Ruud van Nistelrooy faces an uphill battle to win a starting place at Real Madrid. The former Manchester United star is known throughout the world as one of the game's top goal-scoring predators, but it remains unclear whether he'll be able to hold down a starting spot on a squad that features a host of world-class attacking players.

But van Nistelrooy is off to a decent start. On the heels of two OK performances in his first two preseason matches, he scored his first goal ever for Real Madrid in the team's 2-0 exhibition win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday evening. The Netherlands International player also assisted to Robinho for the game's other goal.

Overall, van Nistelrooy will look to build on Saturday's performance as Real Madrid continues to prepare for the coming Spanish League season.

The 30-year-old recently arrived in Madrid from another one of Europe's glamour clubs — Manchester United. He scored 150 times during five seasons in England, but he moved to Real Madrid after falling out with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

On Saturday, van Nistelrooy was fairly quiet throughout the opening exchanges. Then, he had two fairly good chances to put his new club ahead midway through the first half. He was foiled, though, on both occasions.

But van Nistelrooy was able to put Madrid ahead 1-0 just before halftime. After fellow forward Antonio Cassano won a penalty kick, van Nistelrooy, who is renowned for taking penalties, stepped up to the ball and calmly stroked it past RSL goalie Scott Garlick into the net.

With Salt Lake playing a man down midway through the second half, van Nistelrooy helped put the game away by sliding the ball through to Robinho, who ran onto it and touched the ball into the net. The former Manchester United striker was subbed off in the 73rd minute.

He'll need to keep scoring to stay on the field. His chances will be improved if Real Madrid uses the same formation in the future that it utilized against RSL. Manager Fabio Capello played with three forwards up top — van Nistelrooy, Cassano and captain Raul. However, it's likely Capello will employ a traditional 4-4-2 formation during the league season.

Besides those two, van Nistelrooy will fight with Ronaldo, Robinho and others for a starting place.

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E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com