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Real Salt Lake, Kansas City play to scoreless draw

Jun 8, 2008 - 4:35 AM SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman finished with seven saves to record his first shutout of the season as the Kansas City Wizards and Real Salt Lake played to a scoreless draw on Saturday.

Hartman's counterpart, Nick Rimando, made five saves for Real Salt Lake (3-5-3), which is 3-0-3 at Rice-Eccles Stadium this season. Kansas City (3-4-3) continues to struggle on the road, posting a 1-3-2 mark.

"I thought (in) the second half, our shape was a lot better and they had a lot less dangerous opportunities," Hartman said. "That being said, we didn't necessarily create as many as perhaps we'd have liked.

"Sometimes we play good soccer, but it's not necessarily effective. Like tonight, we didn't really get any opportunities."

Wizards midfielder Davy Arnaud had perhaps the best chance to open the scoring, as his strike in the seventh minute hit the crossbar.

"That was nice of the crossbar to do that," Rimando joked. "I didn't think I was going to get to it and it barely touched my finger and hit the crossbar and goes down. Sometimes, maybe last year that ball bounces in, so our luck may have changed a little bit."

In the 49th minute, Real Salt Lake midfielder Dema Kovalenko blasted a shot off a set piece which Hartman denied.

Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman also had a chance in the waning moments, only to be thwarted by Hartman.

"It's definitely one that we thought was a W - we wanted to win all of (the games on this homestand)," he said. "But, you know I think the effort and the way we play was good, and if we continue that we'll be all right."

Although he would have welcomed a better result, Kansas City coach Curt Onalfo was glad to finish the extended road trip with a fine showing.

"It's not over - seven of our last eight games are at home," Onalfo said. "It will feel good to play in front of our home fans for the first time in three months."