Jamison Olave's slip and fall near midfield allowed Red Bulls forward John Wolyniec a free run down the left sideline. Wolyniec, through the corner of his eye, saw Juan Pablo Angel cutting through the middle. He then lobbed a cross, which glanced off the hands of RSL keeper Nick Rimando.

But Rimando, who wasn't tested much all evening, didn't get enough of the ball to prevent the rebound from landing directly on the foot of Dave van den Bergh. The midfielder, armed with the best opportunity his team would get all night, took advantage and placed the ball gently into the net.

"I saw them coming and I thought I would have a good chance to make the save," Rimando said. "I had to stay in the goal. I couldn't come out because if I guessed wrong he would've had an easy shot. I saw them try to get the ball to Angel. I wanted to make myself as big as I could. I got a piece of the ball, but not enough and that's when van den Bergh got the rebound."

That was by far the key play for New York. For van den Bergh, it's also earned him the reputation of being an RSL killer. This is his second goal in two games against Real Salt Lake. With that score, the Red Bulls withdrew into a defensive shell, often having all 11 of their players within the 18-yard box on set pieces and corner kicks. Although it looked to be by design, New York team members insisted that the Red Bulls tried to stay aggressive offensively but were forced on the defensive by a relentless RSL attack.

"We definitely wanted to score more goals," Red Bulls midfielder Jorge Rojas said. "We planned to score first, but we wanted to score another goal. RSL was just good on offense and that forced us to play more defense than we wanted to. They put so much pressure on us."