"My initial impressesion, we just weren't quite good enough," said Kreis. "Our passing wasn't good enough, our final pass wasn't good enough, people had shots on goal, those weren't quite enough. Our soccer tonight wasn't quite good enough."

Whether it was the letdown of Findley's near miss or Chicago simply figuring out how to the play on the turf, RSL started losing momentum around the 20th minute.

The game changed for good just before halftime when Blanco unleashed a world-class shot from 20 yards out that glanced into the back of the net off the crossbar.

"Blanco hits that bomb and changes the whole game," said Eskandarian.

RSL had chances in the second half, but Blanco sealed the result by sending a dangerous corner kick into the area that Paulo Wanchope headed home for the 2-0 lead.

"Definitely a setback, we thought we had a real good chance to get two in a row for the first time this season," said Beckerman, in reference to RSL's last game, a 1-0 win over Houston. "It didn't fall for us. We had a lot of good chances to get in front, and to give one up before halftime, it hurt. It was definitely a couple steps back when we thought we were going forward."

With five of its next six games on the road, it doesn't get any easier for RSL.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com