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Wizards-Real Salt Lake Preview

May 15, 2009 - 7:28 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Kansas City (3-4-2) at Real Salt Lake (3-4-1), 9:00 p.m. EDT

Real Salt Lake's season has followed a familiar pattern - a shutout loss on the road followed by a fruitful return home.

After suffering its fourth consecutive road blanking, Salt Lake hopes to bounce back again at home Saturday night against the Kansas City Wizards, who have dropped their last two road matches.

Real Salt Lake (3-4-1) has earned all of its points at its new home, but failed to earned three for the first time this season in its last home match, May 6 against Los Angeles, when it salvaged a 2-all tie with a pair of goals in stoppage time.

Salt Lake followed that result with its third straight winless effort in league play - a 1-0 loss May 9 at Chivas USA - by recording only two shots on goal against the top defense in MLS.

All 14 of the team's goals have come at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"This is a group that really believe in themselves," Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis told the league's official Web site. "If we can get that one goal on the road, then I think there will be a bunch behind it."

Kreis' squad has scored in bunches at home, including a franchise record six-goal outburst April 25 against New England. Real Salt Lake enters this weekend tied with Chicago for second in scoring - one behind D.C. United.

With five goals, forward Robbie Findley is tied for the league lead with Los Angeles' Landon Donovan and Chicago's Brian McBride.

"It doesn't matter home or away," forward Yura Movsisyan said. "We've shown we can score and we can score a lot."

Like Salt Lake, the Wizards (3-4-2) enter Saturday's match on a three-game winless slide (0-2-1) after a 3-2 defeat last week in Columbus.

Claudio Lopez started the match on the bench because of the flu, but returned early in the second half and scored in the 51st minute.

"Claudio's service is unbelievable," forward Josh Wolff, who had Kansas City's other goal, told the MLS' official Web site. "He came in, and we stepped up the tempo in the second half, especially at the end."

Wolff and Lopez have scored all six of the Wizards' goals in the last five matches, with Wolff scoring all of his team-leading four in that span.

Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Chris Seitz is expected to make his third straight start in place of injured Nick Rimando, who is recovering from a laceration on his middle finger suffered May 2 at Colorado. After a rough outing against Los Angeles, Seitz stopped four of five shots against Chivas but fell to 0-3-2 lifetime in MLS play.

Last June 7, Real Salt Lake and Kansas City played to a scoreless draw at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Wizards took a 1-0 victory over Salt Lake three weeks later at home on an own goal.