SALT LAKE CITY - It's always good to see a player come in off the bench and make a big difference in the game.
Chris Brown was that player for Real Salt Lake on Saturday against the New York Red Bulls. Brown holds a unique position on the team: he is one of only six players on the current roster who have been with the team from the very beginning. Brown is in his ninth year of playing in Major League Soccer, played as a forward for much of his career, and helped the Kansas City Wizards win the MLS Cup in 2000.
And yet, most of his playing time last year was on defense. This season, he had spent most of his time playing with the reserve team until the 63rd minute of Saturday's match.
"Since the beginning of preseason, I think I've been pretty sharp," Brown said. "I was just hoping I would get a chance with the first team and try and make the most of it. Tonight, things went our way and went my way, so hopefully I'll keep getting chances in the future."
Brown showed his stuff in the second minute of stoppage time when he pounded home a shot from the right side of the penalty box that tied the game 3-3 and completed an impressive RSL rally. Newly installed coach Jason Kreis recognized what Brown could bring to the game.
"I made up my mind before the game that if we were to get in that position where we needed to press for a goal that we were going to drop Chris Klein into right back so that he could attack from that position, and we were going to put Chris Brown in front of him," Kreis said. "Those two players have a good partnership. He deserved his chance, and he took it."
Brown entered the game just moments after Klein scored on a similar laser beam to the upper corner that brought Real back to within one, 2-1. A little added offensive pressure was the right call for Kreis, who took out defender Jack Stewart to make room for Brown.
And suddenly, Brown was playing on offense again.
"I fancy myself as a forward, and we have really good forwards on this team, really good attacking guys in Freddy [Adu], Jeff [Cunningham], Klein and Mehdi [Ballouchy], so it's tough to get in there in the first place," Brown said. "So it's nice for Jason to give me a chance for me to show what I can do, and I should thank him for that."
While his moves on the sidelines seemed right on target, Kreis felt a little out of place not being on the field.
"I didn't know really what to do," Kreis said. "I didn't know if I needed to be sitting or standing, or standing on my head at moments there. It was tough."
But to be sure, his leadership helped Real gain the right attitude.
"For a group of guys to come back in that situation, that's a tremendous amount of heart, that's a tremendous amount of mental toughness, and that's exactly what we need at this moment," Kreis said.
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
