Real Salt Lake ties MLS record with victory

SANDY — There was nothing overwhelming about Real Salt Lake's performance Saturday night.

In fact, a week from now the 19,115 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium will probably have a hard time recalling what actually happened.

That's just fine according to Real Salt Lake.

Though it wasn't pretty, they played well enough to beat New York 1-0 and in the process join some pretty elite company in the MLS record books. The victory extended RSL's home unbeaten streak to 22 straight, tying the league record set by Columbus from 2008 to 2009.

"The three points is the biggest thing. The home record is great, but getting the shutout is just as fantastic for us," said defender Nat Borchers.

RSL's 11th shutout of the season did wonders for its prospects of winning the MLS Supporters' Shield. Los Angeles tied Chicago on Saturday, and combined with RSL's win and Columbus' win over D.C. United, L.A. and Columbus are tied atop the standings with 44 points followed closely by RSL's 43 points.

"That's our goal right now, we're in contention and we're going to fight for it until the end," said Borchers.

Saturday's game couldn't have started off any better for Real Salt Lake.

Fabian Espindola put RSL in front 1-0 in the fourth minute by slotting a shot past New York keeper Greg Sutton after outrunning defender Tim Ream to a long ball form Kyle Beckerman.

"We started out the game like it was going to be a fantastic performance by us, and I really thought it was going to be a special night," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

RSL had chances throughout the first half to make it a special night, most notably Robbie Findley's point blank header in the 37th minute that was saved by Sutton.

Despite dominating the opening half, in many ways RSL was lucky to be leading. In the 33rd minute Nick Rimando misjudged the bounce of a Juan Pablo Angel header on a corner kick, with the ball skipping over his hands. Andy Williams, however, was right there to save Rimando from a major gaffe as he cleared the goal-bound shot off the line and out for a corner kick.

It was the first of two moments in which an RSL midfielder was in the right place at the right time.

Eleven minutes into the second half Beckerman cleared another New York shot off the line to preserve the shutout. Rimando did fantastic to initially deny Angel's powerful header, but his diving save bounced around in front of the goal mouth before Beckerman finally sent it to safety.