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Seattle aiming to climb ahead of RSL

May 11, 2012 - 9:09 PM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - A massive clash Saturday could help shape the top of the Western Conference picture as Seattle Sounders FC welcomes Real Salt Lake to CenturyLink Field.

Seattle enters the tilt on 22 points and five straight wins. The Sounders can go top of the West, and all of Major League Soccer, with a defeat of the Claret and Cobalt.

"As a team this is our fifth win in a row, which is a franchise record for us," said goalkeeper Bryan Meredith. "It's very exciting. It was a great game [against FC Dallas]. Sometimes you have to grind it out defensively, but the defense again did a great job. You have to give most of the credit to the defense for playing from minute 1 to minute 90 at 100 percent."

Meredith, deputizing for the injured Michael Gspurning, has not allowed a goal in 225 minutes of play this season.

On the offensive side of the ball, it is safe to say that Fredy Montero has found the form that made him one of the most fearsome strikers in MLS. The Colombian got off a slow start this season, but he bagged a brace in a substitute appearance against FC Dallas on Wednesday to seal Seattle's record- breaking victory.

"It's a great feeling coming off the bench," Montero said. "I try to do my best and do what Sigi {Schmid] told me and it was a big surprise for me to score those two goals and get the three points.

"Obviously when you are winning games you want to keep working and doing the same stuff. We tried to jump into the field and just enjoy the game."

The Sounders will likely try to apply that same free-flowing attitude to Saturday's meeting with Real Salt Lake, a club that is unbeaten in its last four league outings.

Salt Lake is 2-0-2 in its last four contests, but it is winless in its last four games away from Rio Tinto Stadium. The club was able to take a point from its latest match, a 0-0 draw at Toyota Park against the Chicago Fire.

"Anytime we're on the road we feel like it starts with our defensive effort - it starts with trying to keep a shutout - and then we go from there," said head coach Jason Kreis. "So I think that the guys put in a tremendous amount of effort to make that happen [Wednesday]."

After conceding eight goals over the past five matches, the clean sheet against Chicago was RSL's first in over a month.

"Any time you can go to a difficult place like Chicago and get a point and get a shutout, it's important," said Kreis. "We've gone quite a few games now without having a shutout. I'm really pleased for the guys, they put the defensive work in and we set an objective to get a shutout and we got it."