Knot in our house: Real Salt Lake stays unbeaten but unsatisfied with wild tie at home

SANDY — Real Salt Lake is still unbeaten at home after Wednesday's 2-2 draw against Los Angeles, but the result definitely stings like a gut-wrenching loss for the players and coaching staff.

After 90 minutes of mostly ho-hum soccer, RSL took a 1-0 lead into stoppage time only to waste it, recapture it and waste it again in a wild, wild match at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The three combined stoppage time goals, including two penalty kicks, was just the third time in MLS history a game featured three stoppage time goals.

"We've closed games out in the past, but we just did a terrible job of that tonight," said defender Chris Wingert. "You could look at it a few different ways, I think we were a little bit unlucky but at the same time you're up with a minute to go you've got to win the game."

RSL actually squandered the lead twice after the 90th minute.

L.A.'s Landon Donovan leveled the score 1-1 early in stoppage time on penalty kick, a lead RSL quickly regained on a Will Johnson penalty kick a minute later. Before Real could celebrate improving to 4-0 at home, however, Mike Magee scored in the dying seconds of the match to claim the valuable road point for the Galaxy.

"When you lead the game twice and walk away with a draw, you're going to be disappointed," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "Probably the most disappointing thing for me is how we played in about the last 10 or 12 minutes, we just didn't quite figure it out. We just dropped all the way into the box and allowed them to serve it into us, and as you saw bounces have a funny way of going against you when you do that."

Both goals were probably unlucky for RSL, but better game management could've prevented both moments.

Leading 1-0 after a first-half goal by Robbie Findley, RSL progressively dropped deeper and deeper into a defensive shell in the second half much to the chagrin of Kreis. Late in the match, Kreis altered the formation to a 4-5-1 to counter Los Angeles' four forwards, but he didn't get the reaction he was hoping from his players.

"We tried to shift shapes and went to a 4-5-1, and we've had a couple of occasions now where we just can't seem to figure out how to play out of that," said Kreis. "It almost gives our guys a complete defensive mentality that we don't have to play soccer now."

RSL's lack of possession prevented time from ticking off the clock and enabled Los Angeles to create additional scoring opportunities.