Real Salt Lake: Movsisyan still looking for the net

SANDY — Yura Movsisyan scored his second goal of the season Saturday night, but it can hardly be mistaken for a breakout game.

Prior to his 79th-minute finish, Movsisyan took a shot that ended up in the Barra Real fan club. Another wayward shot resulted in a throw-in instead of a goal kick, while yet another attempt, nearly landing on the south plaza of Rio Tinto Stadium, instead put a scare in the Colorado keeper.

Like he usually does though, Movsisyan wasn't shy about continuing to shoot. Perhaps to a fault, Movsisyan is confident enough in his own abilities that he rarely backs down from a shot no matter how ambitious it might seem.

Every once and a while he's rewarded, as he was with his curling left-footed finish while falling down.

"Throughout the night I was trying to mix my game up, take them in, take them out," Movsisyan said. "I saw Jordan (Harvey) give me space so I kept the ball, kept the ball and just felt like going inside and try it left-footed," .

And just like that, Real Salt Lake was leading Colorado 1-0. A less ambitious player would've passed the ball to a teammate with two defenders converging in the box, but not Movsisyan. He's always trying to score goals.

It's why he led the team with eight goals last year, and why he again leads the team in shots this season. He's a long way off of teammate Robbie Findley's pace of six goals, but Saturday's tally might be exactly the type of confidence booster he needs to improve his accuracy.

"It was good for myself to get that goal for my confidence, but it was disappointing not to get the three points at home," Movsisyan said.

Despite Movsisyan's disappointing finishing in the 79 minutes before his goal, coach Jason Kreis was pleased with the way his 21-year-old striker played in a more demanding right midfield position.

"He was another player that I thought was very dangerous tonight, he did a lot of very good things," said Kreis. "He served a lot of nice balls into the box, and has worked extremely hard through all the difficult time. I know how it is to be in his shoes, and it's very difficult, it's very trying."

It took Movsisyan five games to score his first goal of the season, and when it did finally come against New England on April 25, he and the entire coaching staff were hopeful it was a sign of things to come. It didn't play out that way. It took Movsisyan seven more games before he tacked on his second game this past weekend.

So what's it going to take for him to narrow the span between goals?

"I think he's got to continue to do the little stuff right," Kreis said. "I don't think he needs to be focused about the final touch, I think he needs to be focused on all the simple plays that he made tonight. The times he held possession and made smart passes, did dangerous things and helped out defensively." .

His next opportunity is this weekend at Los Angeles, a team on a 10-game unbeaten run.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com