WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 15, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- Red Bull NY mastered using the post as an extra defender, denying Real Salt Lake multiple times and riding a 28th minute Dave van den Bergh goal to next week's MLS Cup final.
"It was ugly, it was lucky, but with this franchise we're going to have to take it any way it comes," van den Bergh said. "We won this title. This time next year no one will remember how the game went, they just see the result, that the New York Red Bulls won the Western Conference."
The worst team in the Eastern Conference to make the playoffs ends up Western Conference champions, with Danny Cepero making seven saves to take the shutout.
"I think that if you know the game long enough, you realize that's just the way the game goes," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "I've seen so many of those in my career, tonight was just another one of those nights,. We got chance after chance after chance -- three balls off the post, two on second half. I drove myself to laughter over there on the bench, it was either that or cry."
