MATCHCENTER

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- There must have been something in the water at Toyota Park, but visiting Real Salt Lake looked nothing like their normal selves even though they managed to walk off with a 1-0 win against an unlucky Chicago side.

Robbie Findley, in his second game back from the World Cup, drew and slotted home a penalty kick in the first half and the RSL defense turned away significant amounts of second half pressure from Chicago to extend their league unbeaten streak to 10.

Fire Head Coach Carlos de los Cobos was forced to field an inexperienced starting XI due to a rash of injuries. Rookie defenders Steven Kinney and Kwame Watson-Siriboe joined lightly used forward Stefan Dimitrov in the starting lineup. De los Cobos also pushed normal center back Wilman Conde into the midfield.

GOALS

	VS
CHICAGO		REAL SALT LAKE

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Comparison

	CHICAGO		REAL SALT LAKE
SHO Shots				SHO Shots
SOG Shots on Goal				SOG Shots on Goal
SVS Saves				SVS Saves
F Fouls				F Fouls
OFF Offsides				OFF Offsides
CK Corner Kicks				CK Corner Kicks

Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis only made one change to the side that defeated New England 5-0 last Friday, as forward Robbie Findley came into the team for Fabian Espindola.

Kreis earlier said that his team's style was like that of Spain's, and they certainly controlled most of the first half with a possession-based attack. Chicago bunkered down on defense and closed the gaps, creating a solid wall that RSL attempted to chip at with their passing.

However, aside from off-target shots and weak efforts, neither side created much until Findley nearly put Salt Lake ahead in the 38th minute. The American striker, making his first start since returning from South Africa, was sent on a run by Alvaro Saborio and dribbled to the top of the box, where he decided to curl a right-footed shot from 20 yards out that rattled the right post.

Findley kept at it and put the visitors ahead one minute later. Fire defender C.J. Brown tripped Findley in the left side of the box, prompting referee Terry Vaughn to whistle for a penalty kick. The forward buried the spot kick into the lower right corner to score the eventual winner.

In the 43rd minute, Findley should have had another goal. Salt Lake midfielder Javier Morales played the speedy forward behind the Fire back four with a long ball, but Findley squandered his one-on-one chance with Dykstra, inexplicably failing to shoot before being forced out to the edge of the box and having a cross cleared.

De los Cobos made two changes at the half, bringing Brian McBride on for the largely ineffective Dimitrov and midfielder Justin Mapp on for the defensive minded Logan Pause.

The changes made an immediate difference and Chicago started to possess more of the ball, leading to more chances on goal. Kinney – making his MLS debut – nearly equalized in the 48th minute. The Elon University product got on the end of Mike Banner’s corner kick, but his headed effort bounced off the right post.

Amazingly, in the 57th minute, Kinney was again denied by the upright. Just like the first time around, Kinney got on the end of a Banner corner kick, the only difference being that Kinney bounced his header off the left post.

Try as they might, Chicago couldn’t muster any further chances and fell victim to their second straight loss.

Real Salt Lake (8-3-4) are next scheduled to play a week from Saturday, when they’ll travel to Texas to take on FC Dallas.

Chicago (4-4-6) missed a prime opportunity to move into third place in the East before beginning SuperLiga play Wednesday night against Mexican team Monarcas de Morelia. The Fire will continue SuperLiga play throughout July, with their next league match set for Aug. 1 against league-leaders LA Galaxy.

Scoring Summary:

RSL -- Robbie Findley 3 (penalty kick) 40

Misconduct Summary:

CHI -- Wilman Conde (caution; Reckless Foul) 51

RSL -- Will Johnson (caution; Dissent) 69

RSL -- Fabian Espindola (caution; Delaying a Restart) 9

Lineups:

Real Salt Lake -- Nick Rimando, Robbie Russell, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert, Andy Williams (Jean Alexandre 76), Ned Grabavoy, Javier Morales, Will Johnson, Alvaro Saborio (Tony Beltran 84), Robbie Findley (Fabian Espindola 58).

Chicago Fire -- Andrew Dykstra, C.J. Brown, Steven Kinney, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Krzysztof Krol, Marco Pappa, Baggio Husidic (Corben Bone 85), Logan Pause (Justin Mapp 46), Wilman Conde, Mike Banner, Stefan Dimitrov (Brian McBride 46).

Referee: Terry Vaughn
Referee's Assistants: Greg Barkey; Corey Rockwell
4th Official: Abiodun Okulaja
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 80 degrees
Attendance: 17,847