CARSON, Calif. - Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and Chivas USA's Paulo Nagamura spent a lot of time knocking each other around the midfield and arguing about it at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night.

But Nagamura enjoyed the last word.

Taking advantage of Beckerman's defensive mistake, the Brazilian fired home the only goal of the game in the 54th minute to give the league-leading Goats a 1-0 victory that kept RSL both scoreless and pointless in four games on the road this season - despite an otherwise encouraging effort, using a new formation.

"We feel like we did almost everything right in this game," defender Nat Borchers said. "We all feel like we deserved a point."

Having lost its first three road games of the season without scoring, coach Jason Kreis switched to a more defensive 4-5-1 alignment, hoping to grind out at least a scoreless draw against the best defense in Major League Soccer.

And it almost worked.

Although Salt Lake City's Justin Braun threatened for Chivas more than once, RSL dealt well with the pressure, and manufactured some good chances of its own.

But when Beckerman shanked a clearance on the wet and slippery grass near the hour mark, Chivas' Sacha Kljestan was able to outleap RSL's Will Johnson to head a pass for Nagamura - open at the top of the box - who fired past goalkeeper Chris Seitz and ultimately sent the 13,421 fans home happy.

"It's disappointing not to get the result we wanted," Kreis said. "But that's the way we need to play on the road. That's the right road mentality. And we still created enough chances to walk away with some points."

Indeed, forced to press for an equalizer, RSL proved dangerous - just unlucky.

Midfielder Javier Morales had a tantalizing breakaway turned away by goalkeeper Zach Thornton, and missed just wide with another hopeful shot, while midfielder Andy Williams' header in stoppage time sailed wide. As a result, RSL remained the only team in the league with neither a goal nor a point on the road.

Frustration showed after the whistle, too, when defender Jamison Olave had to be restrained from confronting Kjlestan and the referees at midfield. Olave and Morales were back in the lineup for RSL after serving one-game suspensions.

"We had some chances," Beckerman said. "We were in the game, but we didn't take advantage."

While RSL fell to 3-4-1, the Goats extended one of the best starts in league history to 7-1-1 - for 22 out of a possible 27 points. Thornton earned his sixth shutout of the season, having allowed just one goal in the last six games, and only three in the whole season.