A 10-man San Jose Earthquakes opened their extensive road trip on a positive note by holding Real Salt Lake to a 0-0 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Wednesday night.
Playing the entire second half a man down after Jason Hernandez was sent off, the Earthquakes absorbed a series of attacks from Salt Lake and settled for the point away from home.
Most of the opening minutes were played on either end as both sides were pushing for an early goal, with the ball spending very little time in the midfield. Each side exchanged scoring chances as Matias Cordoba pounded a cross from Chris Wingert high and wide for the home side. Then, in the 17th minute John Cunliffe got on the end of a corner kick that was nodded down, and sent his chance sailing over the crossbar.
Kelly Gray stepped in front of Kyle Beckerman in the 21st minute to impede the RSL midfielder of getting a good shot off inside the San Jose penalty area. Beckerman's shot got past Gray, but bounced weakly to goalkeeper Joe Cannon.
Nearly five minutes later defender Hernandez tried to slow a streaking Robbie Findley by giving a tug on the RSL striker's shirt. Referee Jasen Anno whistled the foul and showed Hernandez a yellow card.
Then not 20 minutes later, Hernandez clattered into Findley with a hard tackle and was shown his second yellow, thus dismissed from the match, reducing the Quakes to 10 men just before the intermission.
On the other side of the break the Quakes created the first scoring chance on a shot from Cunliffe. Ronnie O'Brien flew down the right sideline before sending a delicate chip into the penalty area. Cunliffe brought the pass down with a touch but then cranked a shot well over the crossbar.
Playing shorthanded in the second half, the Quakes did a bit more defending as RSL took control of most of the possession during the period. Although Salt Lake saw most of the ball the San Jose defense were solid in their effort to stifle the RSL offense.
On one occasion where Salt Lake broke through, in the 59th minute, Findley got around Cannon, but couldn't get back to cross the ball over before it was cleared over the end line by Gray for a Salt Lake corner.
O'Brien and Dema Kovalenko got reacquainted in the middle of the park with Kovalenko fouled the veteran midfielder some 30 yards from goal. After exchanging a few words with Kovalenko, O'Brien lined up a laser that barely sailed over the crossbar.
The Salt Lake crowd was sent into a frenzy in the 71st minute when it appeared that Beckerman touched in corner kick from close range. However, after the referee consulted with his assistant it was determined that Beckerman was offside and the clean sheet for San Jose was still intact.
Two minutes later RSL were knocked on the door again as Javiar Morales knocked a shot off the woodwork. In the 76th minute there was a moment of panic when Eric Denton took out RSL's Tony Beltran in the penalty area. As the Salt Lake defender went down eyes were on referee Anno, who signaled for play to continue.
Cannon was forced to make a surprise save in the 82nd minute. Second-half substitute Kenny Cutler let a shot go from 25 yards that Cannon had to push over the bar for safety.
The Quakes absorbed to preserve the shutout as a late series of attacks from the home side as RSL couldn't get any dangerous shots on frame.
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
