D.C. United Vs. Real Salt Lake: Another Charlie Davies Penalty Helps United Scrape 1-1 Draw

For the second time this season, a late penalty from Charlie Davies rescued a point for D.C. United as the Black-and-Red drew 1-1 with Real Salt Lake.

Davies, who came on in place of Josh Wolff in the 62nd minute, won the 83rd-minute penalty himself with what was, in all honesty, a blatant dive under a very benign challenge from RSL defender Chris Wingert. But referee Terry Vaughn, after a long moment of contemplation, pointed to the spot, much to the amazement of Wingert, the rest of his Real Salt Lake teammates, the fans at Rio Tinto Stadium, and anyone who had access to television replays like this one.

Davies' penalty barely eluding the despairing dive of RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando and nestled into the lower right corner of the net in a repeat of his heroics on April 9th, when the striker's 89th minute penalty secured a 1-1 home draw against the Los Angles Galaxy.

United will argue that they deserved a result from this match in spite of the spotty nature of the goal, and it will be hard to argue otherwise. United hit the crossbar twice in the second half, both on shots by Chris Pontius that had Rimando well and truly beaten.Pontius' first opportunity came in the 51st minute, when the midfielder played a one-two with Blake Brettschneider about five yards outside the box before spanking a right-footed shot off the bar. Pontius repeated the trick in the third minute of stoppage time when Andy Najar rolled a free kick through the Real Salt Lake penalty area. Pontius ran onto the ball and banged another right-footed shot off Rimando's crossbar with the last significant kick of the game.

Fabian Espindola's penalty kick in the 38th minute has put Real Salt Lake on top 1-0 over D.C. United as the teams go to halftime at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

D.C. United will feel aggrieved to go into halftime behind by a goal, as they played the home side to a standstill during the first 45 minutes. But seven minutes before halftime, Clyde Simms was penalized harshly for handling the ball in the penalty area by referee Terry Vaughn. It appeared that the ball hit the hand of Simms as opposed to the midfielder making a deliberate attempt to play the ball with his hand. Regardless, the penalty was awarded and Espindola sent Bill Hamid the wrong way as he converted coolly into the bottom corner.

United put the ball into the net in the 14th minute when Chris Pontius redirected a ball from Josh Wolff into the RSL net, but Wolff was correctly ruled to have been offside when he redirected a cross from Perry Kitchen into Pontius' path.

Ben Olsen made two changes to his starting lineup from last weekend's 4-2 loss to San Jose. Jed Zayner, making his return from a hamstring injury, was given his third start of the season in place of Chris Korb in defense, while Stephen King also made his third start of the season in central midfield alongside Simms. Blake Brettschneider started alongside Wolff up top, with Charlie Davies once again relegated to the bench.