Real Salt Lake 2 Colorado Rapids 1 – Stable Lineup, Of Course, Is In Air Quotes

Trying very, very hard to get offense inserted anywhere possible, Pablo's move to bring in Dillon Powers instead kept him from being able to make his usual cutting passes from deep in the midfield. Slowly, Powers went from a deep-lying forward to a midfielder again, but seemed tentative to go backwards at the same time. With no Jose Mari, there was little collaboration in the midfield, and the Rapids spent the majority of the first half with a passing average hovering around 65%.

An absolutely awful penalty call by Mark Geiger gave Real Salt Lake a quick 2-0 lead at the start of the second half — come on, it wouldn't be a game at Rio Tinto without RSL getting an illegal play called a goal — and in the end it did end up mattering as the Rapids were able to snag a goal off a set piece from Drew Moor. The Rapids might not have deserved a tie thanks to their ugly first 70 minutes of play, but it would have been a good result in the end. The Rapids didn't find that second goal they needed, though they controlled everything during the final 10 minutes of play, including five minutes of stoppage.

It was business as usual from the Rapids, and that remains the problem.