecessary giveaways in the midfield, Ellinger was concerned with how his team tracked Dallas players on give-and-gos throughout the game.
"We just have to eliminate mistakes. If you do that, you're always in every game, especially on the road," said Ellinger.
Even though Salt Lake was outshot, it did enjoy a very lopsided 9-1 advantage in corner kicks.
ENDLINES: Jason Kreis, who spent the first nine years of his career with Dallas, entered the game as a substitute in the 61st minute for Chris Brown . . . RSL's reserves play Dallas' reserves this morning.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com