"I think we were benefactors of that for sure, one of them is Ryan Cochrane and he's really the organizer of the center of the defense for them," said Kreis.

While San Jose rested key players, seven of RSL's starting 11 had started at least one regular-season MLS match this year. The only four who hadn't were Tony Beltran, Matias Cordoba, Chris Seitz and Kenny Cutler.

RSL's Andy Williams wrapped up the scoring in the 90th minute on an assist from second-half substitute Tino Nunez.

Kreis' decision to start some of his regulars, not to mention inserting players like Javier Morales and Dema Kovalenko into the match in the second half, was a clear indicator he was taking the match seriously.

"Like we said from the beginning of the season, we don't lose at home so we're going to stick by that and work hard so we get those results, so to us it was just like another regular season game," said Real striker Robbie Findley.

The big question is did RSL leave any of the offensive output in the tank? The high-scoring L.A. Galaxy, featuring David Beckham, make their only visit of the season to Salt Lake City this Saturday in what figures to a much-hyped match.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com