RSL rallies to salvage tie against Red Bulls

In his introductory press conference as Real Salt Lake's head coach earlier this week, Jason Kreis stressed and stressed and stressed the importance of changing the team's mentality.

Judging by Saturday's improbable result against the New York Red Bulls, Kreis' message wasn't simply brushed aside.

Down a pair of goals entering the dying minutes of the match, Real Salt Lake dug deep and salvaged an unlikely 3-3 draw against New York in front of 14,789 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"For a group of guys to come back in that situation, that's a tremendous amount of heart," said Kreis.

When Clint Mathis put New York in front 3-1 in the 83rd minute, all seemed lost for a happy ending to Kreis' coaching debut. His ex-teammates weren't about to give up that easily.

Jeff Cunningham buried a penalty kick in the 90th minute and Chris Brown leveled the score two minutes later on a brilliant strike that helped RSL bask in a point it had no business earning.

New York hadn't surrendered a goal in four matches this year, and through 60 minutes Saturday it led 2-0. Somehow, however, RSL rallied to improve to 0-2-3 on the season — even though it's still searching for its first win.

"Step one was to get the mental attitude right," said Kreis. "We know there's a lot of work tactically, a lot of work soccer wise, so to get that first hurdle out of the way and put that in the bank is good for us."

In the opening 45 minutes Saturday it looked like the same ol' Real Salt Lake. It made mistakes, coughed up possession way too easily and failed to convert on its scoring chances.

Kreis takes full responsibility.

"New York created some tactical problems for us in the first half. I watched them play against Dallas, (and) I've been through that tape so many times it's making my head spin right now," said Kreis. "I thought they'd play the same way, and they didn't. The addition of Clint (Mathis) caused a lot of problems for us."

Mathis didn't play against against FC Dallas while he served a red-card suspension, but his return to the line-up gave Real fits. Despite playing forward, Mathis continually dropped into the midfield, giving the Red Bulls a 3-on-2 advantage in the middle of the pitch.

It capitalized by taking a 2-0 lead in the opening half half, eventually extending its shutout stretch to 420 minutes before Chris Klein finally scored in the 60th minute.

Cunningham, who admits he didn't play his best, could have put RSL in front much earlier but he sprayed a close-range left-footed shot well wide in the ninth minute.