Real Salt Lake settles for draw with Houston

SANDY — Real Salt Lake's attacking woes reached a new low Saturday night.

Some struggles were to be expected in RSL's first game without injured midfielder Javier Morales, but nobody could've predicted what happened against visiting Houston.

On a night when RSL did enough to win the game by generating 13 shots, it was putrid in the final third, putting one measly shot on goal in settling for a 0-0 draw in front of 16,301 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"You've just got to bury one," groaned RSL captain Kyle Beckerman after the match.

That's been much easier said than done lately for Real Salt Lake, which has scored just once in its past four games over all competitions.

Coach Jason Kreis summed the night up best when he said, "some good, some bad. A little bit ho-hum tonight."

Nobody was happy about it, but Beckerman said the team will take the point and gladly move on. The result extended RSL's home unbeaten streak in league play to 29 straight.

Chances were tough to come by for both teams in the first half, but things really opened up in the second half, not necessarily to RSL's liking either as Nick Rimando was forced to come up with three big saves to preserve his 78th career shutout.

"In the second half, the game opened up a little bit more than we wanted it do. They were pretty dynamic in the midfield, you have to give them credit," said defender Nat Borchers.

Nobody said playing without Morales was going to be easy, and his absence was certainly noticeable on Saturday. Ned Grabavoy, however, said there's no use in bemoaning that reality.

"Javy is going to be out for a while and we need to move on with it and it needs to be a collective effort. Few players in this league can do what Javier does, so it has to be a collective group effort in there," he said.

Collen Warner got the starting nod at attacking midfield against Houston before being replaced by Andy Williams in the 60th minute. Like the rest of the team, Warner was ho-hum, according to Kreis.

"I think it's going to be a process without Javy. He's one of the most creative players in the league. When you lose a guy like that, you're going to notice a difference," said Borchers. "I thought Collen stepped up and did well. In the second half, we just weren't good enough going forward with the ball."