SANDY -- The Red Bulls rolled into Sandy with one of the most legendary soccer players in the world on Saturday night.
It didn't matter.
Forward Fabian Espindola blitzed home a grounder in the fourth minute and Real Salt Lake once again proved why it is the best team in Major League Soccer at home, blanking New York 1-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
The win extends Real Salt Lake's home unbeaten streak to 22 consecutive matches in league play and ties the MLS record. RSL is 15-0-7 at home during the streak, and hasn't lost in Rio Tinto since May of 2009.
"We want to win every game at home; it's what's expected of us," Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "We're starting to get results on the road consistently now too. We're going to keep working on finishing and see where it goes."
With the results around the league on Saturday, RSL 12-4-7 (43 points) suddenly finds itself just one point behind Los Angeles and Columbus in the race for the Supporters Shield, given annually to the MLS team with the best regular season record.
With just three of their final seven MLS matches at home, however, RSL boss Jason Kreis admits that his squad is likely a longshot for that Shield, especially given the added matches due to RSL's participation in the CONCACEF Champions League.
"Just given the number of home vs. away matches, that puts us behind the 8-ball," Kreis said. "It would be huge. We feel a lot of pride in what we've done here over here over the last several years."
Espindola's early heroics on a well-placed dual pass from midfielder Javier Morales to Beckerman, instantly energized the crowd of 19,115, which remained vocal for most of the match.
That crowd went home happy, not just due to the goal, but also thanks to a pair of saves on the goalline by Andy Williams and Beckerman.
Nick Rimano picked up his third consecutive clean sheet in goal, leaving him all alone atop the MLS leaderboard with 11 this season.
* REVOLUTION 3, SOUNDERS 1: At Foxborough, Mass., Chris Tierney scored the tying goal in the 70th minute and Marko Perovic got the game winner 3 minutes later to lead the New England Revolution to a victory over Seattle.
Kheli Dube added a goal in the 81st minute for the Revolution (7-12-3), capping their late scoring surge and preserving their faint playoff hopes.
Steve Zakuani scored in the 59th minute for Seattle (9-9-5).
The Revolution tested Sounders goalie Kasey Keller early with a series of shots.
* CREW 1, UNITED 0: At Washington, Guillermo Barros Schelotto scored his seventh goal of the season as the Columbus Crew increased their lead in the Eastern Conference with a win over last-place D.C. United.
Schelotto scored after United goalkeeper Bill Hamid fanned on the ball after mishandling a back pass from Clyde Simms. Schelotto was there to put in an easy left-footed shot.
The Crew (12-6-5) extended their lead to seven points over the second-place New York Red Bulls. United (4-16-3) were shut out for the 15th time this season.
The teams were playing for the second time in four days, following the Crew's 2-1 win over United in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal game on Wednesday. United defender Marc Burch reinjured his foot in that game and is out for the season.
* GALAXY 1, FIRE 1: At Bridgeview, Ill., Omar Gonzalez headed in a corner by Landon Donovan in the 90th minute, allowing the Los Angeles Galaxy to tie the short-handed Chicago Fire.
Chicago was already without leading scorer Marco Pappa, who is on national team duty with Guatemala, and the Fire was forced to play with only 10 men after Gonzalo Segares' ejection in the 21st minute. But Collins John, who came on in the 83rd, gave Chicago (6-7-7) the lead with a free kick from 20 yards in the 87th minute, curling it past a diving Donovan Ricketts and just inside the far post.
Fire fans were still celebrating when Gonzalez evened things up. Donovan placed the corner kick perfectly, finding Gonzalez right in front of the goal. Gonzalez nudged the ball in with his head, and Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson could do little but wave a hand at it as it sailed into the net.
The draw snapped a season-long two-game losing streak for the Galaxy (13-5-5), who lead Major League Soccer with 44 points.
* FC DALLAS 1, TORONTO FC 0: At Frisco, Texas, Jeff Cunningham scored in the 47th minute, helping FC Dallas extend its club-record unbeaten streak to 13 matches.
David Ferreira set up Cunningham's goal by looping a pass over three defenders to Marvin Chavez who redirected the ball back to Cunningham, who scored from the top of the penalty box.
FC Dallas (10-2-10) improved to 8-0-5 during its streak.
* RAPIDS 3, CHIVAS USA 0: At Commerce City, Colo., Omar Cummings scored two second-half goals and Conor Casey added another, leading Colorado past Chivas USA.
Cummings turned down an invitation from the Jamaican national team to play in a friendly match against Costa Rica on Sunday because of green-card issues. That was to the Rapids' benefit as he tallied his seventh and eighth goals of the season.
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