Real Salt Lake draws another one on road

RSL vs. Sounders boxscore

SEATTLE — Real Salt Lake has been the king of road ties lately, and that trend continued Thursday night.

With a patch-work lineup made necessary by assorted injuries and suspensions, RSL gutted out a 0-0 draw against the Seattle Sounders in front of 36,078 fans at Qwest Field.

"I'm thrilled, absolutely thrilled. And I'm thrilled for more reasons than just the result," said coach Jason Kreis. "I'm absolutely so proud of the effort the guys put in tonight. The attention to the details of our group and the commitment level that they showed tonight is second to none."

The fourth-consecutive draw stalemate moved Real Salt Lake into a tie with Los Angeles and Columbus for the best record in MLS, but it could've taken over sole possession atop the table for the first time in team history.

For now all three teams sit on 44 points, but RSL has played one more match and Columbus and the Galaxy square off in California this weekend.

RSL will be cheering for a tie, but for now it's happy to enjoy its own stalemate.

"It's a great result. When you go on the road in this league it's very difficult to get results. Our last five or six games we're proved we can grind out results," said Nat Borchers.

The win was there for the taking, but Robbie Findley's finishing troubles popped up again on a penalty kick of all things. After he was tripped up just inside the box by Jeff Parke in the 31st minute, Findley's penalty attempt wasn't placed well at all and Kasey Keller easily dove to his right to punch it away.

Findley was 2 for 2 in his career on penalty kicks prior to Thursday, and it was the first miss by an RSL player since May of 2008.

Kreis admitted afterward that Findley is "an unconfident player," but he was pleased with the way the team handled the situation

"Credit to the guys for having him take the penalty. They know he's been down and they want to give him that opportunity to score it. ... The reaction to watch our players after he doesn't score it, there are two or three going up to him and grabbing him and saying it's OK. That for me is special stuff," said Kreis.

Outside of Findley's PK miss, opportunities were rare throughout the match as each side only finished with two shots on goal.