Houston star believes in RSL

Count Houston midfielder Richard Mulrooney as one of the believers in the new-and-improved Real Salt Lake.

Following RSL's 2-1 win over the Dynamo on Saturday, the veteran had nothing but praise for MLS's worst team.

"I give full credit to Salt Lake. I think they've been jobbed by a couple calls this year. I don't think their record should've been one win before this," he said. "I think they're a better team than that. They showed it tonight, they can knock it around."

Mulrooney refused to make excuses for the loss with Houston playing its fifth game in 14 days, but that didn't stop some of his teammates and his coach from doing so.

"I think if we have fresh legs it's a whole different game," said Brian Ching. "I think the field really killed us tonight. It made it slow and it made it a little easier for them to stop us from playing our game, really."

His coach offered this analysis.

"I just think our guys are dead. We ran out of gas probably 20 minutes in, just kind of broke forward every once in a while and tried to defend,"

said Dominic Kinnear. "A little mix-up in the back lets them through and that's the game. The guys tried, but there wasn't much energy out there."

TEARING IT UP: Following a successful four-game stint on its temporary grass playing surface at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Real Salt Lake will begin removing the field on Monday or Tuesday.

The club was hoping to keep the field down for its Aug. 18 home match against Chicago, but that conflicts with three University of Utah football scrimmages on Aug. 10, 14 and 18.

Based on the duration and the relative quality of the temporary surface over the past month, don't be surprise if RSL installs a similar surface once or twice at Rice-Eccles Stadium next year before it relocates to its new stadium in Sandy in the fall of 2008.

LUCKING OUT: For all the misfortune RSL has endured this season, the third-year MLS franchise has — for one reason or another — successfully avoided having to play some of the league's brightest stars.

On Saturday against Houston, the reigning MLS champions, Salt Lake avoided another one.

Houston's midfield extraordinaire, Dwayne De Rosario, a finalist for MVP honors the last two seasons, missed the contest because of yellow card accumulation.