Real Salt Lake: A tie after late goals

SANDY — Real Salt Lake let one slip away again.

Up a goal entering the dying minutes of Saturday's match against Colorado, RSL surrendered an 88th minute goal to Omar Cummings as the Rocky Mountain rivals battled to a 1-1 draw in front of a sellout crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Just a few weeks ago, RSL settled for a 2-2 home draw against Los Angeles after allowing a pair of stoppage time goals.

"It's been time and time again," said midfielder Clint Mathis. "To give up that goal at the end is disappointing, but that's the game of soccer."

This one definitely stings a bit more than the Galaxy draw as Real Salt Lake seemed poised to snap its six-game winless streak after Yura Movsisyan's fantastic finish in the 79th minute.

A late Robbie Russell red card and a scintillating finish by Cummings at the edge of the penalty area changed all that.

"These things happen, it's unfortunate we get a red card and a guy turns and hits an unbelievable shot against us. A guy hit an unbelievable shot against us last week," said Salt Lake midfielder Ned Grabavoy. "We've got to work through this. If we're getting ties, it's better than getting losses, but at some point we need to start getting wins."

Despite the frustration of the outcome, coach Jason Kreis was very pleased with his team's performance on a night it outshot Colorado 18-9 while utilizing a more aggressive approach that can be interpreted as either a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 formation.

"I really want to try to avoid having that goal mar what for me was a fantastic effort by our team. ... It was just about the guys working hard for each other," said Kreis. "Obviously not pleased with the result, because we always want three points at home, but I think this might be something to build off of."

Another thing RSL can build off is Yura Movsisyan's confidence.

The striker scored so many timely goals during Real Salt Lake's memorable late-season run last year, but he had largely underachieved this year. That all changed with his curling left-footed finish in the 79th minute putting RSL in front 1-0.

Ironically enough, Movsisyan's finishing up until that point was extremely poor, with him joking afterward, "I actually hit the target for once."

Realistically, wasted opportunities prevented RSL from earning the coveted full three points.

Robbie Findley and Fabian Espindola combined to miss three clear-cut headers, with none forcing the keeper to make a save.

Findley had two fantastic opportunities to put RSL ahead in the opening 30 minutes, but he was wide with his headers in both the 21st and 30th minute on great deliveries from Russell. In the 63rd minute, Espindola headed a corner straight into the ground and over the crossbar.