"I thought we were playing OK, our shape was good, I thought we did a good job of containing them," said Ellinger.

In the 42nd minute, the frustration started to boil over for Colorado.

After a bad giveaway, Talley hustled back to win the ball but ended committing a hard foul on the Rapids' Niko Hernandez instead. Even though the ref didn't issue a yellow card, Colorado midfielder Kyle Beckerman was infuriated by the foul and came racing in from 20 yards away to shove Talley.

Even as the halftime whistle blew, Talley and Beckerman continued jawing at each other all the way into the Invesco Field tunnel.

"They talk a lot tougher than they really are," joked Talley after the game.

Just six minutes into the second half, the Rapids should've realistically tied it up. After replacing Clint Mathis at the half, Fabrice Noel wasted a fantastic scoring opportunity when he knocked a Terry Cooke cross over the crossbar from five yards out.

That opened the door for Salt Lake to run away with it.

In the 63rd minute, RSL went ahead 2-0 as Chris Klein buried a Cunningham cross near the far post. Twelve minutes later, Cunningham buried a penalty kick to make it 3-0 after he was fouled in the box by the Rapids' Eric Denton, who grabbed Cunningham from behind and was eventually red carded.

Colorado's Thiago Martins and RSL's Chris Brown each scored goals in the final 10 minutes as Real scored four goals for the first time in franchise history.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com