Real Salt Lake finally beats Houston

SANDY — No red cards and no penalty kicks?

That's just the way Real Salt Lake wanted it Thursday night.

Breaking with tradition in its bizarre rivalry with Houston, RSL ended several years of frustration against the Dynamo with a convincing and smart 3-1 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Sure the match got a bit chippy in the final 20 minutes, but RSL's players kept their cool throughout and in the process moved into a second-place tie with Houston in the Western Conference with 13 points.

"We hate them," said RSL midfielder Will Johnson. "We owe them more than one. We feel they didn't deserve to beat us at (Houston) and we wanted to show them that we're an elite team in this conference and this league, and I think we did that."

The victory snapped RSL's eight-game winless streak against the Dynamo dating back to 2007, a stretch that featured some heartbreaking losses.

"I think it was a big step for us to get toward where we want to be and that's an elite team in this league, and if we want to be that, you've got to beat everybody," said midfielder Kyle Beckerman.

The win also extended RSL's unbeaten streak at home to 14 straight, and it was the club's first three-game winning streak since it won four straight back in 2006. It will try and equal that mark when it travels to Chivas USA next Saturday.

"Now we have to take this show on the road," said Johnson.

Thursday night was a rather comfortable victory for Real Salt Lake, which built a 3-0 lead before conceding a goal in the 72nd minute.

Despite the ragged play of his team at the end of match, Kreis was very pleased with the outcome.

"I really looked at this game tonight as a pivotal match for us this season. I really think we're on the verge of going on a good run here," said Kreis.

With a national television audience tuning in, Salt Lake's starting forwards shined — mostly.

It wasn't a perfect start by any means for World Cup hopeful Robbie Findley, who had a breakaway shot saved by Pat Onstad in the second minute. But he redeemed himself a minute later by elevating to head home a Kyle Beckerman cross.