COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jason Kreis and several of Real Salt Lake players showed off excellent poker faces this week.

All week in leading up to Thursday's game at Columbus, the team talked about how they were going to protect their lead by defending.

"We're going to go into Columbus and defend like crazy," said Clint Mathis earlier this week.

"It affords us the opportunity to be a little more bit more defensive, to protect what we've already got," reiterated Kreis.

It was all a ploy. Real Salt Lake had no intention of packing it in against the Crew with a slim 1-0 lead in the series.

"We realized it would be difficult to come out and just sit in a shell and defend. We realized we really needed to come out and be aggressive and get after them," said defender Nat Borchers.

The aggressive strategy produced mixed results as RSL surrendered two goals in the opening 35 minutes. Despite that rough start, it played confidently and relatively aggressively in the first half outshooting Columbus 7-5 and ultimately scoring two goals of its own before halftime.

"We were going to come play them like we play that at home. That's what we were able to do, keep the ball moving in the midfield and things opened up for us and we were able to get a few goals there," said Robbie Findley.

In the second half Columbus became more desperate and threw more bodies forward, forcing Real Salt Lake to become more defensive.

BACK IN THE MIX: Much has been made this week about Columbus coach Robert Warzycha's decision not to play Guillermo Barros Schelotto in last week's match at Rio Tinto Stadium.

After all, he is the reigning league MVP and the Crew's leading goal scorer.

On Thursday Schelotto was back in the starting line-up and scored two goals. That reality only adds to the chatter that Warzycha made a bad decision in Utah.

"Sometimes coaches make interesting decisions. I would say his decision to leave him out the other night was because they wanted to defend. His decision to insert him tonight I like think lit a little fire under Mr. Schelotto's rear end because he was fantastic," said Kreis. "Unfortunately if they had been a little better defensively it would've looked like a fantastic decision."

BIG CONGRATULATIONS: Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts was on hand to watch RSL's stunning come-from-behind victory Thursday night in Columbus.

After the game he thanked the players in the locker room.

"He just congratulated us, and when your owner says good job you feel pretty about yourself," said defender Nat Borchers.

PREGAME HONOR: Columbus defender Chad Marshall was named the MLS defender of the year prior to Thursday's match with RSL. It was the second straight season Marshall was named the league's top defender.

MLS postseason awards are based on voting by coaches, players, general managers and the media.

No Real Salt Lake players were nominated for postseason awards in 2009.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com