Real Salt Lake will aim to extend its unbeaten streak to five matches when it visits the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
Real Salt Lake (14-7-11, 53 points) enters the match tied with the Seattle Sounders for third in the Western Conference and sits two points behind Los Angeles FC for the second seed with two matches remaining.
RSL has collected six points over its last four matches (1-0-3), including a single point in Wednesday’s 0-0 draw against Minnesota United in Sandy, Utah.
“Going into every game, we want to win the game, and there’s so many phases of the game you have to be good at to win the game,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said.
“For me, it’s always about process and getting one game better.”
Captain Cristian Arango remains in the MLS Golden Boot race with 17 goals, five behind league-leader Christian Benteke of D.C. United. Midfielder Andres Gomez has 22 goal contributions (13 goals and nine assists) in 23 appearances for RSL.
RSL can clinch home-field advantage for the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs if they get lots of help on Saturday. The Houston Dynamo, Colorado Rapids and Vancouver Whitecaps all would have to lose or draw on Saturday while Real Salt Lake would have to win to seal home field for RSL.
Saturday is the second and final meeting of the season between the two clubs – San Jose picked up a 2-0 victory in Salt Lake City on August 24.
The Earthquakes (6-23-3, 21 points), at the bottom of the Western Conference table, snapped a five-match winless skid (0-4-1) with a 3-2 win over visiting FC Dallas on Wednesday.
Rookie midfielder Hernan Lopez recorded a brace in the win over Dallas and has six goals and two assists in 22 matches this season. Amahl Pellegrino has a team-leading seven goals and two assists in 30 appearances.
Saturday is the home finale for San Jose in the Bay Area.
“We won at home (on Wednesday), and it’s always good to win at home,” Lopez said. “We definitely want to win this last one as well for the fans so that they can see the effort we’ve been putting forward to win these games at home and to close the season strong.”
–Field Level Media
