The result may have been typical, Real Salt Lake becoming the latest MLS team to fall in Mexico, but the way it came about was anything but.


It's difficult to properly frame the collapse that saw the defending MLS champs lose 5-4. RSL conceded four times in the final twenty minutes of the match. There's simply no way to sugarcoat that, even if the MLS side had a legitimate complaint about a disallowed goal in the first three minutes (Will Johnson incorrectly ruled offside when he put in a rebound) and a Cruz Azul goal earned from an illegally taken restart (the ball still rolling when the Mexicans played it).


The conditions at Estadio Azul were horrific after a monsoon nearly made the pitch unplayable; passes died, clearances fell short, and neither team was able to play the type of game to which they're accustomed. That said, Real Salt Lake responded well to Cruz Azul's opener and controlled the game for most of the first 75 minutes.


Then disaster struck. The type of disaster that is such an integral part of MLS failures south of the border. Javier Orozco scored three times in a twenty minute span and a 3-1 RSL lead turned into a 4-3 deficit. A Will Johnson goal gave RSL real hope of salvaging a draw, but Chaco Gimenez found himself alone at the top of the box on the other end and didn't miss. Cruz Azul 5, RSL 4, final whistle.


So how do we process this? Part of an MLS curse, RSL simply giving up in the final minutes, or an indication of some deeper problems that will always have MLS sides crumbling in the face of adversity? Is there a wider conclusion to be drawn or is this just another in a long line of coincidental occurrences going against the American sides?


Hell if I know. Really, it's nearly impossible to explain how a good team, which RSL clearly is, can fold so dramatically with the game in their grasp. Being better for 75 minutes doesn't matter if you can't close, and this MLS team couldn't close. Does that mean the next MLS to take a lead into the final fifteen minutes in Mexico will suffer the same fate? No, not necessarily, but it will certainly have us wary when they are. MLS fans who root for the league in general terms in this competition have been bitten too many times. I'd imagine that if you support one of the teams involved, foregoing watching your team play in Mexico might be a boon to your health.


The task doesn't change for RSL, and there was never any assured belief that they'd get points in Mexico when the group stages started. But the psychological blow for both them and MLS fans is devastating; as I wrote earlier today, RSL was carrying the MLS banner with them to Mexico, and short of being blown out, there's really no way they could have failed to do it proud any more. I'm tempted to call this a fluke and try to move on; but this is FMF v. MLS, and while I have no delusions about the latter approaching the former in overall quality, I do think MLS is good enough threaten Mexican dominance in the near future. That's difficult to say tonight, and I'll admit it seems farcical at the moment, but I'm hanging on to my belief nevertheless.


For all those reveling in the RSL collapse, either because it validates their dismissive attitude about the league or because they simply find join in the distress of others, tonight was a "Nelson moment." For the rest of us, those that feel connected to MLS as a league in addition to any team-specific allegiance and are therefore affected by its failings against Mexican teams in a somewhat irrational way, embarrassment and shame are part of the package.


Which is unfair and unfortunate, really. We shouldn't have to hang on every international match like it will make our "little league" legitimate, because there's no reason to believe it's not. The measuring stick of the Champions League uses a flawed system; when that's pointed out, it sounds like an excuse. If an MLS side beats, or were to beat, someone of consequence, too much is put into the result. We're damned either way, both in terms of the league's reputation and in our own self-worth, simply anxious to have some tangible evidence to point to when questions of the league's value come up.


So it sucks that RSL drowned in failure on a waterlogged field in Mexico City. Not just because they lost, but because they lost so disastrously.


Meanwhile, that MLS banner is a mud-covered rag laying in a puddle in Estadio Azul. For now, anyway.