Real Salt Lake will try to end his sequence of seven games without victory when they welcome DC United on Saturday in Sandy, Utah.
Salt Lake (4-10-3, 15 points) is 0-4-3 with only five goals scored in his last seven games and is one of the lowest clubs in MLS with only 16 goals in 17 regular season matches. Only four teams have scored fewer goals.
“Although we were unable to score goals, it is not for lack of testing, it is not by the lack of creation of very good opportunities,” said RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni, at ESPN 700. “It’s just this last piece.”
Mastroeni said that striker Diogo Goncalves is expected to come back on Saturday after an absence of four games, but Salt Lake will miss two key players in international service. The top scorer Diego Luna left with the United States at the Gold Cup, while striker Dominik Marczuk plays for Poland in the UEFA U-21 championship.
DC United defender Aaron Herrera is also absent from the Gold Cup playing for Guatemala. DC United (4-8-6, 18 points) could also be without his top scorer at Christian Benteke, who is questionable after missing the last DC games with an ankle injury.
Several other players who missed the overwhelming 7-1 defeat of DC United against the Chicago Fire last Saturday should be available against Salt Lake. The exhausted list was a main factor in the rout, which saw DC United equal to its deductible record for most of the goals conceded in a match.
“It was an unacceptable performance on our part. … As a group, we must be more organized and proactive, solving problems before becoming emergency situations,” said DC midfielder Brandon Servania.
DC does not score much (17 goals) either, and its 36 authorized goals are tied for MLS this season. DC’s defense had apparently filmed a corner by granting only four goals in its five regular seasonal matches before the merger last Saturday.
RSL is 2-4-1 in home matches this season, and DC United is 2-4-2 on the road. Real Salt Lake has an 8-1-3 file in 12 home games of all time against DC
– field level media
