Road still poses problem for RSL

Following Friday's loss to the Colorado Rapids, which put an end to a franchise-record four-game unbeaten streak, a media member commented to Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger that the streak couldn't go on forever, to which he responded, "Why not?"

Always the optimist, Ellinger truly believes RSL can win every game. But history says otherwise when on the road.

Even though Salt Lake's previous road game was a convincing 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on May 13, one win can't possibly erase 19 other failures. Prior to that L.A. triumph, RSL's all-time road record was 0-17-2.

For the players and coaches, what's particularly frustrating about this year's 1-4-0 road record is that three of those four losses were by one goal. Prior to Friday's 1-0 setback to the Rapids, Real dropped a pair of 2-1 games to both FC Dallas and Houston in April.

In all reality, a bounce here or there, and Real could've walked away with a draw in each of those games. In Houston, Jason Kreis had a tremendous free kick bounce off both posts. In Dallas, a late offensive flurry by Real resulted in two balls being cleared off the line by defenders.

While there was no definitive moment in Friday's loss that Real can look back on and say "what if," it was by no means a disaster.

"It's not like we played like crap," said Ellinger. "We could've played better in the first half. We gave away a silly goal."

The Rapids no doubt benefited from a fortunate bounce to score the game's lone goal in the 16th minute, but Ellinger believes the breakdown began shortly before the goal and could have been prevented. Real let itself get pinned in its own corner by allowing the ball to roll out of bounds. It then turned it over in the dangerous area, and the Rapids quickly capitalized.

"A lot of the problems I thought we created for ourselves," said Ellinger.

Even though Colorado controlled the run of play throughout the first half, it only mustered up one other shot on goal in that opening half. In the second half, RSL didn't allow a single shot on goal, even though Jovan Kirovski and Thiago Martins both squandered excellent scoring chances by missing the target completely.

On the other end, RSL couldn't take advantage of the solid defensive effort as it lacked the fluidity that had been so prevalent during its previous four games.