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Revolution-Real Salt Lake Preview

Jul 1, 2010 - 3:52 PM By PAUL DIGIACOMO STATS Senior Editor

New England (3-8-2) at Real Salt Lake (7-3-3), 10:00 p.m. EDT

Real Salt Lake has had no trouble coming away with points at home over the last year. The club especially had an easy time when the New England Revolution last visited Rio Tinto Stadium.

Salt Lake looks to extend its home unbeaten streak to 18 matches Friday night when it meets a Revolution squad that was blown out in its last trip to Utah.

Real Salt Lake (7-3-3) has gone 5-0-2 at home to improve to 11-0-6 there since May 16, 2009. The club played to a scoreless draw against San Jose at Rio Tinto Stadium last Friday night, extending its overall unbeaten run to eight (6-0-2) since a 1-0 loss to Columbus on April 24.

Nick Rimando posted his third straight shutout with a season-high eight saves, and was named MLS player of the month for June on Wednesday.

"At the end of the game, I'm patting Nick Rimando on the back and saying, 'You just saved us two points and saved us from giving San Jose all three of them,'" coach Jason Kreis told Real Salt Lake's official website.

Rimando has a shutout streak of 318 minutes, 38 away from the longest in club history.

RSL has played its last five games without star forward Robbie Findley, who was a member of the United States World Cup team. Findley told MLS' official website that he hopes to be able to take the field Friday after returning from South Africa earlier this week.

"Getting there (South Africa) took a few days to get into it, so maybe the same thing here," Findley said. "I'm just a little tired, jet-lagged. Hopefully I can recover and get ready."

Findley scored in Salt Lake's last home game against the Revolution, a 6-0 win April 25, 2009, in which RSL set a team record for goals and largest margin of victory.

New England could be in for another long night considering its recent play. The Revolution are 1-7-2 in their last 10 matches after opening with two victories in their first three.

They were shut out for the fourth time in five games Sunday, falling 1-0 at home to Chicago. New England (3-8-2) has scored the third-fewest goals in MLS with 13 and is among the worst in the league with 21 allowed.

"It seems like from my leadership point and coaching staff, that we're not doing the right stuff to make it count on the field," captain Shalrie Joseph said. "We work hard in practice all week to get here and it feels demoralizing and really bad because we just can't get the win.

"Salt Lake is going to be tough, going to play there in that atmosphere because it's going to be crazy and we need to get some points and find some way to get goals and create some chances."