"I think our players need to have a little more aggressive mentality when you're playing against a team a man down," Kreis said. "You have to know they're going to sit in and bunker, and in order to move those players around you have to dribble at them and be aggressive and cause defenders to make decisions on who to play."

Instead, most of RSL's 15 second-half shots were taken from outside the box.

Real Salt Lake appeared to score the go-ahead goal in the 72nd minute, but after a short delay the referee deemed that Kyle Beckerman was offsides when he volleyed in Robbie Findley's header off a corner kick.

A minute later, Javier Morales banged a one-timed shot off the post, one of 10 shots RSL uncorked in the final 17 minutes.

As disappointing as the outcome was, Beckerman said there's a lot of positives following a third straight shutout and unbeaten streak that stretched to four straight with last Saturday's draw.

"We're pretty happy, we're not giving up many goals and we're not losing, so that's a good sign for us to keep pushing forward," Beckerman said.

RSL returns to action at home this Saturday against the New England Revolution, who own the best record in MLS.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com