RSL stumbles into Carson to face Chivas

By foxsports
Published

Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis is frustrated by his team's lack of urgency as it struggles to keep its hold on a wild-card spot.

It could be another tough night for Kreis on Saturday when Salt Lake visits Chivas USA, which hasn't given up a goal in its last three home games.

Real Salt Lake completes its three-game road swing this weekend after suffering back-to-back losses away from home in the last two weeks. A 3-2 defeat to Houston last Saturday was the team's fourth in five games overall.

RSL (10-7-6) is holding down one of the four wild-card berths, but the standings are tight. Giving up two unanswered goals in the second half last weekend didn't help.

"There have been a lot of players that have gotten a whole ton of opportunities and a lot of them frankly aren't getting the job done," Kreis told RSL's website. "Unless we get this turned around here and start heading in a positive direction for the playoffs, there's going to be a lot of difficult decisions to make this offseason."

Kreis' club has been particularly ineffective on the road since winning its first two away from home, going 0-5-3.

"We just all need to take a deep breath and not panic," RSL midfielder Will Johnson said. "Obviously we've had some bad results over this past stretch, but we didn't just turn into a bad team overnight."

RSL defeated Chivas 1-0 in Utah on May 7 to extend its unbeaten streak in the series to four. Chivas, though, hasn't allowed a goal at home in 334 minutes while going 2-0-2 in its last four at the Home Depot Center.

Chivas (7-9-10) is hoping a return to its own field will help it bounce back from a rough road trip. The club went winless in its last three to finish 1-2-2 on the trip, during which it was shut out three times.

Chivas lost 1-0 to Portland on Wednesday.

"You always want to get more points," coach Robin Fraser said. "Regardless of whether you're at home or on the road, you want to get three points and we just feel like we didn't get enough points and obviously, the standings will show that."

Veteran forward Juan Pablo Angel is likely to make his home debut Saturday. Acquired from Los Angeles last week, Angel scored in his first match for Chivas at Colorado last Saturday, but was given the night off against Portland because of Jeld Wen Field's field turf.

Angel has played well against RSL, scoring four goals in eight matches including one March 26.