with the four games in between all losses.
• A scrappy affair finally saw a goal scored in the 85th minute -- after a rare Houston defensive misplay. Chris Lancos sent the ball forward, and as Wade Barrett tried to play it, a poor touch allowed Findley to latch onto it and race in at goal. With a shot from the right side of the area, Findley found the inside of the left netting past Onstad's dive and gave Real the eventual game-winner.
• RSL head coach Jason Kreis made one change to the team that lost 2-1 to the New England Revolution the previous Saturday. With Andy Williams suspended, Kyle Brown came in up top as Chris Brown moved into a wide midfield role.
• Here's Kreis's team (4-4-2): Nick Rimando - Jean-Martial Kipre (Chris Lancos 79), Ritchie Kotschau, Eddie Pope, Chris Wingert - Chris Brown (Jamie Watson 66), Kyle Beckerman, Carey Talley, Nathan Sturgis - Robbie Findley, Kyle Brown (Atiba Harris 79). Substitutes Not Used: Nikolas Besagno, Kenny Cutler, Christian Jimenez, Chris Seitz
• "(We are) very, very happy. Like I said yesterday, probably nobody outside our locker room believed we could win that game, but we had a locker room full of guys and a staff full of coaches and probably an office full of Real Salt Lake workers that believed and it was nice to see it come true," Kreis said.
TEAM NEWS
• For Kreis, Findley's goal just capped the night for the rookie striker and showed the promise he saw when he acquired him from the LA Galaxy. It was also a great way for Findley to celebrate his 22nd birthday.
• "He was absolutely unbelievable the entire game and the goal really just capped off all of the hard work that he put into that match. That just blew my mind the amount of work he was putting in, the lost causes he was chasing down in the first half, making sliding tackles to keep the ball in play and into the box," Kreis said. "For me, man of the match, no question."
• Kreis also continues to be pleased with his midfield, after the acquisition of Kyle Beckerman and Nathan Sturgis - and more importantly, their integration into the team, along with Carey Talley
• "It's really amazing to us, as a staff, how quickly those guys clicked, have just hit it off, and it's because all three players are similar players," Kreis said. "All are intelligent, keep themselves in the right spot a lot of the time, and make good decisions whether it's with the ball or without it."
• In Kreis's head coaching debut, RSL scored two goals after the 90th minute to snatch a 3-3 draw with the New York Red Bulls. The win against Dynamo was the first time they had scored a late goal to get a result since, despite many disappointments the other way.
• "Yeah, it's definitely relieving because that hasn't happened for a while, something always seems to happen in the later part of the game," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. But today we concentrated the whole 90 minutes. Everybody fought and to get a win tonight against one of the best teams in the league shows that we can play with the best. And when we do play good soccer and we concentrate, we can win games."
• It was RSL's first shutout in eight matches, since a scoreless draw against New England on June 2. "[The defense] played great. I can't even count the number of times we went forward with our right and left back. I mean [Ritchie] Kotschau, Jean-Martial [Kipre], everybody. [Chris] Lancos when he came in did superb, and that's what we need from backs. Eddie [Pope] organized; everybody was in sync. They all showed a lot and I think that was the key for tonight's win," Rimando said.
• On June 23, Real won their first game of the season with a surprise victory against D.C. United, then went on an 11-day break before playing host to Toronto. Hopes were high that Real could build on the win against United, but instead, things seemed to unravel as the visitors got the victory.
• "Hopefully, we don't come out lethargic like last time, and we learned our lesson," Andy Williams said. The only thing to do, he said, is to "keep playing competitive games in practice, and keep reminding ourselves that it's not over yet, we've only won one game, and don't make the same mistake twice.
• Said Rimando: "Until we start winning [the Houston win was] just one game, and I think right now in the second half, it's one game at a time and that's what we have to keep on concentrating on. We're not looking to the playoffs, we're looking to the next game against Chicago. Hopefully we'll be in the right mentality, the same mentality as tonight against them, and we can keep on moving."
