Amarikwa, Fire rally to tie Real Salt Lake

SANDY, Utah — Chicago’s Quincy Amarikwa scored in the 84th minute to counter a goal from Alvaro Saborio in the 78th — as the Fire rallied to play Real Salt Lake to a 1-1 draw Saturday night.

The Fire (2-7-2) snapped a three-match losing streak and improved to 3-2-3 all-time in Utah. The Fire is the only MLS club with a winning road record against Salt Lake (6-5-3).

Saborio scored a few minutes after entering the match as a second-half substitute for Robbie Findley. Playing for the first time in a month, Saborio made his presence felt, scoring after Javier Morales hit the crossbar on a free kick a minute earlier. Ned Grabavoy sent a cross to Saborio in front of the 6-yard box and he headed the ball home inside the left post and put Salt Lake ahead 1-0.

But the Fire wasted no time stepping up on the other end, breaking a scoreless drought of 361 minutes with Amarikwa’s goal. Austin Berry headed a pass to Amarika, who also was a second-half substitute, and he used a bicycle kick to slide the ball under the crossbar.

Chicago hadn’t scored since a 1-0 victory over Columbus on April 20th.

RSL had previously not scored a goal in three matches against the Fire since earning a 1-0 home win on September 18, 2010. The Fire also had gone scoreless against RSL since claiming a 3-0 road victory on September 28, 2011.

Salt Lake had a couple of good scoring chances early after dominating possession for much of the half. Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson came up with big saves to keep RSL off the scoreboard.

Kyle Beckerman fired a right footer at the left post from the right side of the box in the 22nd minute. Johnson met the ball at the post and denied Beckerman. He stepped up again in the 29th after Grabavoy took a cross from Joao Plata and launched a header from the center of the box. Johnson snagged the ball out of the air to deny the potential goal.

RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando became just the fourth player in MLS history to play more than 30,000 career minutes.