Where is Real Salt Lake’s offense?
As the club left the pitch August 18 after being shut out by the Chicago Fire 2-0 — marking the tenth game this season RSL has been held scoreless — that very question echoed off the emptying stands of Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Real doesn’t have to wait too long to try to re-align its offense, though. The club visits Chivas USA on Saturday.
Chivas (9-6-3) faces a week of battling the bottom of the Western Conference food chain. Chivas squares off with the Los Angeles Galaxy Thursday (3-8-5) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the stadium shared by the two clubs.
Chivas then must turn around to face RSL, whose record stands at 2-10-6. With Los Angeles and Real rounding out the two bottom spots in the West, this serves as a prime opportunity for Chivas to win two games, gain six points in the the West standings and pull even with FC Dallas, who does not play again until Sept. 1.
Real is hoping to snag the three points for itself on Saturday. In order to keep its playoff hopes alive, RSL must find a solution to its scoring deficiency.
With its league-low 14 goals, Real faces an opponent in Chivas that has scored nearly twice as many times (26).
Real has a total of five assists on the season compared to Chivas’ 29 helpers. To make matters worse, Freddy Adu and Chris Klein — neither player still with the club — account for three of those five assists.
This leaves the current RSL roster with only two assists — a total exceeded by five Chivas players individually.
Real’s lack of scoring cannot be completely attributed to the ineptness of the offensive third.
The club created several promising chances against Chicago, but could not cash in.
Forward Robbie Findley banked a shot off the inside of the post that refused to cross the line. Andy Williams and Kyle Beckerman both forced goalkeeper Matt Pickens to sweat on two long bombs. Newcomer Fabian Espindola scorched two point-blank shots that were turned away late in the match.
“Robbie (Findley) hit the post and I had a couple of chances I should have done better with,” forward Alecko Eskandarian said.
Maybe the team was trying too hard to get things done offensively.
“I think we were maybe too aggressive; we wanted to force that final pass,” goalkeeper Nick Rimando said after the match with Chicago.
Rimando better be ready Saturday. The goalkeeper faces two of the top-10 scorers in the league in strikers Maykel Galindo and Ante Razov.
Galindo and Razov have scored eight goals and six goals respectively this season and each have tallyied five assists along the way.
In the midfield, the forwards will find two capable set-up men in Sacha Kljestan and Jesse Marsch, both of whom have four assists this year.
Defensively and offensively, RSL has an difficult task at hand Saturday.
Espindola, along with other new signees Matias Mantilla and Javier Morales, provide new weapons for head coach Jason Kreis to call on.
“I am excited to see the level of intensity and expertise they bring to our training sessions and obviously to our games,” Kreis said.
With a week of practice and new faces in the locker room, the problem might be on it’s way to being resolved.
Lennie MahlerCarey Talley clears the ball in RSL’s loss to Chicago Fire on Saturday. The team travels this weekend to California to face Chivas USA on Sunday.