Real Salt Lake has a pulse — barely.

Despite playing one of its worst halves of the season Saturday night, RSL kept its playoff hopes alive by battling back and earning a precious 1-1 draw against the Houston Dynamo in front of a season-high crowd of 22,515 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The tie would have been meaningless, but the Colorado Rapids also tied on Saturday, leaving RSL two points behind the Rapids heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

"We've obviously come a long way and we're all real proud of ourselves," defender Eddie Pope said. "I think we've earned to be in this position."

Not many people thought RSL would be in the hunt for a playoff spot after going winless the first six games of the season, but that's exactly the position the club finds itself heading into next week's game at Chivas USA.

Real also knows it's lucky to be in that position.

With so much riding on the outcome, Salt Lake came out and played dreadful in the first half. While Houston was winning the majority of the 50-50 balls, Real was compounding the situation with passing reminiscent of a preseason game.

"Sometimes there's a lot of emotion, and adrenaline can be a good thing if you use it well," Willis Forko said. RSL clearly wasn't channeling that adrenaline in the right places.

For the fourth straight game, RSL gave up the game's first goal. Paul Dalglish scored in the 20th minute, his first MLS goal.

The goal was a combination of defensive lapse by both Jack Stewart and Scott Garlick. With his back to the goal just inside the penalty area, Dalglish received the ball and quickly spun around a surprised Stewart. The Houston newcomer then took one dribble into the box and knocked a shot past Garlick, who was inexcusably beaten at the near post.

"I think they came at us pretty hard, and I don't think we did a great job responding," Pope said.

RSL's only scoring opportunity of the dreadful first half came five minutes after Houston's goal when Jeff Cunningham's goal-bound header was cleared off the line and up into the crossbar by Wade Barrett.

It was sweet redemption for Houston, which was on the short end of a controversial goal in its only other Rice-Eccles Stadium appearance in late August. In that game, Chris Klein was credited with a goal that bounced off the cross bar, even though video replay clearly showed the ball didn't cross the goal line.

RSL coach John Ellinger didn't sugar coat the situation for his players at halftime, because virtually nothing went right in the first half.

"It's not so much that we were trying to absorb pressure, we just didn't play well," said Ellinger.

Down 1-0 at the half, and knowing that Colorado was leading New York at the half, Real played with an increased intensity that led to several scoring opportunities early in the half, and eventually an equalizing goal by Mehdi Ballouchy in the 60th minute, just three minutes after Ballouchy entered the game as substitute for more offensive punch.

Cunningham had RSL's best chance at a go-ahead goal but he was inches away from latching onto a driven free kick by Jason Kreis in the 70th minute.

After the game, hearing that Colorado had tied as well, Ellinger approached Houston coach Dominic Kinnear and joked with him by saying, "I told Dom if you don't beat Colorado, don't open your mail.

RSL is at Chivas USA next Sunday, but that game could be obsolete if Colorado wins at Houston the day before. If RSL and Colorado finish level on points at the end of the season, the Rapids would advance because they won the season series.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com