It's been six weeks since Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis last had the opportunity to put his first-team lineup on the pitch, as international call-ups to Kyle Beckerman and Will Johnson and a one-game suspension to Jamison Olave prevented Kreis from putting his best 11 on the field since RSL's 1-1 draw with Houston way back on June 20.

However, assuming that Javier Morales' calf contusion is OK — he trained on Friday without any problems — Kreis will have the opportunity to put out his strongest possible lineup when RSL visits Toyota Park Saturday night to face Chicago at 6:30.

The guys who were left behind did an admirable job to go 2-1-1 while others were away, but obviously Real is thrilled to have everyone available again.

"Of course we're excited to have Beckerman back and the other guys as well," said fullback Chris Wingert. "We just need to keep our focus on what we've been doing. I think we, for the most part, held it down while those guys were out or away.

"We've had a good record over the past six or seven weeks, and we need to keep focusing on the same stuff."

For his part, Kreis said simply having more guys available for training will pay dividends on game days.

"Obviously," he said, "it's important to have more guys in training sessions. It's important to have (a high) level of soccer, and the level of competitiveness needs to be higher in our training sessions. We're missing 4-5 guys at one time or another, (and) it can be quite difficult to run the training sessions the way they need to be so the guys can be properly prepared for the weekends."

Once those roll around, like tonight, Kreis acknowledged it's obviously hugely beneficial to have options.

"You need to have choices," he said. "You need to have difficult decisions to make, and so it will be good and bad. It'll be nice and difficult at the same time to have those choices."

With 12 games to go in the regular season, RSL knows that getting a result against Chicago — be it a win or a draw — could help springboard the club toward another push for the playoffs. Heading into this weekend, RSL sits four points out of a playoff spot.

Besides the fact RSL will likely have its first team to choose from, there are other reasons for optimism, not least of which is the fact Chicago is just 2-2-4 at Toyota Park this season.

Of course, the flip side of that coin is the fact RSL is just 1-6-2 away from Rio Tinto Stadium this year.

ENDLINES: RSL newcomer Rachid El Khalifi didn't travel with RSL to Chicago this weekend, instead staying behind to work on his fitness.

e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com