The most agonizing miss of them all was a slow-rolling shot from Robbie Findley in the 81st minute that appeared at first to be going in. The shot ended up rolling into the post just as Will Johnson got there to try and put it away, and the ball bounced away harmlessly.

In the dying minutes of second-half stoppage time, Morales hit another shot off the unfriendly left post. He also hit the post in the first half.

Those two weren't the only ones who missed out on sending RSL to its first MLS Cup. Nine of RSL's 10 starters in the field had at least one shot.

"It was just one of those nights ... I don't know what else you can do. I drove myself to laughter over there on the bench it was either that or cry," said Kreis.

In the end though, New York was just good enough to earn its second straight road shutout.

New York is still the only team Real Salt Lake has never beat in its four-year history with a 0-3-6 record.

New York scored the game's only goal in the 28th minute capitalizing on a bad defensive decision by Jamison Olave. For realistically no reason whatsoever he dove in on John Wolyniec to win the ball near the left sideline but missed badly. His miscue sprung Wolyniec into the box unimpeded. He sent a ball across the top of the 6-yard box with Nick Rimando initially getting a save on it only to have Dave van den Bergh tap in the rebound for the 1-0 lead.

It was van den Berg that also scored the first goal in Rio Tinto Stadium history last month in the 1-1 draw.

"I think Jamison tried to make a play on it and tried to get it to before their forward and ended up missing," said Kreis. "(van den Berg) played a shot I thought Rimando made a good save on and unfortunately left it out in front for van den Bergh to score."

From that moment on, the Red Bulls had one objective and RSL couldn't quite break them down.

"That's the kind of soccer they play. They're not going to play attractive soccer. We knew that coming into this game. We knew it wasn't going to be a game where they came out and attacked us it was going to be a game where they pumped balls forward. They were trying to get a cheap goal and that's what they got," said Borchers.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com