SANDY — The league didn't really do Real Salt Lake any favors when it scheduled the New York Red Bulls for its inaugural match at Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL had never beat the Red Bulls in seven tries prior to Thursday night, and not surprisingly that trend continued.

In front of a sell-out crowd and in an electric atmosphere in the new stadium, RSL played like a nervous bunch from the opening whistle and in the end was forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in a very important match for both teams' playoff chances.

In the end, the players' own nerves might've been too much to overcome.

"My single biggest fear about this match was ourselves, and how we deal with everything that goes with this night. There are so many things that people don't realize," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

Little things like parking and family tickets all seemed to take a little toll mentally on the players according to Kreis, and in the end prevented RSL from building on the positive momentum it had recently generated.

"It was too good of an atmosphere for what we saw, the quality of soccer was a little bit lower than what we're used to seeing over the past few weeks," he said. "I think our guys looked very, very nervous. They were a little bit slow in all their decisions."

It was New York's fourth tie in four visits to Utah, and kept the teams level on 36 points in their push to qualify for the MLS playoffs. New York's all-time record against RSL now stands at 6-0-2, including its come-from behind win in New York last month.

New York probably could've officially spoiled the Rio Tinto Stadium opener with a little better finishing in the first half, especially with seven corner kicks.

The Red Bulls opened the scoring in the 31st minute by capitalizing on what is typically a strength for Real Salt Lake. RSL hadn't surrendered a goal on a corner kick all year, but New York's Dave van den Bergh made the most of his team's fifth corner of the game by pouncing on an initial clearance from Kyle Beckerman and uncorking it through a cluster of bodies in the box for the 1-0 lead.

The Red Bulls continued to dominate the match and had chances to pull ahead by several goals over the next 10 minutes.

Kreis believes nerves played a part in the staggering number of corner kicks RSL allowed in the first half.

"I think for me it came down to that they were so difficult to break down. I think our players were a little nervous, they had problems picking out passes to make early," said Kreis.

It took a special moment from Clint Mathis to help change everything. With RSL increasingly under pressure, Mathis made a spectacular switch-the-field pass with the outside of his foot that immediately put the Red Bulls under pressure and led to a corner kick.

RSL defender Jamison Olave latched onto Javier Morales' ensuing corner kick, throwing his body in front of the ball and redirecting it into the back of the next.

The goal seemed to revive RSL as it outplayed the Red Bulls the rest of the way. It outshot New York 13-2 in the second half and had several decent chances at a winner. It even enjoyed a man advantage in the final six minutes plus stoppage time when New York's Juan Pietravallo was red-carded for unintentionally kicking Mathis in the top of the head in the 84th minute.

Real Salt Lake had four shots in the final six minutes with the man advantage, but none of them really threatened New York keeper Jon Conway.

"There was a lot of tension with the stadium opening up, and all that, but at the end of the day it's just a game of soccer. We just needed to come out and play and we just came out and play flat footed," said RSL's Yura Movsisyan.

Real returns to action at Rio Tinto Stadium next Saturday when it hosts FC Dallas.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com