COLUMBUS, Ohio - Real Salt Lake is headed back to the Major League Soccer conference finals, following a wild and stunning 3-2 upset of the defending champion Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium on Thursday night.

The worst team in the league on the road during the regular season, RSL scored three unanswered goals after falling behind 2-0 in barely the first half-hour to beat the Crew in a two-game first-round series.

It advances to meet either Chicago or New England in the MLS Eastern Conference final next weekend.

Midfielder Andy Williams scored the winning goal in the 74th minute, on an attempted cross off a short corner kick that rolled past everybody in the penalty box - including goalkeeper William Hesmer.

The strike secured RSL a 4-2 series victory on combined goals. It won the first leg of the series 1-0 at home last weekend.

The Crew seemed to have buried RSL early, after Guillermo Barros Schelotto scored twice in the first 35 minutes.

His first strike came on nearly a 50-yard free kick in the 19th minute that bounced past every player jostling in the penalty area as well as goalkeeper Nick Rimando. In the 35th minute, Schelotto blocked defender Robbie Russell's attempted clearance, then got the ball back on a header from teammate Emmanuel Ekpo and fired low past Rimando.

But RSL would not go away.

Midfielder Javier Morales scored two minutes later on a nice through pass from midfielder Kyle Beckerman, and forward Robbie Findley converted a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time - the Crew's Frankie Hejduk had dragged down RSL's Fabian Espindola on a free kick - to set the stage for the dramatic finish.

-- 30 -