Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

After a home win over FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake have surged into 2nd place in the western conference. The Portland Timbers had a rough start to the season, but they’ve since improved greatly under Phil Neville. RSL remain 7 points ahead of 8th place Portland, but as we head into the final stretch of the regular season, RSL has to win these home games.

What to do with Julio and Chico

Real were without their marquee striker in Chicho Arango against Houston on Wednesday. Chicho missed that game through yellow card accumulation, therefore Anderson Julio started in his place. Julio scored an incredible brace, with both goals highlighting a completely different skillset. Julio made “team of the match day” for his contributions, and without those goals, RSL would have lost the game.

Chicho is RSL’s best player, but he’s in a poor run of form, having scored just 1 goal over his last 9 games. Anderson has scored 4 goals in that time. The question for tonight’s match is if Julio’s Wednesday performance and Chicho’s form means Arango will be benched. We could see Anderson on the wing, or Pablo may change the formation entirely and go with 2 up top.

Defensive mistakes continue

RSL’s defensive mistakes continue. While they did get all three points midweek, they did not look solid defensively. Against Dallas, the two goals they allowed were not from open play. The first was a quickly taken free kick when RSL were clearly not dialed into the potential danger. And the second was a penalty. They still felt shaky and when 10 minutes of added time was announced, all 3 points didn’t feel assured.

With the return of Katranis should help, but there’s a panicky feeling to this backline we haven’t often seen from RSL.

Form and fight

Before Wednesday, it was safe to say RSL were struggling. They had just 1 win in their previous 6 games, with that sole win being a home victory over a very bad New England team. Now that they have 2 wins in 3 games under their belts, will we see a return to RSL’s earlier form when they were one of the best teams in the league. With just 5 regular season games left this year, RSL could finish top of the west, but they have to show they can beat teams like Portland and Houston.

Player availability

Out: Bonilla (knee), Ruiz (knee)

Questionable: Palacio (knee), Brown (leg strain)