Chris Brown leveled the score in the 52nd minute on a fantastic right-footed shot with two defenders on his back — but it was short-lived excitement for RSL. Over the next six minutes, Chivas scored twice to push its advantage to an insurmountable 3-1.

"Those are moments where all of the players on the field should know, we've just scored a goal, we've really got to buckle down and not give one back," said Kreis. "I think if we'd gotten through that for a little while we would've gotten a much better result."

Cunliffe made it 2-1 in the 54th minute on a breakway opportunity. Four minutes later Chivas midfielder Paula Nagamura looked up and noticed Seitz slightly off his line and wasted no time unleashing a 34-yard rocket that soared in just under the crossbar.

Real continued to dictate the pace of the game despite the deficit and eventually whittled Chivas' lead to 3-2 in the 63rd minute as Robbie Findley latched onto a perfectly placed cross from Williams and slotted it home with the lunging volley.

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