Sandy » Thanks to a dramatic last-minute own-goal, Real Salt Lake avoided losing at home to one of the worst teams in Major League Soccer.

But that's not enough, anymore.

However dramatic the point-saving goal in the 91st minute might have seemed to the 17,478 fans at Rio Tinto Stadium, nobody in the RSL locker room was celebrating the 1-1 tie with the San Jose Earthquakes, knowing that they had blown their chance to earn the home victory they so desperately needed to start crawling back into the playoff hunt over the second half of the season.

"Three points or bust, at home," coach Jason Kreis said. "And we didn't get three points, so it's a failure."

Not just on that level, either.

Striker Fabian Espindola became the latest player to get ejected with a senseless red card, forcing RSL to play the final 13 minutes a man down. Only then -- after San Jose had gone ahead on Arturo Alvarez's give-and-go weave through about four defenders in the 63rd minute -- did RSL really show the spark and energy that Kreis would have liked to see from the start.

Yet even when it finally evened the score, it was mostly because of an Earthquake mistake, with defender Chris Leitch deflecting a ball back toward his own goal, catching goalkeeper Joe Cannon diving the other way as the ball trickled across the line near the far post. The goal allowed RSL to tie the franchise record with a five-game unbeaten streak, but not much else.

"Big, big disappointment," striker Yura Movsisyan said. "We just have to put teams away in the first half, when we get our chances. ... If we had put one in, game over. These guys, you could tell they were tired already, and they got two injuries right away. It was just a matter of us being sharp, and we weren't sharp today."

The Earthquakes had not won on the road all season, and again were playing without Darren Huckerby, last season's MLS newcomer of the year who has been battling a quadriceps injury all season. They became even more depleted when midfielders Bobby Convey and captain Ramiro Corrales both suffered injuries in the first half that forced them out of the game; Convey hurt his left hamstring and Corrales sprained his right ankle.

Still, RSL could not take advantage, despite generally controlling the game.

"We had perfect control of the game," defender Robbie Russell said. "We just couldn't put the ball away."

The frustration boiled over late in the game, with RSL growing ever more annoyed at San Jose's habitual stalling tactics.

Following a confrontation over a dead ball during which the two seemed to nearly come to blows, San Jose's Brandon McDonald tripped up Espindola while making a tackle, and Espindola retaliated by lashing out and kicking McDonald, tripping him to the ground and immediately drawing the red card. He will be suspended for RSL's next league game, at Columbus on July 18, following disciplinary suspensions earlier this season to midfielder Javier Morales and defender Jamison Olave and Russell.

"These decisions are costing us points," Kreis said. "These are personal decisions. They're putting themselves before the team, and it's costing the team."

Morales started despite suffering an ankle injury in a 3-0 win over Toronto last weekend, and striker Robbie Findley came on as a substitute for his first action since spraining his ankle against Colorado on June 6. But RSL also played without three midfielders -- captain Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson and Jean Alexandre -- who are away playing at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Not that Kreis pinned the result on that.

"I wouldn't say so," he said. "The guys who were out there have enough talent, know what they're doing, and should be able to win that game."

The letdown moved RSL to 5-6-5 overall with just 20 points -- the Earthquakes are 3-8-4 with 13 -- and could portend roster changes soon. General manager Garth Lagerwey said he will never judge the team on just one game, but acknowledged that the San Jose game was the last in a series of five during which management wanted to make a serious assessment of the team and its direction.

"There are trades out there to be more aggressive, if we feel like that's necessary," he said before the game. "If we need to make changes, we will."

mcl@sltrib.com