Argentine Fabian Espindola made his long-awaited debut for Real Salt Lake Saturday night and had several chances to put his stamp on the game like Chicago's superstar Latin American player did earlier. Unfortunately for RSL, he never capitalized on those chances.

Espindola entered the match in the 58th minute replacing Alecko Eskandarian. It was his debut appearance for the club after signing earlier this week, even though he'd been training with them for the past three weeks awaiting his work visa.

Of RSL's two other Argentine newcomers, Matias Mantilla was one of seven available subs on the bench Saturday, even though he didn't play. As for Javier Morelas, he's still awaiting documentation to be cleared to play. The club anticipates the necessary documents arriving Tuesday.

When Espindola entered the match, RSL was already down 1-0, and he had a good chance to equalize in the 67th, but his left-footed shot rolled wide. He had two more great chances to level the score on a mad scramble in the box in the 76th minute but both shots were blocked by defenders.

"I thought he did well. Showed up in a lot of good spots, turned the ball, ran at some defenders, laid off a good ball, got in behind and had a chance to score," said Real coach Jason Kreis. "At the end of the day, I would've liked to see him put it on frame, for sure."

SLIGHTLY DINGED: Real midfielder Nathan Sturgis, who made his third straight start Saturday night, was subbed off in the first half because of a left calf contusion. The injury occurred at roughly the 20th minute.

Sturgis tried to play through the injury for nearly 10 minutes, but he was eventually replaced in the 31st minute by Atiba Harris, who was making his third straight appearance as a substitute.

UNLUCKY ELEVEN: With the departure of Freddy Adu to Europe, RSL striker Alecko Eskandarian switched his jersey number from 9 to 11 — the same number he wore during his four seasons with D.C. United.

His debut with the number wasn't exactly memorable one. In addition to RSL losing the match, Eskandarian was also yellow carded in the 55th minute. It's his fifth yellow card, meaning he's automatically suspended for next weekend's match at Chivas USA.

RESERVES IN ACTION: Real Salt Lake's reserves, winners of back-to-back games, take on the Chicago Fire at Quinn's Complex in Park City today at 9:30 a.m. The reserves (2-0-3) have wins over New England and Houston in the past three weeks.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com