COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- Trailing by a goal at halftime, Oscar Pareja made a request of his team. "We were behind by a goal and hadnt played badly," the Colorado Rapids coach said. "We needed to take more control of the tempo." The Rapids did just that. Jaime Castrillon scored the tying goal in the 70th minute and the Colorado Rapids extended their unbeaten streak to seven games with a 2-2 draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday. "I am proud of the team for the way they responded," Pareja said. "The boys showed what they are made of in the second half." Castrillons goal off a header was his first of the season. Deshorn Brown added a goal for Colorado (9-7-8). The Rapids are 4-0-3 in their past seven games after a 0-4-1 stretch. Midfielder Atiba Harris left in the first half with a right quad injury. The Rapids were already without Hendry Thomas, who served the first of a two-game suspension after receiving a second yellow card in last weeks game with Los Angeles. The game was halted for an hour and two minutes in the first half due to lightening in the area. Several downpours of rain made for difficult field conditions. "The weather really didnt bother us," Brown said. "We were concentrating so much on getting the three points." Alvero Saborio and Ned Grabavoy scored goals for Real Salt Lake (11-7-5). Real Salt Lake maintained a three-point lead over Colorado for first place in the Western Conference. "That was the most critical part of the game," Real Salt Lake Robbie Findley said. "We would have liked to have come out of here with three points, but we are glad we came out of this with a point." Real Salt Lake scored a minute and 20 seconds into the game when former Rapids player Kyle Beckerman found Grabavoy in front of the left post. Grabavoy easily beat Clint Irwin for his fifth goal of the season. Brown got the equalizer for the Rapids in the ninth minute with his sixth goal. Brown outmuscled Nat Borchers for the ball inside the scoring zone and lofted a kick over goalkeeper Nick Rimando into the net. Findley drew a penalty kick when was hauled down by Colorado defender Drew Moor in the 21st minute. The kick was delayed when play was halted due to lightening in the area. When play was resumed, Saborio converted the penalty kick in the 21st minute. Irwin had no chance on the ball that whistled past his right hand. Irwin showed his frustration by shoving Saborio to the ground after the goal, earning a yellow card. Rain continued to fall at a steady rate throughout the second half. Rimando made two saves on shots in the 53rd minute. The second was made on Castrillon with Rimando on his knees. Colorado went on the offensive for the winning goal. Castrillon got behind the Real Salt Lake defence and Christopher Klute found him with a cross. Castrillon sent a header past Rimando. "I was thought it was great the way we came out and scored our first goal and then got the lead on the penalty kick," Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kries said. "And then we had the really bad play between two experienced players." Clearance Paul George Shoes . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Paul George Shoes Deals . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. https://www.cheappaulgeorgeshoes.com/ . Nigeria beat surprise package Ethiopia 2-0 in the second leg of their playoff for a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory. Victor Moses converted a 20th-minute penalty after an Ethiopian handball, and Victor Obinna made certain of Nigerias place in Brazil with his powerful free kick in the 82nd at UJ Esuene Stadium. Wholesale Paul George Shoes .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents. Cheap Paul George Shoes .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. SAN FRANCISCO -- The oldest Latino civil rights group in the United States opens every meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, a tradition resulting from a long fight to prove Hispanics belong in this country.In the San Francisco Bay Area, a white father of two says he would never require his young daughters to recite the pledge to show their patriotism.And in North Dakota, Native American protesters whose ancestors were here long before there was a United States waved American flags as they fought a proposed pipeline near sacred tribal land. Some demonstrators flew the flag upside down as a distress symbol.San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernicks refusal to stand during The Star-Spangled Banner in protest against racial oppression and police brutality has brought to light deep and sometimes surprising differences in the way Americans view the flag, the national anthem and the pledge.The symbols, people say, inspire skepticism and heartbreak, pride and joy, sometimes all at once in the same person. Some minorities, in particular, have conflicted feelings about symbols honoring a country that has not always treated all people equally.The flag is important to us because we have so many relatives in the military, said Justin Poor Bear, a 38-year-old member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Allen, South Dakota. There is also a lot of pain.Following Kaepernicks example, pro athletes and high school students across the country are taking a knee or linking arms during the national anthem before sporting events.The protests have raised questions of who gets to be called a patriot.Jason Pontius, a 46-year-old white resident of Alameda, California, said the U.S. of all countries should realize that blind devotion is not the American way. Sometimes when he drops off his second-grader at school, he sticks around while she recites the Pledge of Allegiance with her class. But he doesnt join in.What makes America great, he said, is that people have always challenged the idea of what America stands for.Yet there are organizations that embrace the flag precisely as a way to declare that their members, too, are Americans.The League of United Latin American Citizens -- the nations oldest Latino civil rights group, founded in Texas by World War I veterans -- has historically opened all its meetings with the pledge and a prayer similar to one George Washington is said to have recited.Dennis W. Montoya, the leagues state director in New Mexico, said the groups emphasis on American pride is connected with a long fight by Latinos to prove they belong in this country.If someone doesnt stand for the pledge at one of our meetings, that person will probably be kicked out, Montoya said. Its disrespecting LULACs rituals and traditions.African-Americans have been moveed to create symbols that better reflect their history.dddddddddddd.The national anthem, for example, was written by a slave owner and contains a painful reference to slavery in its little-known third stanza. The NAACP dubbed Lift Evry Voice and Sing the black national anthem in 1919.The hymn is a staple of African American singers and is so important that the clergy member who gave the benediction at President Barack Obamas 2009 inauguration opened with lines from the song.After Kaepernick started his protest in August, C.C. Washington of Waco, Texas, read all the stanzas of The Star-Spangled Banner, including the one that refers derisively to slaves who fought for the British in exchange for their freedom.The 65-year-old African-American retiree -- fresh off visiting the Statue of Liberty last week -- felt betrayed.All this time, Ive been posting on Facebook: Respect our flag, respect our national anthem. Now its totally different, she said, choking up. Ill stand out of respect for the people standing next to me, not because I believe it.Poor Bear said he started looking at the anthem differently after he took a group of Oglala Lakota students to a minor-league hockey game last year. A man yelled slurs and sprayed the children with beer, incensed that one of them did not stand for the national anthem, Poor Bear said. The student had been putting batteries into a camera.So I still stand for the national anthem, Poor Bear said. But I no longer put my hand over my heart.Linda Tamura, a retired professor of education in Portland, Oregon, has no personal objections to the anthem or the flag, even though her family was among tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans put in internment camps by the U.S. government during World War II.Her father volunteered for the military, along with her uncle and other Japanese-American men who felt it was their duty. When she looks at the Stars and Stripes, she says, she feels pride, instilled in part by her parents, who more than anything wanted us to believe in our country.At the same time, she salutes the growing protest movement and hopes it triggers broader discussions about how to improve relations.Thats why my father was in the military. Thats why were part of America. Thats why we believe in America, she said. Because we have the right to say what we believe.---Contreras reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. AP staff writer Deepti Hajela and stringer Rachelle Blidner contributed to this story from New York. Staff writers Errin Haines Whack contributed from Philadelphia; Jesse J. Holland and Noreen Nasir from Washington.---Follow Janie Har on Twitter at www.twitter.com/byjaniehar ' ' '