Seven minutes later Real went in front 2-0 as Kovalenko pumped a lofted ball up field that Fabian Espindola ran onto, settled with a soft touch despite being blanketed by a defender and hammered in his first goal of the season.

During the remainder of the first half, RSL looked like a pretty disjointed team.

"We needed to draw our pressure up higher and we needed to try and possess the ball in their half of the field. When we got the two-goal lead we were quite content to just lump things up and lose possession," said Kreis. "Going forward we'll have some more tactical talks about how we need to handle that situation."

After some halftime tactical adjustments, RSL was much better in the second half and it paid off with two more goals. Beckerman made it 3-0 on a cannon of a shot from 22 yards out and then second-half sub Robbie Findley capped the scoring in the 87th minute by heading in a misplayed ball from D.C. defender Gonzalo Peralta.

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