Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake comes out stagnant in the first half, with minimal possession in the middle and over-the-top balls finding no one. Colorado capitalized as Jordan Harvey sent a lofted ball from the middle line over Jamison Olave to an on-rushing Conor Casey. Casey settled himself and looped the ball over Nick Rimando for the 1-0 lead.

RSL came out in the second half still without that fight that was needed for this affair. So, Kreis quickly made some changes early in the last half of the regular season. Dema Kovalenko departed for Andy Williams and Ian Joy subbed out for Robbie Russell. As the Rapids slowly progressed to a bunker-down tactic, RSL slowly became more and more dangerous. Then, came an unbelievable no-call. Yura Movsisyan gets played in behind Ugo Ihemulu and is looking to be one-on-one with the keeper. However, Ugo drapes himself all over Yura, with hands around the hips, actively kicking feet. Yura was determined to try to fight through it, and as he did, it left the ref to let it keep going. So, an off-balance Yura tried to just get enough of a foot on the ball to send it past Bouna Coundoul. The shot was high, and so was the ref. No call. However, the no call was not the defining moment of the game, as RSL broke down the Rapids defense and Andy got free in the box tried to place far post, but a great finger-tip on the ball put the ball bouncing to the right, where Yura redeems the call with a finishing blow from the right of the goalie box. 1-1 is how it ended, giving RSL their first berth in the playoffs, keeping the Rapids out of the playoffs two years in a row, and winning bragging rights with the Rocky Mountain Cup.

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