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Sandy • Javier Morales slumped to the ground. Ned Grabavoy went to his knees. And goalkeeper Nick Rimando sat on the grass in front of his goal, looking dazed and wondering what might have been.
The biggest game in team history had just turned into the biggest disappointment.
With an entire nation of soccer fans watching in anticipation and a sold-out stadium packed with adoring fans who stood for the entire game, Real Salt Lake just could not match Monterrey of Mexico in the decisive leg of the CONCACAF Champions League finals on Wednesday night, losing 1-0 to dash its dream of reaching the FIFA Club World Cup.
"We feel pretty disappointed that we let everybody down, including ourselves," defender Chris Wingert said. "It stinks when everybody's rooting for you and behind you and you don't come away with the win."The loss snapped an amazing 37-game home unbeaten streak for RSL and spoiled its chance at an accomplishment that many observers said would have been the biggest in Major League Soccer history.
No MLS team has ever played in the FIFA Club World Cup.
"We didn't play good today," Morales said.
Monterrey's Humberto Suazo scored the winning goal just moments before halftime, giving Los Rayados a 3-2 series victory on aggregate and allowing them to celebrate in front of a sliver of Monterrey fans with RSL forced to watch while waiting for the post-game trophy and medal ceremony.
"Fortune was on our side," Monterrey coach Victor Manuel Vucetich said.
But what RSL is sure to remember is its inability to score either during a pedal-to-the-metal opening half-hour or the final desperate stages. Both times, it had its chances. Just none of them found the net.
"We've been there so many times," defender Tony Beltran said. "We need a goal late and keep pushing chances in there and a goal comes.
"And unfortunately tonight that wasn't the case. And I'll tell you, all of us on the field believed it was going to come."
Alas, it did not.
Now, RSL must find a way to pick up the pieces and dive right back into league play against the Portland Timbers on the road Saturday.
Coach Jason Kreis said that won't be easy, and lamented 15 minutes at the end of the first half when RSL seemed to lose steam as well as concentration, allowing Suazo to do just what it wanted to avoid — slice through the defense and poke a ball past scrambling defenders after Rimando had gone to the ground trying to stop a shot.Equally painful, though, was the inability to put any of its 16 shots past goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco.
"It wasn't quite our best night in the attacking third, and in and around the penalty box," Kreis said. "I didn't feel like we were quite sharp enough. We needed somebody to make a special play, and it just didn't come off for us tonight."
Still, RSL can claim some credit for lending added credibility to MLS and making many casual fans take notice, by becoming the first team from the league to reach the Champions League finals.
"This was a huge opportunity gone missing," Kreis said. "And we feel deeply, deeply sorry about that. But judge us over the entire tournament and I think we have to be pretty darn proud and I hope people are proud of us."
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