Real Salt Lake looks to make standings push

HOUSTON — With five points in its past three matches, Real Salt Lake appears to have regained the form and confidence that mysteriously disappeared in May.

As promising as things are, though heading into a stretch with three of four matches at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL was mere minutes from securing the maximum nine points from its past three matches and making a noticeable leap in the Major League Soccer standings.

Instead, RSL still sits four points out of the playoff picture with this weekend's upcoming home match against Toronto representing the official midway point of the season.

The players aren't the least bit worried about playoff positioning at this point — they're just happy to be competitive again.

"The feeling around the team seems to be we're getting back to where we can be, getting results and not losing, being a hard team to break down," Kyle Beckerman said. "It's a good feeling, we're out of that whatever we were in before."

That "whatever" Beckerman references was a seven game stretch in which RSL went 0-4-3 while scoring just three goals.

A simple change in formation and mindset the past three matches seems to have made all the difference.

"I think what we've done lately has begun to suit our team even better than what we started out at the beginning of the season," said Clint Mathis. "We're definitely more organized, we're tougher to break down this way, it's working for us."

The 4-3-3 formation used against Houston on Saturday was similar to RSL's approach in its previous two games, a formation that allows for attacking and defensive flexibility based on the evolving circumstances of the match.

"Obviously the change in formation's been good," Will Johnson said. "I just think mentally it's enabled everyone to get back to what we were good at and focused and do everything as a team and give our creative guys space."

The tweak in tactics is also limiting the number of scoring opportunities for Real Salt Lake's opponents, a particular struggle not that long ago. The next step in RSL's quest to climb back into contention is finishing off matches.

"We're not satisfied with the five points, we've got to keep going and get some wins and move up the table," Johnson said.

With upcoming home matches against Toronto, FC Dallas and San Jose during the next month, the opportunity is there for RSL to make a big jump.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com