Sandy •Â The legendary Thierry Henry made his first visit to Utah on Saturday night. And just like so many others before him, the international superstar left without a victory.

Fabian Espindola scored in the fourth minute, and Real Salt Lake made it hold up for a 1-0 victory against Henry and the New York Red Bulls in front of 19,115 fans that allowed RSL to tie the record for the longest home unbeaten streak in Major League Soccer history.

The defending MLS Cup champions have played 22 regular-season games at Rio Tinto Stadium since their last loss nearly 16 months ago, tying the record set last year by the Columbus Crew.

"We feel really good about that statistic," coach Jason Kreis said. "Now, in the next match, we'll be gangbusters going to break the record. It is important to us. We take a lot of pride in this building."

Just as importantly, the victory pulled RSL to within one point of the league lead, in the race for the Supporters Shield regular-season championship. The team is 12-4-7 for 43 points, trailing the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Columbus Crew, who both have 44 points with seven regular-season games remaining.

"To win the Supporters Shield would be a fantastic thing to put in our trophy case," defender Nat Borchers said. "One of the toughest things in sports to do is to say you're the best team over the course of the entire season."

That's a big motivation for a team that many derided as a fluke when it won the MLS Cup last season after entering the playoffs with a losing record. It wants to "answer a lot of naysayers," Kreis said, "and what they said about us last season."

It's certainly proving its point.

Although coaches and players were dissatisfied with a second half in which they couldn't seem to keep possession, RSL shut down one of the most potent attacks in the league and rendered Henry and fellow designated player Juan Pablo Angel virtually invisible.

As a result, goalkeeper Nick Rimando earned his 11th shutout of the season — though he needed some help from midfielders Andy Williams and Kyle Beckerman, who each cleared dangerous balls off the line.

"Anytime you look at the lineup sheet and it says Thierry Henry and Juan Pablo Angel, I think you probably are thinking, 'I hope they don't score too many goals on us,' " Kreis said. "So to have zero is quite nice."

Both teams played without several starters who were away with their national teams, including the marquee Mexican midfielder Rafael Marquez of the Red Bulls — they fell to 11-8-4 — and RSL's Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson.

Goalkeeper Greg Sutton also was making just his second start of the season in place of regular Bouna Coundoul for the Red Bulls, and Espindola victimized him almost as soon as the game began.

After a couple of quick passes off a throw-in, Espindola raced past defender Tim Ream, took a quick touch and poked the ball past the charging Sutton for his sixth goal of the season.

RSL created plenty of other dangerous chances, but hit only outside netting on both sides of the goal and on top of it with its best ones.

"Everybody stayed focused, at least," Beckerman said. "That's the main thing. Nobody lost concentration. … It was just a game we need to win to keep pace in that Supporters Shield" race.

mcl@sltrib.com —

Highlights

R IN SHORT • Real Salt Lake extends its home unbeaten streak to 22 games, tying the league record.

KEY STAT • RSL is 15-0-7 during its home unbeaten streak.

KEY MOMENT • Fabian Espindola races onto a pass in the fourth minute and pokes it past goalkeeper Greg Sutton for the only goal of the game.