Real Salt Lake defended their first-time status as a first-place team by coming out of Toyota Park with their first road tie of the season.
RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando was called upon to make two saves and had several other shots to look at it in the second half. But nothing crossed the line and RSL came away with a scoreless draw against the Chicago Fire on Saturday evening.
RSL is now 6-6-6 for the season and still atop the Western Conference standings, still a point ahead of the LA Galaxy.
RSL played the more aggressive attacking game but could not score against the league's stingiest defense. Still, they managed to improve on their 1-6-0 road record going into the contest.
Coach Jason Kreis, who served the second game of his suspension Saturday, made one change in his starting lineup from the win against Columbus last week. Chris Wingert returned to the defensive line for Tony Beltran after being red-carded in the game against Houston July 3.
Nathan Sturgis, named to the U.S. Olympic team this week by coach Peter Nowak, was still unavailable due to his lingering hamstring injury that has kept him out of all but three games this season.
Sturgis and backup goalkeeper Chris Seitz were named to the Olympic team from Real Salt Lake. Seitz has not played an MLS game for RSL this season.
For all the pregame talk about Real Salt Lake's road record, they played like the home team for most of the first half, and had far more genuine scoring opportunities than the Fire had.
Led by center midfielder Javier Morales, RSL was credited with seven shots and one shot on goal in the first half.
The first scoring chance of the game belonged to the Fire and came in the fifth minute. Off a corner kick, Cuauhtemoc Blanco put a header on goal that was knocked away at the end line by Andy Williams' header. The Fire did not have an official shot on goal from their four shots in the first half.
Williams, a former Fire player, almost scored in the eighth minute when he executed a great fake-and-shoot at the 18-yard line but put the kick off the crossbar and over. A minute later, defender Chris Wingert put a great run on goal from the right side, dribbled past Fire defender Daniel Woolard, then sent a cross to the foot of Kyle Beckerman, whose shot went wide right.
RSL had five corner kicks in the first half, and in the 10th minute, Morales sent a corner to Yura Movsisyan in the box, but his header was saved by goalkeeper Jon Busch. Real were dangerous on another corner in the 17th minute but Movsisyan's shot was cleared.
In the 33rd minute, RSL dodged another bullet. Fire forward Chris Rolfe stole a back pass aimed toward goalkeeper Nick Rimando and dribbled around the fallen shot-stopper, but his left-footed shot from a sharp angle on the left side hit the side netting.
In the 41st minute, put through by Rolfe, Fire forward Chad Barrett held off Jamison Olave and fired a shot that hit the right post. It bounced out sharply and just past Rolfe on the left side.
To start the second half, RSL subbed forward Robbie Findley for Tino Nunez. Findley had a scoring chance in the 47nd minute when he captured a bad clearance at the top of the box and had Busch alone in front of him. His shot bounced off Busch and then glanced off the left post.
In the 66th minute, assistant coach Robin Fraser sent Kenny Deuchar into the game for Movsisyan.
Rimando finally was called upon to make a save on a 10-yard shot from Justin Mapp in the 67th minute off a pass by Blanco. It was the Fire's first shot on goal of the game.
In the 87th minute, Mapp dribbled hard down the right side, made one move on the defense and took a sharp shot that Rimando saved, his second official save of the game.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
