Real Salt Lake: Kreis opts to start pair of Argentine strikers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As expected, Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis juggled his line-up Saturday night to inject a little spark in the attack.

After the combination of Robbie Findley and Yura Movsisyan produced inconsistent performances through the first 10 games of the season, Kreis gave the starting nod at San Jose to his pair of Argentine strikers, Fabian Espindola and Luis Miguel Escalada.

Both players made substitute appearances on three previous occasions prior to Saturday night, but Kreis showed an increased confidence in both with their first start of the season. Escalada, who is on a loan from his Southern American club Newell's Old Boys all season, had a fantastic opportunity to reward Kreis' faith but his seventh minute close-range shot was saved by San Jose's Joe Cannon.

Espindola was RSL's most productive striker in 2008 scoring five goals in eight matches, but injuries kept him off the field for over half the season. The pair was eventually replaced in the 56th minute by Movsisyan and Findley after RSL fell behind 1-0 early in the second half.

FORMATION SWITCH: On the compact field at Buck Shaw Stadium, Real Salt Lake opted to play out of a 4-4-2 formation against San Jose instead of the 4-5-1 formation it had utilized in its previous two road games.

Following a few disappointing road results early in the year, RSL switched to the 4-5-1 at Chivas USA back on May 9. Despite losing 1-0, coach Kreis was pleased enough with the formation to utilize it in last week's 0-0 draw at D.C. United. Going forward, it's likely that RSL will bounce back and forth between the two formations when it is on the road.

LATE SCRATCH: RSL defender Tony Beltran was a late scratch from the starting line-up due to a quad strain. He was listed as probable leading up to kick-off with quad strain.

His absence enabled Chris Wingert to make a return to the starting line-up. Wingert started the first eight matches of the season before being replaced last weekend at D.C. United by Beltran.

Beltran played well enough that the coaching staff was prepared to give him back-to-back starts.

UPCOMING REST:Kyle Beckerman picked up a yellow card in the 28th minute Saturday on a foul against San Jose's Bobby Convey. It was his fifth yellow card of the season, which means Beckerman will miss next Saturday's home match against his former team Colorado.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com