Nick Rimando kept out a late penalty kick from Juninho as Real Salt Lake held on to a 0-0 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Jordan Allen got the first good chance of the evening for Real Salt Lake in the 13th minute as he worked his body to get a shot away from beyond the eighteen yard box. Unfortunately for the youngster, his effort was hit straight at Jaime Penedo.
RSL hovered around the back shoulders of the Galaxy's back line early as they tried to time their runs in behind to perfection. But more times than not, they were off just hair and as a result, were called offside. The next big chance for the hosts came through Álvaro Saborio as he had a header from close range loop over the top of the goal with about ten minutes left to go in the half.
LA's first half-chance of the match came with just a few minutes to go until halftime time when a corner was whipped into the box excellently, but Alan Gordon could not really get a good chance on it. In the first minute of stoppage time, Gyasi Zardes had a free header from the edge of the six and he just did not convert a cross from Stefan Ishizaki.
The first half was controlled by Real for the most part as they saw the majority of the ball and got the better of the chances off. However, Bruce Arena's back line performed admirably as they forced the home team to go offside on seven occasions and cleared away everything that got inside the area.
As the second half began, it was looking like it would be a carbon copy of the first with both clubs unable to string together more than four or five passes before they turned the ball over. Luke Mulholland got a little bit of space in the box and curled one that forced Penedo to make a decent save seven minutes into the half. In the 66th minute of the match, Dan Gargan floated a ball towards Alan Gordon and nearly found the back of the net but Nick Rimando pushed the ball over the top of the goal to keep the match level.
The match was really starting to pick up with twenty minutes to go and Álvaro Saborio got a clean look at goal but the Galaxy goal keeper was there to keep the ball out. Leonardo lost his footing on the edge of the area and Saborio won the ball, let fly and the ball took a deflection on its way through but Penedo was there again to save the day for LA.
Jámison Olave pulled down Omar Gonzalez off of a free kick right at the end of normal time and Juninho stepped up to the spot. However, his effort was fairly week and Nick Rimando did very well to dive to his left to keep the tie intact.
Los Angeles will now continue their road trip as they head on down to Texas to take on FC Dallas while Real Salt Lake take on the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park in Chicago -- both games on Saturday.