Real Salt Lake can't overcome another slow start

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis knows what his team's problem is. Fixing it is something else.

For the fourth time in as many matches, Real endured yet another stumbling start and the team paid dearly for it en route to a 2-0 MLS loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.

"We've got to figure out a way to get these guys to come out and play in the first like they do in the second half," a disappointed Kreis said. "For me, four games in a row, four bad first halves, four good second halves. If we figure out how to play 90 minutes, we'll be all right."

The loss left Real (2-2-0, six points) in fourth place in the Western Conference. The Red Bulls (1-2-2, five points) recorded their first win of the season.

The Red Bulls have become one of Real's nemeses. Real has never beaten New York in 10 tries (0-4-6) since the club's inception in 2005. The Red Bulls eliminated Real in last year's Western Conference playoff final, 1-0.

"If I knew the answer, we'd be in a different spot," midfielder Clint Mathis said.

Real's slow start really caught up to the visitors when the Red Bulls struck only 95 seconds into the match before 8,508 spectators on a beautiful night at Giants Stadium.

Rookie right fullback Jeremy Hall started the sequence with a throw-in to midfielder Dane Richards. He sent a right-wing cross that goalkeeper Nick Rimando barely got a hand on. The ball bounded to Macoumba Kandji, and the 6-4 Senegalese native slotted it home from 10 yards.

The Red Bulls needed that goal because they had only one goal to their name entering the match, and that was an own goal.

"That was huge," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said.

Real struggled to get some rhythm in the rest of the half, but it took until the final 45 minutes to start applying some pressure on goalkeeper Jon Conway, who played in his first game since serving a 10-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs last season.

"We weren't on the same page," Mathis said. "We were creating a little bit of chances at the end."

Real's pressure almost paid off in the 50th minute.

Forward Yura Movsisyan fired a shot that hit Conway. The ball deflected off of Hall's back and bounced toward the goal. Red Bulls central defender Kevin Goldthwaite managed to beat the ball to the goal line, slid and cleared it out of harm's way.