Real Salt Lake looks to avenge early season loss

Real Salt Lake knows it can't cheat arithmetic. To have a realistic hope of making the Major League Soccer playoffs, simply winning its three remaining home games won't be good enough. It will need more than 39 points to qualify for the playoffs, which puts even more urgency on one of the worst road teams in MLS.

For a franchise with one road win in 2009 and nine in franchise history, it's clearly easier said than done.

There's a slim mathematical hope that three home wins and four road ties could be good enough to secure a playoff berth, but it's foolish to believe RSL and its 1-8-2 road record is capable of such a feat. It needs a road victory, it's just that simple.

Saturday night might be do-or-die time for Real Salt Lake.

The team caps a busy week with a game at struggling Kansas City Saturday night at 6:30 (MDT). The Wizards haven't won since June 13 and have been outscored 9-0 in three August matches. It includes a 6-0 trashing at FC Dallas, which led to the firing of coach Curt Onalfo.

"They're a team that's kind of been iffy this year, so maybe we can get after them early and get their heads down," said RSL captain Kyle Beckerman.

In fact, Kansas City has only two victories since April 23 — one of which continues to be the eyesore of RSL's 2009 home campaign.

Back on May 16, the Wizards strolled into Rio Tinto Stadium and thoroughly outplayed Real Salt Lake for the 2-0 victory. It was part of a seven-game winless streak for RSL, which it's still trying to recover from.

That fateful evening could've easily gone differently. In the sixth minute, Robbie Findley split a pair of Kansas City defenders at the top of the box but failed to bury the shot past charging keeper Kevin Hartman. RSL is 6-0-3 this season when scoring first, and an early 1-0 lead against the Wizards might've sealed the outcome

It's inevitable strikers will miss their fair share of scoring opportunities throughout the season, but now's not the time to lose focus in front of goal. Even though Findley is coming off a two-goal effort in Wednesday's big win over Chivas, in the two previous matches he had some bad misses which denied RSL some valuable points.

Reversing a trend in which it has scored first in just 2-of-11 road matches is critical tonight.

"We're going to try our best, we're gonna fight, and hopefully we can get an early goal or get a goal before the other team," said Beckerman.