Real Salt Lake 0 - 1 Sporting Kansas City
Final
  for this game

Own goal propels Wizards past Real Salt Lake

Jun 29, 2008 - 2:51 AM By Pat Madden PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Ticker) -- An own goal in the 89th minute helped the Kansas City Wizards snap a seven-game winless streak with a 1-0 triumph over Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

The shot was deflected in by defender Tony Beltran off a header by Kansas City's Davy Arnaud, which followed a direct free kick 30 yards outside the penalty area.

"For 88-plus minutes, it was a good defensive effort," Beltran said. "Unfortunately for us, I gave up a own goal. It's tough to swallow."

Kansas City (4-5-4) also snapped a 409-minute scoring drought with the tally. The Wizards had not scored since the 40th minute of their contest at the Los Angeles Galaxy on May 24.

"It was an extremely hard-fought game," Wizards coach Curt Onalfo said. "I thought we created some decent chances. All I care about is getting three points. In this league, it's not about being pretty - at the end of the day, it's about getting three points."

"It's very frustrating," Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis said of the defeat. "I know Tony (Beltran) feels bad about it. We know from last week that when you put balls in dangerous spots like that bad things happen. I'm concerned about giving away a free kick in such a dangerous spot at a dangerous moment in the game."

The Wizards' last victory was a 1-0 triumph at Chicago on April 20.

The defeat ended a five-game unbeaten string for Real Salt Lake (5-6-4), which remains in a second-place tie with Houston in the Western Division.

"It's a fair result," Kreis said. "They created more of the chances in the game, but we had two very good chances in the second half. If either of those goes in, we feel a lot better about ourselves."

Kansas City, which was playing only its second contest at home in the last two months, recorded 21 shots. Kevin Hartman made five saves in registering his league-leading sixth shutout of the season.

"Maybe it takes an own goal to get us going in the right direction," Hartman said. "Hopefully, this gets us started. It's certainly a 180-degree change from where we've been the last month."

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando made two saves in the loss for Real Salt Lake, which registered 13 shots.






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