Real Salt Lake's coaching staff knew it would take time for the club's dozen or so new players to get comfortable with the holdover players from last season.

They also knew the bonding for Kenny Deuchar, a late preseason signee who only spent two of eight weeks in training camp with the club, would take even longer.

Six weeks into the season, RSL coach Jason Kreis is quite pleased with the progress of Deuchar and the teammates around him.

"I think we're beginning to see a little bit of progress with how we're going to play with Kenny," Kreis said. "I think we've started to become a little more familiar with what the other forwards are doing, where they need to position themselves to pick stuff off Kenny."

The next step, and one of the most critical for RSL's 2008 success, is getting one of the other forwards to step up.

When Deuchar was inked to a contract in late February, an immediate battle for RSL's other starting forward spot began between Robbie Findley, Yura Movsisyan and Fabian Espindola. Six weeks into the season, Espindola has separated himself slightly from the pack in terms of production and his partnership with Deuchar, but Kreis wants to see more.

"I would like one of the other forwards to step forward and really start to play well. Not to say that Kenny is playing any better than the others, but I would like one of them to step up and say, 'OK I'm going to be the man around here."'

If Espindola stays healthy, it seems inevitable he'd become that man. In three starts and 239 minutes of action, he's registered two goals on 11 shots. Findley has started three matches as well, racking up 273 minutes with one goal on just three shots.

Movsisyan, meanwhile, has been the least productive, starting just one match, with no goals on nine shots in 145 minutes.

"(Deuchar and Espindola) has looked to be the best tactical pair, but as I know playing the position for a long time, you can go in and out of form," said Kreis.

That's why despite the inconsistent play of Findley and Movsisyan throughout the season, Kreis was encouraged by their productive performance in last Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup victory over San Jose.

Several things are holding back Findley and Movsisyan. Findley's first touch still isn't where it needs to be for the MLS level, whereas Movsisyan sometimes gets tunnel vision when dribbling and rushes things too much.

That's what appeared to happen to Movsisyan against the Galaxy, as he entered the match as a 78th-minute substitute.

"He's a player that wants very badly to do very well. He believes, as we do, he has tremendous amounts of potential," Kreis said. "It's very difficult to come into a game like that with only 10 minutes left."