Just six minutes in, Real Salt Lake lost out on a chance to take an early lead when Fabian Espindola's goal was waved off for offside. Espindola, however, celebrated by doing a backflip and wound up breaking his leg.
Still, Real Salt Lake held a lead with 22 minutes remaining before the Galaxy pulled even and the two teams eventually split a pair of points following a 2-2 draw at The Home Depot Center.
"We're a bit disappointed in that result. We came into the game knowing that they were missing a lot of key players, a lot of important players and we were confident enough to come here and think we could take away the full three points," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "Having said that, we haven't been very good on the road this season so I think we have to do take some positive stuff out of the game."
The positives certainly kept Real Salt Lake in an advantageous position in the Western Conference table. With 31 points, RSL is atop all but Houston in the standings. The point also avoided another road setback as RSL improved its road record to 1-8-2.
Yet RSL had much more in its grasp. The Galaxy played without four players, including David Beckham and Landon Donovan, as they were away on international duty.
"A result on the road is something that has been hard for us this year and we were feeling that we were going to win that one so sure it gets us a little bit in the gut," RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "It's still a point, we're still in second place and I guess we've just go keep our confidence up."
It looked like RSL would take advantage of the Galaxy's international absences early on. Espindola capped an early rally with an apparent goal after he re-directed a Kyle Beckerman shot from distance into the back of the net. Espindola glanced at the referee's assistant, who did not have his flag raised, and raced toward the middle of the field. Before his bench, Espindola did a backflip but landed awkwardly.
He crumpled to the ground while the match officials conferred and eventually took the goal away from the visitors.
"My initial indication from upstairs was that it was offside so I can't complain," Kreis said. "I wish they would have been a little quicker because then my player wouldn't have celebrated the goal and broken his leg."
For Espindola, the pain was immediate even if the realization of what had happened was not.
"I heard a little noise and I felt my foot give way. I had no solid footing when I came down," Espindola said. "They told me that it was possibly fractured and I knew that was probably what had happened. I didn't realize until way later (that the goal was disallowed). I thought I had scored and thought that for a while."
Instead, as team personnel tended to Espindola, the Galaxy took advantage. Edson Buddle placed a shot on goal that Rimando turned away, but the rebound fell to Jordan who scored the game's first goal.
Yura Movsisyan, who replaced Espindola in the ninth minute, equalized 12 minutes later. Movsisyan found the back of the net as RSL was rewarded for its attacking persistence.
"The Galaxy is known for giving up goals so we knew we'd get chances," Beckerman said. "It didn't affect us at all. We just kept playing and tied it up which we expected and took the lead which we expected."
RSL went up 2-1 when Will Johnson scored in the 52nd minute. Movsisyan combined with Johnson on the goal as Movsisyan slipped a return ball to Johnson on a one-two inside the area that Johnson did well to bury.
Coming off the bench for RSL, Movsisyan contributed a lot to his club.
"He's been very bright over the last few weeks and really making good decisions and scoring goals," Kreis said of Movsisyan. "Wednesday night he scored a goal against Tigres so I wasn't surprised to see him play well (Saturday) and score."
But RSL showed why the club owns one of the worst road records in the league. Ahead 2-1, RSL squandered the lead when Jordan found Buddle in front of the net. Buddle slipped free from RSL's backline easily knocked the equalizer into the back of the net.
"You give him in an inch and he's going to bury it," Beckerman said of Buddle. "He got two inches and he buried it. It was tough."
Still, the point earned could prove useful down the line.
"At the end of the day we did pick up a point on the road which is better than most of our road games this year," Kreis said.
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