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Fire, Real Salt Lake play to scoreless draw

May 28, 2007 - 1:16 AM BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois (Ticker) -- Two unwanted streaks continued for the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake.

The Fire and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 draw Sunday, extending each club's streaks of futility.

Matt Pickens made seven saves for Chicago (3-4-2), which snapped a four-game losing streak but remains winless in five games, tying a team record set in both 1998 and 2004.

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando also had seven saves for Real Salt Lake (0-3-5), which remained the only club in the MLS without a victory this season.

Rimando preserved the tie, making a one-handed save at his left post on Chad Barrett's blast from close range in the 93rd minute.

"It's frustrating. ... I'm making opportunities for myself," Barrett said. "The goals will eventually go in."

It was the second shutout of the season and 38th of Rimando's eight-year career.

"I think we all have it in our heads that we want to get three points as the game was going forward, but we try to be defensive as we can so that let some gaps in the back and it was good that I was able to come up with some of the saves," Rimando said. "Everybody in front of me was solid, all four backs were solid today."

Pickens had a pair of stops, in the 89th and 90th minute, rspectively, on Jamie Watson andy Williams in recording his third shutout of the season.

Injury-plagued Chicago was missing six potential starters, including leader scorer Chris Rolfe, who sat out his third match with a sprained ankle.

Alecko Eskandarian made his MLS debut for Real Salt Lake. He was acquired in a trade for Jeff Cunningham on May 22.

It was a bold move to deal Cunningham, who is fourth all-time on the MLS scoring list with 93 goals, but coach Jason Kreis was happy with Eskandarian's performance.

"He was awesome. There will be people who will want to look at the stat sheet and see that he didn't score but he did many things for me," said Kreis, who is 0-1-3 since taking over for John Ellinger on May 5. "He was chasing down lost causes and trying to get back and help defend and have a lot of good touches where he involved other players."