Real Salt Lake needs to find a way to score goals

SANDY — Real Salt Lake's offensive production has cooled off considerably in the past few weeks, and now the club finds itself in the midst of a four-game winless streak.

"It's football; it's up and down. It's been an up and down year for us, and we've got to get back to working and finding ways to win some games," said midfielder Will Johnson. "We need to score goals; if you don't score goals, you don't win games. It's pretty simple."

Since its six-goal outburst at home against New England on April 25, RSL has scored just twice in its past four matches, and one of those was a borderline penalty kick.

It's not for a shortage of opportunities either. RSL ranks first in the Major League Soccer with 136 shots and is tied for second with shots on goal at 54. Its 14 goals are tied for third, but six of those came during a 45-minute stretch against New England.

RSL's average of one goal every 9.7 shots ranks 11th in the 15-team league this year, just ahead of San Jose (10.6), New York (10.7), Houston (11.1) and FC Dallas (14.8).

As RSL heads into a stretch with four of its next five matches on the road — where RSL has yet to score this year — now might be the perfect time for coach Jason Kreis to shake things up. With nearly a third of the season in the books, RSL already finds itself 15 points behind West-leading Chivas USA, a gap that might be insurmountable with the way both teams are playing.

"That's up to Jason. I don't want to speculate on that. We're confident with the guys we have, but we're confident with everybody throughout the roster. Our team is pretty solid throughout, but at the same time that's up to them," said defender Chris Wingert.

If Kreis opts to make some changes, Yura Movsisyan might be in the most danger of being benched. RSL's leading scorer from a year ago, Movsisyan has scored just once this year despite starting every match and leading the team with 27 shots.

He isn't the only player struggling to finish chances, but his struggles are the most glaring. In fact, center back Jamison Olave has scored more goals than Movsisyan.

Robbie Findley leads the team with five goals, but even he's failed to take advantage of some solid scoring opportunities including a sixth-minute one-on-one chance with Kansas City's Kevin Hartman on Saturday night.

RSL's front office gambled that Findley, 23, and Movsisyan, 21, could shoulder the responsibility up top this year. They've looked capable at times, but other times they've played with the type of inconsistency you expect from young players.

Kansas City didn't have that problem on Saturday night.

Claudio Lopez, 34, and Josh Wolff, 32, have more than 20 combined years of professional experience, and they used their knowledge to give RSL's backline problems.

Real Salt Lake lacks a veteran striker to fall back on, which is only going to increase the scoring burden on its youngsters as the team heads into a critical stretch of the season.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com