CHICAGO FIRE
The Chicago Fire are also coming off a two-week layoff, their last match a scoreless draw with the Columbus Crew on Aug. 4 at Toyota Park. The Fire sit tied for sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 20 points from 18 matches, level with Toronto FC (who have played two more games), six points behind the Columbus Crew.
LAST MATCH
• The Fire were coming off a 3-0 win in Toronto that put an end to a six-game winless streak, while the Crew rebounded from their first loss in six games in their last match, a 2-0 win against TFC.
• Before an overflow crowd in Bridgeview, Blanco started for the Men in Red in a playmaking role behind the front two. As the crowd cheered nearly every touch he made, he suffered 12 fouls on the night, an MLS single-game record.
• The Crew's Argentinean playmaker, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, was most dangerous from set piece opportunities. Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens, who was called upon to make four saves of the night, stopped Andy Herron from close range with three minutes remaining to preserve his sixth clean sheet on the season.
• In his third game in charge, Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio maintained the same team that defeated Toronto FC 3-0 the weekend before.
• Here's Osorio's team (3-4-1-2): Matt Pickens - C.J. Brown, Diego Gutierrez (Bakary Soumare 84), Gonzalo Segares - Logan Pause, Dasan Robinson, Chris Armas, Ivan Guerrero - Cuauhtemoc Blanco - Calen Carr (Chris Rolfe 71), Chad Barrett (Paulo Wanchope 58). Substitutes Not Used: Jon Busch, Thiago, Bruno Menezes, Daniel Woolard
• "The effort was there. We competed very well with them. I think we looked like we were in the game for the whole 90 minutes," Osorio said. "As performance goes, I'm reasonably happy with what we did but we need to finish our chances better."
TEAM NEWS
• After allowing four goals in his first game in charge, Osorio saw his team keep a clean sheet for the second consecutive match.
• "Defensively, I think for the second game in a row, we limited the opposition to very few chances. If I'm not mistaken, I remember Matt [Pickens] making a great save towards the end, but other than that I don't think he was really stretched. I think defensively we did well. We dealt very well with Moreno today and with Guillermo Schelotto. I think what we planned during the week worked out," Osorio said.
• However, after scoring three goals in Cuauhtemoc Blanco's debut against Toronto, the Fire were against shut out, the seventh time in their last 11 matches they were held without a goal.
• "Offensively, I have to be critical to my players and say that we have to be more effective with our chances, because there will be plenty of games like today's game where we only have two or three chances and we just need to finish one of them and we will have a chance to win games," Osorio said.
• Osorio had Costa Rican international Paulo Wanchope finally available for his Fire debut, but instead selected to bring him in off the bench for the final half-hour.
• "I think they (Calen Carr and Chad Barrett) did enough to deserve a place in the starting lineup. Today, Paulo got in very good positions but was a little rusty. He needs to do more training sessions. We've done 16 training sessions and he has only done four or five," Osorio said. "So I decided that he still needs more finishing and work around the box and that's what we will be doing next week."
• As well, for the first time since mid-May, a healthy Chris Rolfe was available. He came on in the 71st minute for his first appearance since injuring an ankle in the loss against Toronto on May 12.
• "Similar to Paulo, my plan was to resist the temptation to start him with the team, because, without a doubt, he will be a great asset for us in the last part of the season," Osorio said. "But he's also training full strength with the team and the more training he does the more he will regain his match fitness."
• Suffering an MLS-record 12 fouls was frustrating for Blanco. "He's a guy that is going to get a lot of touches on the ball. So it can be expected that he is going to suffer a lot of fouls," said Diego Gutierrez. "At the same time, we've got to remind him that he is new to these referees and it's completely different from the Mexican league and the international game. He's just got to get used to it and be patient. Some calls are going to go against and some for him, so he's just got to keep his cool and keep playing."
