Real Salt Lake wins dramatic MLS Cup on penalty kicks

SEATTLE — The playoffs have been a wild ride for Real Salt Lake, so it's only fitting that Sunday's MLS Cup ended in the most dramatic fashion possible — a shootout.

That always favors a team with Nick Rimando.

The RSL keeper is arguably the best in Major League Soccer when it comes to stopping penalty kicks and not surprisingly he came up big again. Rimando saved a pair of penalty kicks in the shootout as Real Salt Lake defeated the L.A. Galaxy 5-4 on penalties to claim the MLS Cup in just its fifth year of existence.

"I thought we played our hearts out tonight. We played our style of soccer. When we play our style of soccer it's pretty fun to watch and it's pretty fun to play," said RSL captain Kyle Beckerman. "It went longer than we would've wanted."

The game finished tied at 1-1 after regulation and overtime and the championship was ultimately decided on penalty kicks for just the second time in league history.

Robbie Russell buried the decisive kick in the seventh round of penalty kicks, which came just two rounds after Andy Williams squandered a chance to win it when his poor effort was saved by L.A. back-up keeper Josh Saunders — one of two saves by Saunders in the shootout.

"I thought both goalkeepers were great. What more can you say?" said L.A. coach Bruce Arena. "I thought they both saved two penalties tonight, that's pretty remarkable."

Williams never seemed worried despite his miss. His keeper came up big in an Eastern Conference final shootout win over Chicago last week and Williams figured he'd came up big again.

After Chris Klein and Chris Wingert buried their respective shots in the sixth round, Rimando went to his left to save Edson Buddle's penalty and then Russell stepped up and buried the winner.

"Me and all the guys knew that if it came down to penalty kicks were were confident just going back from last week," said Rimando.

More stunning than the saves in the shootout was Landon Donovan's miss. In his entire MLS career Donovan was 21 of 23 on penalty kicks, and he'd hit the target on ever attempt. He sprayed his penalty over the crossbar though and into the Seattle Sounders supporters section.

Russell's penalty put the finishes touches on an unlikely championship season for the No. 8 seed in the playoffs.