They were railed and criticized for reaching the championship of Major League Soccer despite a losing record in the regular season.

After outlasting and outplaying the stars from the Los Angeles Galaxy, no one is downplaying what Real Salt Lake accomplished.

"We wanted to see how many heart attacks we could cause to the fans and family," RSL midfielder Clint Mathis said. "But none of that matters. What matters is having a gold medal and we are champions."

Robbie Russell scored in the seventh round of penalty kicks and Real Salt Lake stunned the star-studded Galaxy 5-4 in penalties on Sunday night to win the MLS championship.

Russell's winner came after RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando smothered Edson Buddle's weak attempt in the seventh round and set off a wild celebration for a team dismissed because they went 11-12-7 during the regular season and needed help on the last weekend of the season just to reach the playoffs.

But there was RSL spending 30 minutes afterward on the confetti covered field while a few thousand fans that made the trip from Utah yelled, and cheered and chanted "Nick Rimando" as RSL celebrated.

"It's nice to say we're the best team in the league," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "... My honest opinion is we deserved to win that game."

It was the second straight shootout victory for RSL, which beat Chicago 5-4 on penalties last week for the Eastern Conference championship. Rimando made three saves in the penalty shootout against the Fire and the game MVP came up big again in front of 46,011 fans, the fourth-largest crowd for a MLS Cup.

While Real could celebrate a most unlikely title _ and the first professional crown for the state of Utah since 1971 _ the stars of Los Angeles were left wondering how a match they controlled for the first 45 minutes slipped away.

It was the crisp passing of David Beckham and Landon Donovan that gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute when Donovan's perfect cross found the foot of Mike Magee at the back post.

From there, the Galaxy's control of play quickly disappeared.

Donovan became a non-factor, as the league MVP was constantly hounded by the Real defense and never given space. The pain killers Beckham took before the game to relieve the discomfort from a bone bruise in his right foot started wearing off early in the second half and his limp became more noticeable.