Bridgeview, Ill. » Normally, soccer players hate to decide games with penalty-kick shootouts. But this time, Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman was just fine with the prospect.
His reasoning?
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
"I did say before the second half that it's all right if we have to go into penalty kicks," Beckerman recalled after RSL beat the Chicago Fire 5-4 in an epic shootout at Toyota Park on Saturday night, "because we have the best goalie, and he'll be fine to keep us in it."
Rimando did more than keep RSL in the game.
He all but won it, stopping three shots in the shootout that followed 120 exhausting minutes of scoreless soccer in the MLS Eastern Conference final.
His final save -- diving to his left to stop the Fire's Brandon Prideaux -- paved the way for midfielder Ned Grabavoy to hit the seventh kick of the shootout and send RSL into the MLS Cup title game next Sunday at Qwest Field in Seattle.
"Once you get a rhythm, you get a rhythm," Rimando said. "Last year, we were unlucky hitting the post so much and then this year I guess we had some luck on our side."
His coaches and teammates believe it's more than just luck.
Rimando stopped two penalties to send D.C. United into the title game that last time the MLS Eastern Conference final went to penalty kicks in 2004, and he was among the best keepers in the league during the regular season. His three saves against the Fire all came among their final four shots.
"He was superb," coach Jason Kreis said. "And I think if you look back on the history of Nick Rimando, you're going to find a lot of saved penalty kicks. So no surprise to any of us."
Goalkeeper Jon Busch of the Fire probably enjoyed the more spectacular game during regulation, making several impressive saves to keep RSL off the scoreboard while Rimando was seldom threatened. Busch even had the early advantage in the shootout, after RSL's Javier Morales sent the second kick over the bar.
But then Rimando locked down.
He flung out his right arm while diving to his left to deny the Fire's John Thorrington, then dove twice more to his left to stop Logan Pause and Prideaux to set up Grabavoy's dramatic winner.
"It's the worst way to lose," Rimando said, "but it's kind of fun to win PK's when you're the hero. But everybody stepped up. Even when we missed it, I knew we were going to win this game. We played good soccer tonight."
