TORONTO — It could have been worse for Real Salt Lake.

Much worse.

Real headed into Major League Soccer's most hostile stadium (never mind that it houses a team that hasn't won since Independence Day), played almost 55 minutes shorthanded and faced 24 shots while managing only five.

And they still emerged from Saturday's game against Toronto FC with a 0-0 tie.

Head coach Jason Kreis was speechless when he shook hands with Toronto counterpart Mo Johnston after the game, and when he finally found words he expressed a mixture of resignation, relief and empathy.

"There aren't a whole lot of positives I can say about our team's game except that they fought very hard," he said. "I feel sorry for Toronto because they had the better team tonight."

Both teams entered Saturday's game nursing frail hopes of making the playoffs. Salt Lake is ranked 12th in the 13-team league, and Toronto 11th.

By earning one point. Salt Lake remains two points behind Toronto in MLS overall standings and 10 behind Chicago in the race for the final playoff spot.

Heading into the game Kreis told reporters Real would need to win all seven of their remaining games to catch Chicago.

"We're going to need a couple of other teams to falter for us to have a chance," Kreis said.

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando didn't falter, although you couldn't have blamed him if he did.

Thirty-five minutes into the game Fabian Espindola collided with Toronto defender Marvell Wynne, and the two men started shoving. When Espindola threw a forearm to Wynne's neck, players from both teams intervened and Espindola was ejected.

Toronto continued to attack a shorthanded Salt Lake squad, forcing Rimando to make 12 saves, some of them spectacular.

"That's what happens when you go a man down," Rimando said. "They came after us. We knew they were going to get their chances. It was a matter of how many they were going to put away. They didn't put any away, and we got the point."

But Toronto's onslaught began even before Espindola's ejection.

Early in the first half, Toronto's Andrea Lombardo had two consecutive shots from inside the six-yard box, and Rimando blocked both. Two minutes later Toronto's Chris Pozniak took a pass and sprinted toward Rimando, then shot the ball wide.

After half an hour, Lombardo threaded a pass through the penalty box to Todd Dunivant, who had a wide-open net and a chance to shoot. Instead, he paused a split second, and when he did shoot Rimando deflected it out of bounds.

"No excuses. I should have hit it the first time. It's a goal," Dunivant said. "At the end of the day, I've got to put that shot away. It cost us three points."

While Dunivant blamed himself for the squandered opportunity, Kreis credited Rimando for salvaging a point for his team.

"In my eyes (he played so well) that he should get two MVP trophies," Kreis said.

NOTES: Former Real forward Jeff Cunningham played the final 22 minutes for Toronto ... Suffering from a sports hernia he has played only sporadically since scoring against Real on July 4. He had surgery to repair the hernia 10 days ago and guaranteed Toronto would break their league-record goalless streak, which now stands at 822 minutes.