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Real Salt Lake ties United for 1st point on road

May 24, 2009 - 4:50 AM WASHINGTON (STATS) - Real Salt Lake still hasn't scored on the road, but at least it's no longer pointless away from home.

Real limited D.C. United to one shot on goal in a 0-0 draw Saturday night to earn its first point on the road.

Salt Lake (3-5-2) was outscored 7-0 while dropping its first four on the road.

"We've played four road games and lost every match," coach Jason Kreis said. "It's important that we get something tonight. It's a step in the right direction."

United (3-1-7) began the day as the highest-scoring team in MLS with 17 goals but put little pressure on Nick Rimando, who returned after missing three straight games due to a finger injury to record his 53rd career shutout.

"To put that kind of defensive commitment into a match when we're playing against D.C. United, who has got all kinds of creative and gifted attacking players, we have to be proud of ourselves tonight," Kreis said.

Real, though, remained winless in its last six (0-4-2) despite putting eight shots on goal.

"I felt like we had some pretty good chances, but like I said, you could have 20 shots to eight and give up a goal at the other end and come out with no points," midfielder Ned Grabavoy said. "It's a stepping stone, if you want to put it that way."

D.C., unbeaten in its last seven (2-0-5), got a strong performance from Josh Wicks in net in improving to 3-0-2 all-time at home against Salt Lake.

Wicks made his second straight start after helping United beat New York 5-3 in a U.S. Open Cup play-in match Wednesday.

"Josh did well," coach Tom Soehn said. "As we tried to get the goal you obviously leave yourself open to a counter and I thought the defenders did well. ... Josh came out of the box real well, made a couple of big saves when we needed it. But we're disappointed in the other side of it - not creating enough opportunities."

Soehn said his team appeared to be tired after playing its third match in eight days.

"I thought we were flat," he said. "The one thing we've done against other teams that have bunkered that we've been able to open up is because our movement off each other has been so good. We addressed that at halftime and we started to move off each other.

"And at the end of the game we started playing kickball instead of playing our game, which is something that we haven't done in a while. We'll take time to watch it and make sure it doesn't happen again."

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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com.