Change in lineup speaks volumes

In an effort to pump some life into his team at halftime, Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger made some bold substitutions Saturday, perhaps the boldest of his career.

With an ESPN2 national audience tuning in, Ellinger benched Jeff Cunningham and Andy Williams, two of the team's most prominent players. Even though the substitutions didn't produce the result he was hoping for as RSL still lost 3-2, they did demonstrate Ellinger's willingness to pull the plug on anyone at anytime.

"There's no sense putting guys on the field that aren't going to work," said Ellinger. "We're not going to get through this if we don't work. We need an honest effort every game, especially at home. It's criminal we didn't give that kind of effort at home, some of the guys."

The Williams switch made sense from a tactical sense. The Galaxy easily exploited RSL's 3-5-2 formation in the first half, and by inserting Chris Brown for Williams, it enabled Ellinger to switch his team to a 4-4-2 and ease the bleeding.

Replacing Cunningham with Atiba Harris, however, was very surprising. Cunningham is one of the most explosive strikers in the league, as evidenced by his 75 career goals. Harris, meanwhile, had recorded only 126 minutes in his short career prior to Saturday. Ellinger must have been really disgusted with Cunningham's first-half effort if he was willing to replace him with a rookie.

While some players were surprised by the switches, don't count Eddie Pope among them.

"I wasn't really that surprised," said Pope. "We're trying to figure out as players how we can really, really pull together, and not just play well individually but play well as a team — backing up this guy, backing up that guy, following a shot that maybe banks off two posts. We're trying to figure out how we can gel a lot better, because I think a lot of the other things are right."

When asked if there were more lineup alterations in store for next week, Ellinger simply said, "It's always possible."

MISSING IN ACTION: Jason Kreis just couldn't help himself.

In the 87th minute, after he was seemingly shoved to the ground at the edge of the penalty area by Galaxy defender Chris Albright, Kreis let the moment get the better of him when the referee didn't call a foul.

Kreis immediately jumped up and animatedly waved his hands at the ref, who didn't waste any time slapping Kreis with his second yellow card of the game followed by the red card.

"As a referee in this kind of a game, a 3-2 game, to take somebody like a Kreis, warn him but don't pull out the card," said Ellinger.

With the card, Kreis will be suspended for next week's home game against the Columbus Crew.

OUCH: Coaches usually like to save their substitutions for the second half, to spell tiring players, but L.A. coach Steve Sampson didn't have that luxury Saturday. In the 10th minute, he had to replace Peter Vagenas with Cobi Jones because of an apparent concussion.

Then in the 41st minute, forward Cornell Glen was replaced by Ned Grabavoy after Glen strained his left hamstring.

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