Houston upped the pressure early in the second half in hopes of equaling its franchise-record 11-game unbeaten streak — which ironically enough was snapped by RSL back in 2007. Stuart Holden and Kei Kamara each put shots wide in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but the game changed for good in the 58th minute when Olave was shown his second yellow card for jumping in front of Brian Ching on a harmless throw-in.

With fatigue setting in by the minute, RSL rearranged its formation and made a few substitutions to brace itself for the impending onslaught.

"It's tough in this heat. We were up a goal so we knew let's just defend it and we almost got it, but they just kept coming at us and at us and they were able to get one," said Kyle Beckerman.

It looked as if the equalizer would come in the 73rd minute when Houston was awarded a penalty kick after Rimando tripped up Brian Ching in the box — even though Rimando disagreed completely with the decision.

"I don't think it's a penalty; the ball's going out of bounds for a throw-in. I don't even look at Ching, he goes through me," said Rimando.

Either way, Rimando redeemed himself with a very easy save on a horrible penalty kick by Brad Davis as Rimando has now saved 12 of 41 penalty kicks in his MLS career.

Houston continued to dominate possession after the penalty miss, and despite countless corner kicks, it didn't record another shot until Ching found space in between Nat Borchers and Robbie Russell to head in the tying goal. Houston finished the game outshooting RSL 10-2, with the visitors not recording a shot in the second half.

RSL returns to action next Saturday at home against Toronto FC.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com