Saturday was a night for scoreboard watching, not just at Rice-Eccles Stadium but in several other cities. Heading into the second-to-last weekend of the MLS season, four Western Conference teams were still in the hunt for the final two playoff spots.

Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger was monitoring the situation closely throughout Saturday's game against Houston — as were the fans keeping their eyes on the stadium big screen.

Heading into the game, Ellinger knew that with a victory, his club could possibly overtake Colorado for fourth place in addition to moving within striking distance of third-place Chivas. Ellinger also knew that if Colorado beat New York, RSL needed a victory, otherwise it would officially be eliminated from playoff contention.

It didn't take long for the latter scenario to surface as the most likely.

Colorado went ahead 1-0 on New York in just the third minute, and about 15 minutes later in Salt Lake City RSL followed suit by falling behind 1-0 midway through the first half. With the two games going on simultaneously, Ellinger and his players knew the task facing them in the second half.

"For us, we were down a goal and it didn't really matter about the updates," said Ellinger.

That entire situation changed when Mehdi Ballouchy leveled things with Houston in the 60th minute. Just a few minutes later in Denver, New York's Amado Guevara scored to tie the game up at 1-1, giving Real Salt Lake new life.

During the final half hour of each game, the playoff fate of two teams hung in the balance, but nothing happened, and Colorado and Salt Lake will have to wait until next weekend to learn their playoff fates.

PULLING EVEN: Not only did Ballouchy's goal pull Real Salt Lake back into a 1-1 tie with Houston, but it also pulled Jeff Cunningham back into a tie for the MLS assist lead.

Cunningham now has 11 assists on the season, as does D.C. United's Christian Gomez. Colorado's Terry Cooke has 10 assists, while Houston's Brad Davis has nine.

Cunningham also leads MLS with 16 goals.

CONTINGENCY TICKETS: Shortly after Saturday's game with Houston went final, Real Salt Lake announced that 2006 playoff tickets were on sale at Rice-Eccles Stadium box office.

Salt Lake is by no means guaranteed a playoff game, but the club is planning ahead just in case the situation pans out for RSL.

If Real qualifies, the playoff game would be at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.

Season-ticket holders' seats will be reserved until Oct. 16, and they should call 1-866-9SOCCER to purchase those seats. Fans can also purchase tickets by visiting www.utahtickets.com or www.realsaltlake.com or by calling (801) 581-UTIX.

Ticket prices are slightly higher than regular-season ticket prices.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com