Real Salt Lake isn’t out of the playoff picture yet, but a loss or tie tonight would be a big blow to its postseason hopes.
RSL (7-9-6) takes on Chivas USA in Real’s second game in four days and is in desperate need of points prior to Saturday’s game at Kansas City.
The team entered this stretch with high hopes of earning important points, but a major setback came with Sunday’s 3-1 loss on the road against the New England Revolution.
“It’s going to be a tough seven days, and this isn’t the way you like to start it,” said RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman. “We’ve just got to put it past us. We put ourselves in the situation we’re in. We’re still in it — we have a chance to still get into the playoffs. There are games left, so luckily we have a game to forget about this one as quickly as possible.”
But things won’t get any easier. Following tonight’s match against Chivas (10-7-3), RSL will play four of its final seven games on the road and four of those seven matches will be against teams with more points than RSL. Road points are more difficult to come by and it will take a better effort from RSL, which has only won one of its last four games, to start earning three points per game.
“I think we’ll need to take a good hard look at who’s going to be on the field,” said RSL coach Jason Kreis, who was not happy with the team’s effort in the loss at New England. “We can’t go with guys who don’t show the effort.”
One player who is listed as doubtful for tonight’s game is midfielder Javier Morales, who suffered a groin injury against the Revs. Veteran Andy Williams entered the game for Morales and will likely be called on again tonight if Morales can’t play.
“Any time you lose him it’s going to be a big impact,” Beckerman said of Morales. “It was tough, but I think Andy (Williams) came on and tried to fill that spot as best he could, and I thought he did well.”
