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SANDY — Real Salt Lake began a weeklong road trip Monday as it jetted off to Boston, where it will face Major League Soccer Eastern Conference opponent the New England Revolution Wednesday night in its second out of three matches that will be played in eight days and the first of a three-game road trip.
“I feel that it’s not ideal for soccer teams and soccer players to be playing three matches in a week,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis told ESPN 700 Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s the ideal situation for anybody, but it is what it is and they do it all over the world, and we do it here, too.”
The Salt Lake club enters the match off a home stadium 2-0 win just four days ago over the Vancouver Whitecaps, but still lists a handful of players on the injury list, which has left he RSL coaching staff with some important decisions for Wednesday night’s match.
“What ends up happening is you end up having to make a decision on whether or not you think it's best for your players to play in every single game, in every single minute or whether you think it’s a better soccer decision, a better decision for the team to rotate the players and have fresh players play in one or two of the matches,” said Kreis. “What it does is give the coaches a lot of thinking to do, a lot of decisions to make, and sometimes makes for restless nights for us.”
For the match, RSL lists defender Rich Balchan (left shoulder separation), midfielder Cole Grossman (concussion) and forward Alvaro Saborio (left quad strain) as out for the match. Questionable for Wednesday’s match are midfielder Yordany Alvarez (right ankle contusion), forward Robbie Findley (left knee hyperextension) and forward Olmes Garcia (right adductor strain).
RSL will enter Wednesday’s match currently 4-4-2 on the season with 14 points and tied for second in the MLS Western Conference with the L.A. Galaxy and the Portland Timbers. New England enters the match 2-3-3 on the season with nine points and sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
The match will also be the first meeting and sole meeting between the two sides during the regular season.
Although the Salt Lake club will jet off to Canada Thursday in preparation for its Saturday match against the Montreal Impact, Kreis says the New England Revolution is the focus until the final whistle.
“We need to try and handle business here (Wednesday) night and be objective to just get three points and then we can go into the Saturday game with a bit of liberty and freedom about what we’re doing,” said Kreis.
Following the Salt Lake club’s match Wednesday in Boston and Saturday match in Canada, the club will return home to prepare for its final road match in the three-game road trip against Chivas USA. RSL will then return to its home pitch for a four-game home stand where it will see the Chicago Fire, the San Jose Earthquakes, the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
