What we’re watching in LA Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake are in the middle of a busy week, all on the road. They drew with Houston over the weekend, and now will look to get a result against the LA Galaxy. With center back Justen Glad out for this game, RSL will be missing a key part of the team.

Datkovic and the defense

For the first time since his arrival, Croatian center back Toni Datkovic is available for selection for RSL. Since Justen Glad received two yellow cards in the team’s last game, that leaves an opening on the back line. But we’re not likely to see Datkovic start. First off, he’s coming off an injury. It would be a risk to re-injure him if he is expected to go all 90 minutes. He also won’t be match fit. He hasn’t played a game in a long time and his fitness will not be at 100%, but he should make the match day 18. We’re likely to see Silva and Holt pair at CB. Now Besler could step in should one of those players need replacing, but hopefully Toni is ready to go there and could even see some minutes late in the game.

Creativity

RSL’s last game lacked a creative spark and they will need that if they want to success against the Galaxy. Keep in mind, the last time these two teams met, RSL scored the first two goals and even that wasn’t enough to get them all three points. Success will be found through a combination of scoring and defending, which seems extremely obvious to say, but RSL is weaker in defense than they were the last time they played LAG. Starting Wood and Rubin together would be a totally different look to Real’s attack and that could throw off LA enough to get a result.

Wings

RSL has more depth on the wing than they have ever had. With their last outing, Chang and Meram got the start. Since it’s such a busy week, we should see some rotation there. Julio has been decent coming off the bench, but he could use a start in order to impact the game more. Menendez should be ready to go a full 90. With all the options, tonight is a good time to try out some of that depth.

Injury report

Out: Zack Farnsworth, Andrew Brody, and David Ochoa

Predicted lineup