Soto a valuable acquisition

Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger continues to be impressed with Jafet Soto's level of play, and fans can expect to see a lot more of him in the coming weeks.

"He's very good," said Ellinger. "The more and more we see of Jafet in training, as far as his technical ability, it's just a different class."

The Costa Rican international signed a few weeks ago, and he made his second appearance of the season during Wednesday's 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Upon replacing Jason Kreis in the 70th minute, Soto made a significant impact on the game according to Ellinger.

"He gets the ball and moves it, and I think that helped us at the end of the game," said Ellinger.

Soto's overall fitness is still somewhat of a mystery, however. While the team was negotiating Soto's contract, he was back in his native Costa Rica training on his own. At this point, he seems to lack the match fitness necessary to crack Real's starting lineup.

Nonetheless, with his technical ability, at this point in the season Soto is perhaps RSL's best option coming off the bench regardless of if it's trying to protect a lead or tally a late equalizer.

"He's one of those guys you're glad he's on your team," said Ellinger.

INEVITABLE DILEMMA: Ellinger knows he's got a difficult decision to make Saturday night.

Who does he start opposite Eddie Pope in the middle of the defense, Jack Stewart or Nelson Akwari?

With Stewart serving a red-card suspension Wednesday against the Galaxy, Akwari played well in his first start since getting injured on July 22.

That injury left Salt Lake woefully short-handed defensively during its most difficult stretch of the season, and forced it to acquire Stewart in a trade with Chicago. In Stewart's first four starts, RSL finished with a 4-0-0 record.

"I thought defensively we were playing well before Nelson got hurt, and Jack stepped in and did a great job," said Ellinger during Wednesday's postgame press conference. "Now Nelson steps in for Jack and does a great job. Don't ask me the next question you're going to ask me, because I don't know the answer."

With a game against Colorado Saturday, he'll need to make that decision soon.

DOING JUST FINE: When Kreis took a nasty tumble in the second half Wednesday, the prognosis didn't look good as he immediately grabbed his left knee.