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Mike Petke offers apology to fans and owner after 'embarrassing' RSL defeat

Mike Petke has always been the type of manager to speak his mind, and after his Real Salt Lake side was put to the sword by Bob Bradley's expansion LAFC team, the manager's mind was seemingly on apologizing. 

RSL took an early lead over LAFC but the club was trailing by halftime, and a second-half onslaught from Benny Feilhaber, Carlos Vela and Diego Rossi saw the home side fall to a 5-1 defeat. 

After the match Petke - who last year went on an epic rant in one of his post-match press conference - offered a full-fledged apology to the owner and the fans, admitting that such losses would cost many coaches around the world their jobs. 

"I apologize to my owner, a lot of places in the world I'd either be fired right now or I would resign," he said at his post-match press conference.  

"It's embarrassing, and it starts from the top. (I) apologize to the fans who came out here for this. At the end of the day it's my job to get the team ready to play and put the effort in. That's my job description, and (I) did not fulfill that today."

The RSL boss offered up no explanation of what went wrong on the night, but did make it clear that he expected better out of both himself and his players. 

"It was an anomaly," he said. "It was not representative of who I am as a person, as a coach.

"It's not representative of who this organization is, it's not representative of who these player are. So, I apologize."

Real Salt Lake get a full week to lick their wounds, but face an imposing challenge next week when the New York Red Bulls - who impressed with a 4-0 win against the Portland Timbers on Saturday despite using a rotated squad - come calling. 

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