There aren’t many occurrences that can invoke a more wide-ranging array of emotions for Real Salt Lake than the 2011 CONCACAF Champions League final. The Claret-and-Cobalt was on the brink of becoming the first Major League Soccer team to earn a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup by winning the prestigious regional tournament that features the top teams in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
It wasn’t a vastly over-talented Monterrey side that undid RSL. And it was no fluke that the 2009 MLS Cup champions found themselves within a goal of making history.
Real Salt Lake very much deserved to be on the same field as the Mexican giants and nobody would have argued them to be unworthy champions.