Real Salt Lake notebook: Defense silences Red Bulls' dynamic duo

SANDY — The New York Red Bulls are a very intimidating team right now with Juan Pablo Angel and Thierry Henry both starting at forward.

"Any time you look at the line-up sheet and it says Thierry Henry and Juan Pablo Angel you're probably thinking to yourself I hope they don't score too many goals," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

The dynamic duo, however, was no match Real Salt Lake's dominant defense Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Henry was mostly a nonfactor with one shot on goal in the sixth minute, even though Angel was dangerous on a few set pieces that required some excellent saves.

"We said coming into this week of training our biggest focus was the defensive side of the ball, and we really just wanted to deny Angel and Henry the ball as much as we could," said defender Nat Borchers. "We had Kyle (Beckerman) in there making it difficult for them to penetrate us."

RSL finished the game outshooting New York 13-9.

ESPINDOLA TWEAKS HAMMY: RSL striker Fabian Espindola can be a fragile player at times, and it happened again on Saturday night.

Saturday's goal scorer was on cloud nine after scoring his sixth goal of the season in the first half, but early in the second half Espindola injured his hamstring lunging for a ball near midfield, and he immediately asked to be taken off the field.

There was no immediate word on the extent of the injury, but Kreis seemed quite concerned after the game.

SITTING ONE OUT: RSL defender Jamison Olave picked up his sixth yellow card of the season in a 39th minute collision with New York keeper Greg Sutton. The accumulation of yellow cards means Olave will be suspended for RSL's match this Thursday at Seattle.

It's bad timing for Olave, who'll miss RSL's return visit to the stadium it won last year's MLS Cup.

HOT ON THEIR HEELS: Real Salt Lake closed to within one point of West-leading Los Angeles on Saturday, but the club is in no position to let up.

FC Dallas extended its unbeaten streak to 13 with a 1-0 win over Toronto over the weekend, and it only trails Real Salt Lake by three points and the Galaxy by four in the race for the coveted Western Conference No. 1 seed.

RSL hosts FC Dallas in the second to last regular season game of the season on Oct. 16.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com