Real Salt Lake: Johnson has a hand in wild finish

SANDY — Real Salt Lake's Will Johnson went from goat to hero to stunned bystander in a matter of four minutes in the team's 2-2 tie with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night.

RSL was clinging to a 1-0 lead in the 90th minute of play when a funny bounce in the penalty area led to the ball hitting Johnson's hand for a Galaxy free kick. Landon Donovan converted and it appeared Johnson's gaffe had cost the team a victory.

"It is one of those ones where I didn't see the ball as it was coming over, ball hits the ground, hits my hand. Sometimes they call it, sometimes they don't," said Johnson.

Only moments later, Johnson was given a shot at redemption. Fabian Espindola earned an RSL penalty kick for being dragged down in the box. Johnson stepped up and slammed the ball into the lower-left corner.

"I knew exactly that I sort of needed to make up, put that on my shoulders. I already lost the points for us. If I miss the penalty, I just lost a few more points," joked Johnson. "I've taken penalties before for teams. I feel confident, feel like I strike a good ball. Penalties for me, it is all about confidence, and I don't feel I am short of that."

Johnson's 92nd-minute goal was not, however, the deciding tally. The Galaxy evened it on a Mike Magee goal in the 94th minute and everyone from the RSL faithful to the players themselves could only wonder what went wrong.

"Anything could happen on that last play at the end," Johnson said. "They've got everybody in the box, we do, too. The ball was just bouncing around, finds their guy, and somehow, even though we have guys on the line it ends up in the back of the net."

The result was disappointing, but Johnson still had positives he could take from the game.

"I thought he had a very good night," said coach Jason Kreis about Johnson. "It was very unfortunate to have the penalty go against him on a complete fluke of a play, but that happens. He stepped forward with the confidence to take the penalty, and that speaks well for him. A lot of players would have shied away and said, 'It's obviously not my night.' But he stepped forward and took it and took it well."

It was tough to settle for the draw, but Johnson realized the similarities of the up-and-down swings of a four-minute period compared to the first seven games on a long MLS season.

"I believe in myself, and I think the staff believes in me. More times than I won't, I'll help this team win games," said Johnson. "I want to try to be a little more consistent. I've had some up games and some down games.

"I think that has been a little bit of the story of this team so far. We've played some fantastic games, and we've played some fantastic pieces of games that we have lost. We just need to become, myself and this team, we need to be more consistent."

E-Mail: mblack@desnews.com