Up to the minute: Real pulls huge upset with Cunningham penalty kicks

You didn't need to be a neurosurgeon to figure out who was supposed to win Saturday's game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

D.C. United was in the midst of a 14-game unbeaten streak heading into the match, and many were touting it as one of the best teams in Major League Soccer history. Real Salt Lake, meanwhile, owned the worst record in MLS and had given points away in two straight games because of stoppage goals against.

For all the reasons RSL had no business winning, it reiterated MLS — including the officiating — is unpredictable up until the waning seconds, even with mighty D.C. United.

Real scored on a pair of Jeff Cunningham penalty kicks, one in the 90th and one in the 95th minute, as it rallied for an improbable 2-1 victory over D.C. in front of a crowd of 20,027.

"We saw against Dallas and Chivas a team can score in the last 30 seconds, so we weren't going to give up," said Real rookie defender Willis Forko.

Last Saturday, Real let a 0-0 draw slip away by allowing Dallas to score in the final 30 seconds of stoppage time. On Wednesday, Real's poor game management in stoppage time allowed Chivas to rally for a 3-3 draw with a goal 3:44 into stoppage time.

Those disappointments probably gave RSL hope where hope seemed worthless.

Even though RSL controlled the second half by outshooting D.C. United 10-2, as the 89th minute approached, it seemed like a forgone conclusion that D.C. would hang on like it always does.

That's when D.C. defender John Wilson did Real a huge favor by taking down RSL midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy inside the box with a desperate, lazy tackle. Cunningham buried the penalty kick to tie it up at 1-1.

Wilson's night was about to get much worse. Less than 30 seconds from the final whistle, he tripped up Chris Klein in the penalty box near the end line, and again the referee pointed to the spot.

As Cunningham approached his second penalty kick, he hesitated for just a second, saw Perkins leaning to his right and promptly buried the low driven shot just inside the opposite post.

"Tonight there's a man upstairs that's on our side," said a smiling Cunningham after the match.

The victory improved Real's record to 5-10-5 on the season and lifted it into a fifth-place tie in the Western Conference standings with Los Angeles on 20 points.

The favorable calls were poetic justice for Ellinger, who earlier this year accused a referee of cheating him.