Real Salt Lake will round off this week (8 days-ish) with a third game – this one against the Seattle Sounders, who RSL disgraced in their shared Seattle home last Saturday. It’s a busy few weeks for Real, they play five games in two weeks. Rotation will be huge for this to be a successful run for RSL.

Left sided academy alumni

Bofo and Danny destroyed the left side of the field Wednesday night. Just tore it up. These players who came up through the academy together displayed the advantages of bringing up guys in the same system and how that understanding can change a game. I hope we get to see them back together against Seattle. It worked last week. We’re likely to see Plata get the start, and if he does, look to see how the dynamic changes should Bofo join in the second half.

The middle

As odd as not starting a healthy Beckerman was, it worked excellently. He proved a super sub with the winner after coming off the bench. Damir has been a good replacement for Rusnak in the very limited time we’ve seen him in that role. Sunny has also been playing well. RSL has all these parts and they’re starting to understand each other. It’s exciting to see. The midfield has felt like a liability for much of this season, seeing them as a strength has been very refreshing.

Rotation

Rotating the squad is going to be a key to success for this game and the next few on the docket. While we by no means want to drop points against Seattle, a deep run in the US Open Cup outweighs that. In order to make any sort of run in the Open Cup, RSL has to beat Sporting Kansas City, whom we, generally speaking, do not care for. This means Petke has to be very careful with his starters. While the injury list is getting shorter by the week, it’s still longer than most teams in the league. The midfield rotation is going to be difficult to juggle, but that process has already started. Marcelo Silva recently returned from an injury and isn’t the youngest player, so he may need a reset somewhere in this stretch. The big question is how many games can the young guys play and still preform at their peak?

Injury Report

Out:

Beltran (knee 10/15/17)

Allen (knee 6/16/17)

Barry (knee 3/10)

Phillips (ankle 4/7)

Horwath (achilles 4/18)

Mulholland (back 5/2)

International duty:

Albert Rusnak

Predicted Line Up

Rimando

Lennon, Glad, M.Silva, Acosta

Beckerman, Sunny

Savarino, Kreilach, Plata

L. Silva