Nick Rimando extends streak as Real Salt Lake blanks New England

SANDY — Not everything measured in hundreds nowadays is a large number.

Dollars, 100 is not a lot of money. Degrees, 100 is hot, but in the summer here, almost commonplace. But 100 wins as a Major League Soccer starting goalkeeper, now that's a big number.

In Real Salt Lake's 5-0 win over the New England Revolution Friday night at Rio Tinto Stadium, that is exactly the accomplishment Nick Rimando achieved.

"It feels great to reach it," said Rimando. "I need to give a lot of credit to my teammates that have helped me get there, too. Overall, it is something I have been looking forward to for the last couple of weeks, and it feels pretty special to reach it."

The win was No. 34 for Rimando as a member of Real, something the team is quite fortunate to have had in that he was traded away once before he put on the uniform before being brought back.

"He has been fantastic every single year from the year he was our MVP to last year when he was the MVP of the MLS Cup to now," said coach Jason Kreis. "He is playing the best soccer I have seen in the last three years — and that is saying a lot."

A quick look at the RSL record books under the goalkeeping stats, and nearly every one of them is owned by Rimando. For that matter, Rimando owns almost every record in the D.C. United goalkeeping record book as well, as 66 of his wins came with that franchise. He has two MLS Cup titles but has probably never received the recognition he deserves.

"I guess you have to be at least 6 feet tall to get the recognition," he joked. "But that's OK with me. I have two MLS Cups, and now 100 wins. I'll take the titles and the wins any day over the recognition."

Along with picking up the milestone win, Rimando and the rest of the team hit some other impressive marks Friday night at Rio Tinto Stadium. It was the club's fourth consecutive shutout — a 0-0 draw with D.C. June 5, a 1-0 win over the L.A. Galaxy June 9 and a 0-0 draw against San Jose last week.

"We have really been clicking together in the back and over the whole field," added Rimando. "It has been a whole team effort to post the four shutouts."

As part of the shutout streak, Rimando broke the all-time length for a scoreless streak in the 37th minute when he passed the previous mark of 355 minutes, set by him in 2008. He extended it to 408 minutes by the final whistle.

"It is a nice record to have, but again, I think it isn't really only my record," said Rimando. "It is one of those things that the whole team deserves the credit. Now, we just have to keep playing the same way, keep putting in the effort and things should keep going."

e-mail: mblack@desnews.com