Cunningham challenges everyone

Jeff Cunningham was not a happy camper after Real Salt Lake Saturday's draw with New England.

He called himself the goat. He blamed the draw — which the players admit felt like a loss — on his poor finishing. And then he started challenging his teammates, much the same way he did after last weekend's loss at Houston.

"The thing is, you walk off the pitch at the end of the 90 minutes, you can't be comfortable with mediocrity as a team," said Cunningham. "You've got to hold yourself at a high level, everybody. Every game, I'm held accountable for results. My job is to score goals, what are some of the other peoples' jobs?"

Ironically enough, Cunningham's comments came on a night when as a whole, the team seemed to play quite well, except for that one vital element, which wasn't lost on the coaching staff.

"Other than finishing, it was pretty good putting two halves together," said RSL coach John Ellinger.

Apparently it wasn't nearly good enough for Cunningham, which might not be a bad thing. RSL needs wins, not ties, as this point in the season.

AN ODDITY: Strangely enough, both teams only utilized one sub Saturday evening.

New England's only sub came in the 30th minute when Danny Wynn was replaced by Jani Galik because of a hamstring injury. RSL's lone substitution occurred in the 73rd minute when Andy Williams replaced Atiba Harris.

RSL's unwillingness to take advantage of its three substitutions made sense, since it was playing well and creating scoring chances. New England, however, was coming off a Wednesday night game at Columbus. And even though the players looked visibly fatigued in the waning minutes, Revolution coach Steve Nicol opted not to make a change, and his players earned a fourth straight tie as a result.

Had Real notched a late goal, perhaps both Kenny Cutler and Douglas Sequeira would've been inserted into the game for defensive purposes. Instead, Cutler's streak of 12 straight appearances came to a close, and Sequeira didn't see action with his club team less than 48 hours after returning to Salt Lake City from the World Cup.

LIKELY LOST: Salt Lake defender Paul Broome made an appearance at Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday, but it wasn't in the capacity everyone was hoping.

Broome was in town so RSL's training staff could take a look at him, to determine if he should be put on the season-ending injured list. His current foot injury has sidelined Broome since the final month of last season, and he's been rehabbing in California all season.

If RSL opts to put Broome on the second-ending injured list, it could then sign another player assuming it has enough room under the salary cap, which it does. With the recent ACL injury to midfielder Christian Jimenez, Salt Lake realistically can sign two new players.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: While RSL's players bemoaned the fact they let a victory slip away, New England keeper Matt Reis had an entirely different view of the game.

"We played a really good game defensively," said Reis. "We really limited their chances. They were really dangerous on the counter with Jeff Cunningham and Atiba Harris.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com