Real Salt Lake are sputtering down the stretch and look to get back on track when they face FC Dallas on Wednesday night in Sandy, Utah.
Real Salt Lake (13-7-8, 47 points) are just 1-4-1 over their past six matches but are still tied with the Colorado Rapids for the third-most points in the Western Conference. However, RSL stand just three points ahead of the seventh-place Houston Dynamo.
Salt Lake coach Pablo Mastroeni is confident that his team will rediscover its groove to make a strong run to close the regular season.
“The only way we build real cohesion is by just going into the fire, playing these games, then going back to review them,” Mastroeni said. “With time, you expect that the guys will get a really clear understanding.
“You can make changes on gameday, you can tweak, but also you have to affect games with mentality. It’s about mindset. I would rather make errors of effort than errors of overthinking.”
Salt Lake had star Cristian “Chicho” Arango back for Saturday’s 4-1 road loss to Houston. He played all 90 minutes but didn’t score after missing the previous match due to a hamstring injury sustained on Aug. 24 in a 2-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes.
Arango is tied for second in MLS with 17 goals, while teammate Andres Gomez has 13 tallies.
RSL are a solid 9-3-1 at home, while FC Dallas (9-12-7, 34 points) are one of the league’s worst road teams with a 1-8-5 mark.
Dallas is tied for 10th in the West and stands five points behind Minnesota United for the last playoff spot in the conference.
Dallas had a bye this past weekend after playing the host Vancouver Whitecaps to a scoreless tie on Sept. 7.
After the road match against Salt Lake, Dallas faces another tough team on Saturday when it hosts Los Angeles FC, who are second in the Western Conference.
FC Dallas interim coach Peter Luccin promised Tuesday that his team will bring heavy intensity into the two tough matchups as it ramps up its playoff push.
“We know it’s going to be tough,” Luccin said. “One thing that’s for sure is we’re going to fight until the end. We trust that we can do it.”
Petar Musa leads Dallas with 14 goals.
The teams played to a 3-3 tie on May 25 in Frisco, Texas. FC Dallas scored the match’s first three goals before Salt Lake battled back. Nelson Palacio netted the equalizer in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time.
–Field Level Media